Chapter 9 - Not Replaceable
Rachel’s photograph arrived thirty seconds later.
Bound to a chair.
Terrified.
Alive.
I stopped thinking rationally.
“I’m going.”
“No,” Dominic said.
“She’s my sister.”
“And Enzo will kill both of you.”
“I have what he wants.”
“That is why he will kill you.”
Marcus leaned against the wall, pale from blood loss.
“He won’t. Not immediately.”
Dominic turned on him.
“Helpful.”
“Enzo needs Diana to authenticate the archive. The memory card alone won’t unlock it.”
I looked at Marcus.
“How do you know?”
“Because Thomas told me.”
Of course.
Another secret.
But we had no time to be angry.
Enzo gave us an address.
An abandoned waterfront terminal in Brooklyn.
One hour.
Dominic created a plan.
I created another.
I did not tell him.
At the terminal, Enzo waited with six men.
Rachel sat near the water.
Dominic stood beside me.
Marcus and Matteo remained hidden with Anthony’s team.
At least that was the plan.
Enzo smiled.
“Thomas’s daughter.”
“You have the necklace.”
“After you release Rachel.”
“No.”
Dominic moved slightly.
Enzo’s men raised their weapons.
“Careful, Caruso.”
I held up the memory card.
“You kill either of us, this gets destroyed.”
Enzo smiled.
“You inherited his nerve.”
“No. I inherited his backup plan.”
That wiped away the smile.
I had spent the drive reading my father’s instructions.
The memory card did not contain evidence.
It contained access credentials.
The real files were encrypted online.
And I had activated the dead-man protocol twenty minutes earlier.
Enzo had forty minutes before everything was automatically released.
“You’re lying.”
I showed him my phone.
39:12.
38:58.
38:41.
His face changed.
“Stop it.”
“Release Rachel.”
He gestured.
One man cut her restraints.
Rachel ran toward me.
Then Enzo raised his gun.
Dominic stepped between us.
The shot came.
Dominic jerked.
“NO!”
He fell against me.
Everything exploded.
Anthony’s men moved from the upper catwalk.
Marcus appeared from the side entrance.
Matteo fired from behind a concrete barrier.
Rachel dragged Dominic behind cover while I pressed both hands against his side.
Blood covered them.
“Dominic.”
His eyes found mine.
“Vest.”
I stared.
He grimaced.
“Bulletproof vest.”
I almost killed him myself.
“You could have told me.”
“You were already nervous.”
A laugh broke through my tears.
Then Enzo grabbed me from behind.
Cold metal pressed against my neck.
Everyone froze.
“Drop them!”
Dominic tried to stand.
Enzo dragged me backward toward the dock.
“You ruined everything.”
“No,” I whispered.
“My father did.”
His grip tightened.
“You think Thomas was a hero?”
“I think he made mistakes.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only honest one.”
I saw Marcus behind Enzo.
Moving silently.
I kept talking.
“My father worked for criminals. He hid money. He lied to his family.”
Enzo smiled.
“Exactly.”
“But when it mattered, he tried to stop.”
Marcus was closer.
“So?”
“So you had six years to do the same.”
Enzo’s smile disappeared.
Marcus lunged.
The gun fired.
I fell.
Dominic reached me first.
Enzo hit the concrete.
Marcus kicked away the weapon.
Anthony restrained him.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Then Enzo began laughing.
“You think this ends anything?”
Dominic knelt beside him.
“It ends you.”
Enzo looked toward the river.
“You’re still Salvatore’s son.”
Dominic’s face became cold.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“That’s exactly what I spent my life trying not to be.”
Sirens approached.
Real sirens this time.
Federal agents.
Because I had made one change to Dominic’s plan.
I sent everything.
Not only Enzo’s evidence.
Everything my father had preserved.
Including documents connected to the Caruso organization.
Dominic discovered it when federal vehicles surrounded the terminal.
He looked at me.
“You released the entire archive.”
“Yes.”
“Even the files on my family.”
“Yes.”
Marcus slowly backed away.
Matteo muttered something impolite.
Dominic stared at me.
I lifted my chin.
“You told me you never lied about what you were.”
“I didn’t.”
“So now we find out what you are without secrets.”
For a long moment, I thought I had destroyed whatever existed between us.
Then Dominic did something unexpected.
He smiled.
A real smile.
Small.
Tired.
Beautiful.
“My father would have hated you.”
“Good.”
“He would have been terrified of you.”
“Better.”
Dominic reached for my hand.
“What about you?”
His fingers closed around mine.
“I think I’ve been terrified of you for eighteen months.”
Federal agents approached.
One called Dominic’s name.
He looked at me.
“If I don’t come home tonight—”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“Don’t make some dramatic speech.”
His mouth twitched.
“What should I say?”
“The truth.”
Dominic looked at me for a long time.
Then, in front of Marcus, Matteo, Rachel, Anthony and twenty federal agents, the most feared man I had ever known said it.
“I love you.”
My heart stopped.
He touched my cheek.
May you like
“And you were never replaceable.”
Then the agents took him away.
