Chapter 3 - The Key Her Father Left BehindKhloe did not sleep.
By sunrise, she was inside Dominic Costello’s Beacon Hill townhouse wearing borrowed sweatpants while three armed men guarded the entrance.
She hated everything about it.
Especially how safe she felt.
Dominic sat across from her with his shirt open while a private physician bandaged his ribs.
The bullet had grazed him.
Two inches farther left and it would have entered his lung.
“You're staring,” Dominic said.
“At the bandage.”
“Of course.”
She rolled her eyes.
He almost smiled.
Matteo entered carrying a metal lockbox.
“C-17 still exists.”
Dominic straightened.
“Where?”
“Old Harbor Union building.”
Khloe recognized the name.
Her father had worked there.
Thomas Bennett had been an accountant.
Or so she'd believed.
The abandoned Harbor Union Bank had once served dockworkers before being purchased by a Costello-controlled corporation.
Matteo placed photographs on the table.
“Vault C has been sealed for eleven years.”
“My father died seven years ago,” Khloe said.
“Meaning he kept the key four years.”
Dominic studied her.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
By noon they were standing inside the abandoned bank.
Dust covered marble counters.
The old vault smelled like rust.
C-17 sat near the floor.
Khloe knelt.
Her hand shook as she inserted the key.
It turned.
Inside was a brown envelope.
Nothing else.
Her name was written across it.
KHLOE.
She recognized her father's handwriting instantly.
Her knees nearly failed.
Dominic caught her elbow.
She pulled away.
“I’m fine.”
“You don't have to be.”
The gentleness irritated her because she wasn't prepared for it.
She opened the envelope.
Inside were photocopies of shipping manifests, bank transfers, photographs, and a handwritten letter.
Khloe read the first sentence.
Sweetheart, if you are reading this, then I failed to come home.
She stopped breathing.
Dominic looked away, giving her privacy.
She continued.
Her father explained that he had discovered money being stolen through Costello-controlled port companies.
Millions.
The transfers appeared to implicate Dominic’s uncle Salvatore.
But Thomas believed the documents had been manipulated.
Someone inside the family was using Costello companies to move illegal weapons through Boston Harbor and framing Salvatore.
Thomas had discovered the real beneficiary.
Senator Richard Kensington.
Vivien’s father.
Khloe looked up.
Dominic’s jaw hardened.
“There’s more.”
Thomas had taken his evidence to someone he trusted.
Lorenzo Bianke.
Lorenzo promised to hide Khloe if anything happened.
Three days later Thomas Bennett died in what police called a highway accident.
Dominic took the letter.
At the bottom was another name.
Anthony Costello.
Dominic’s father.
“My father knew?”
Khloe whispered.
Dominic shook his head.
“My father disappeared twelve years ago.”
“What?”
“The official story is that he abandoned us.”
“And unofficially?”
“We assumed Salvatore killed him.”
Matteo examined one photograph.
“Boss.”
Dominic took it.
The picture showed Thomas Bennett outside a warehouse with Anthony Costello.
They were shaking hands.
On the back, Thomas had written:
Anthony knows the truth. If they take him, Kensington wins.
Dominic sat down heavily.
For years, he'd hated his father.
Now there was a possibility Anthony hadn't abandoned anyone.
He had been silenced.
A noise came from upstairs.
Matteo immediately drew his weapon.
“Stay here.”
He disappeared.
Dominic moved Khloe behind the vault door.
A gunshot echoed.
Then another.
Khloe flinched.
Dominic drew a pistol from beneath his jacket.
“You carry that everywhere?”
“Today seems to justify the habit.”
Footsteps thundered overhead.
Matteo shouted.
A man ran toward the rear exit.
Dominic pursued him.
Khloe remained frozen until she noticed something beside the opened lockbox.
A photograph had fallen face down.
She picked it up.
Her father stood beside Anthony Costello.
But there was a third man.
Lorenzo.
On the back were four words.
He knows where Anthony is.
Khloe ran upstairs.
“Dominic!”
He returned seconds later.
The intruder had escaped.
She handed him the photograph.
Dominic read the message.
His eyes darkened.
“We're going back to Laura.”
They arrived to find the restaurant locked.
Lorenzo was gone.
His office had been emptied.
Computers missing.
Documents burned in the kitchen sink.
Khloe stared at the black ashes.
“He knew we'd find the vault.”
“Yes.”
“Then why give me the job?”
Dominic examined the room.
“Maybe keeping you close was part of the deal.”
A phone rang.
Not Dominic’s.
The restaurant’s landline.
Khloe answered before anyone could stop her.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then Lorenzo spoke.
“Khloe?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For keeping my promise too late.”
Her fingers tightened around the receiver.
“What promise?”
“To your father.”
“Where is Anthony Costello?”
A long silence followed.
Then Lorenzo whispered an address.
Dominic grabbed a pen.
Khloe repeated it.
An old nursing facility outside Providence.
“Lorenzo—”
A crash sounded through the receiver.
Then a gunshot.
The line went dead.
Khloe stared at the phone.
Dominic took it from her hand.
“We move now.”
Two hours later, they reached the facility.
It had closed six years earlier.
Matteo forced the rear door.
They searched room after room.
Empty.
Until Khloe heard coughing.
Room 214.
Dominic pushed the door open.
An older man lay in a hospital bed connected to an oxygen concentrator.
Gray hair.
Hollow cheeks.
But the same slate-colored eyes.
Dominic stopped.
The pistol lowered in his hand.
The man opened his eyes.
“Dominic?”
For the first time, Khloe watched the feared mafia boss become a son.
“Dad?”
Anthony Costello began crying.
Dominic crossed the room.
But before he reached the bed, Anthony grabbed his wrist.
“No time.”
“What happened to you?”
“Kensington.”
Anthony struggled for breath.
“He owns judges. Police. Port officials. Your uncle discovered it.”
“Salvatore?”
“He didn't betray us. He was trying to expose Kensington.”
Dominic went still.
His uncle's murder suddenly meant something else.
Anthony looked toward Khloe.
“Thomas Bennett's daughter?”
She nodded.
Tears filled Anthony's eyes.
“Your father saved my life.”
Khloe approached.
“He died because of this.”
“Yes.”
“Who killed him?”
Anthony closed his eyes.
When he opened them, fear had replaced grief.
“Not Kensington.”
Khloe frowned.
Anthony looked at Dominic.
May you like
“The man who ordered Thomas Bennett killed is still inside your family.”
Then the lights went out.
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