Dominic covered Claire with his body while a second bullet struck the fountain.
“Stay down.”
Marco’s voice erupted through Dominic’s earpiece. “Shots from the east wall. We’re moving.”
Dominic drew the pistol beneath his jacket and aimed toward the dark hedge. A shadow crossed the lawn. He fired once, deliberately wide, forcing the shooter back.
Footsteps pounded through the garden.
Then came the squeal of tires beyond the wall.
Marco reached them with two guards.
“You hit?”
“No.”
“Claire?”
She sat against the fountain, both hands pressed over her ears. A thin line of blood ran along her cheek where a chip of marble had cut her.
“I’m okay.”
Dominic crouched in front of her. “Look at me.”
She did.
“Where’s the drive?”
Her hand went to her sweater pocket.
“Still here.”
“Good.”
Marco examined the wall. “Shooter had a vehicle waiting in the alley.”
“The third-floor window,” Dominic said. “Someone was watching.”
“That wing was supposed to be empty.”
Dominic looked toward the mansion.
“Lock down the house.”
Evie was asleep in the west-wing sitting room under Mrs. Romano’s supervision. Claire refused to leave her side after the shooting, so Dominic brought a laptop into the adjoining library.
The flash drive was encrypted.
Marco called Elena Torres, the head of Carbone Holdings’ cybersecurity division and one of the few people Dominic trusted without reservation.
Elena arrived at two in the morning wearing sweatpants beneath a long coat.
“If you dragged me out of bed for a spreadsheet,” she said, “I’m billing triple.”
Dominic handed her the drive.
She studied the encryption. “Your dead accountant didn’t want anyone seeing this.”
“Can you open it?”
“Eventually.”
“We may not have eventually.”
She glanced at the cut on Claire’s face. “Then stop talking to me.”
While Elena worked, Dominic reviewed the security footage. The camera overlooking the third-floor hallway showed a maintenance worker entering Vincent’s old bedroom ten minutes before the garden lights failed.
The man’s face was hidden by a cap.
The employee badge belonged to someone who had quit six months earlier.
“No one leaves the property,” Dominic told Marco.
“Vincent left after dinner.”
“Where did he go?”
“His condo, according to his driver.”
“Verify it.”
Claire stood in the doorway, arms folded around herself.
“Is Evie asleep?” Dominic asked.
“Yes.”
“You should be with her.”
“I need to know what’s on that drive.”
“So do I.”
“My husband died for it.”
“And someone tried to kill you for it.”
“That gives me more reason to stay.”
Dominic started to argue, then stopped. Claire had spent years being told to wait while powerful men decided which truths she was allowed to hear.
He pulled out a chair.
“Sit.”
At four twelve, Elena broke the encryption.
The drive contained hundreds of invoices, wire records, audio files, scanned contracts, and photographs.
Daniel had documented a sophisticated theft operation stretching back five years. Shell companies submitted inflated invoices to Carbone projects. Money moved through offshore accounts before returning to people inside the organization.
Vincent’s name appeared nowhere.
His executive authorization code appeared everywhere.
“There’s enough here for federal charges,” Elena said. “Fraud, laundering, conspiracy, tax violations.”
“Can authorization codes be copied?” Claire asked.
“Yes.”
“So this doesn’t prove Vincent did it.”
“No,” Dominic said. “But Daniel included the audio files for a reason.”
The first recordings were routine conversations with vendors. The fourth contained Vincent’s voice.
“You’re asking too many questions, Danny.”
“I’m asking why we paid Northstar Excavation six hundred thousand dollars for work another company completed.”
“You have a wife and a little girl, right?”
A pause.
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s career advice.”
Claire’s eyes filled with tears.
The next recording was dated October 14.
Daniel sounded breathless.
“I’m at Warehouse Nine. Vincent told me Dominic wants to meet, but I don’t think Dominic knows. If anyone finds this recording—”
Metal scraped in the background.
Then another voice spoke.
Leon Varga.
“You should’ve taken the money, Danny.”
“Where’s Dominic?”
“Mr. Carbone isn’t coming.”
A blow landed.
The recording filled with struggle, Daniel’s ragged breathing, and Vincent’s voice arriving several seconds later.
“You had one simple job,” Vincent said. “Fix the books and keep your mouth shut.”
“You’re stealing from your own brother.”
“My brother stole my whole life.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The company. The house. Our father’s respect. Everything was always Dominic.”
Daniel coughed.
“You won’t get away with this.”
“I already have.”
The recording ended with a gunshot.
Claire made a sound Dominic would never forget.
It was not a scream.
It was the sound of hope being murdered a second time.
She stumbled from the chair. Dominic caught her before she hit the floor, but she shoved against his chest.
“You knew,” she gasped.
“I didn’t.”
“Your family did this.”
“Yes.”
“You hunted Daniel because Vincent told you he was a thief.”
“Yes.”
“And you never questioned it?”
The accusation struck directly at the guilt Dominic had tried to bury beneath work, discipline, and authority.
“No,” he admitted.
Claire slapped him.
Marco stepped forward.
Dominic raised one hand, stopping him.
Claire stared at the red mark forming on Dominic’s cheek.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered automatically.
“Don’t.”
“I shouldn’t have—”
“You should have done worse.”
She broke then.
Her knees gave way, and Dominic caught her again. This time she did not push him away. She gripped the front of his shirt and wept for the husband who had tried to tell the truth, for the years she had spent doubting herself, and for the daughter who remembered her father only through photographs.
Dominic held her.
He did not offer comfort he had not earned.
He simply made sure she did not fall.
At sunrise, Evie appeared in the library doorway, rubbing her eyes.
“Mommy?”
Claire pulled away and wiped her face.
Evie saw the cut on her cheek. “You’re hurt.”
“It’s just a scratch.”
“Did somebody do the mean voice?”
“No, baby.”
Evie looked at Dominic. “Why is Mommy crying?”
Dominic had given death notices to widows. He had negotiated with men who wanted him dead. Nothing had prepared him for answering a four-year-old.
“Because we learned something sad about your dad.”
Evie climbed into Claire’s lap. “Is Daddy still in heaven?”
“Yes,” Claire said.
“Then he’s okay.”
Claire buried her face in her daughter’s hair.
Evie reached out and placed her small hand against Dominic’s bruised cheek.
“You’re hurt too.”
“I’m fine.”
“That’s what Mommy says when she’s not fine.”
Dominic glanced at Claire.
Even through grief, she almost smiled.
By eight, Dominic had made a decision.
“We take this to the FBI,” he said.
Marco stared at him. “The drive implicates Carbone companies.”
“I know.”
“You could lose everything.”
“I know.”
“Vincent won’t go quietly.”
“That’s why we don’t warn him.”
Claire studied Dominic. “Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn’t. Not yet.”
He slid Daniel’s flash drive across the table to her.
“This belongs to you. Elena made copies, but you keep the original.”
“You could have taken it.”
“Yes.”
“You could destroy the evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Then why give it to me?”
“Because your husband died trying to put the truth in the right hands. Mine may not be the right hands.”
For the first time since the recording played, Claire looked at him without hatred.
Not with trust.
But with the possibility of it.
A guard entered and whispered to Marco.
Marco’s face darkened.
“What?” Dominic asked.
“We found the maintenance disguise in the third-floor laundry chute. No weapon.”
“And the person wearing it?”
“Gone.”
“That’s impossible. The house was locked down.”
Marco hesitated. “There’s more. Mrs. Romano found a burner phone under the bed in Vincent’s old room.”
He placed it on the desk.
One outgoing message had been sent minutes before the shooting.
They found it. Take the widow alive. Kill Dominic if necessary.
Claire tightened her arms around Evie.
Dominic read the message twice.
Then the burner phone rang.
He answered without speaking.
Vincent’s voice came through the line.
“You always did take what was mine, Dom.”
“Daniel wasn’t yours to kill.”
“He made a choice.”
“So did you.”
Vincent laughed softly. “You think a flash drive changes anything? Half the people protecting you are loyal to me.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
Marco’s expression remained steady, but the warning was clear.
They did not know who in the house could be trusted.
“What do you want?” Dominic asked.
“The original drive.”
“No.”
“Then ask Claire where her daughter is.”
Dominic turned.
Claire’s lap was empty.
The library door stood open.
Evie was gone.