Chapter 9 - the siege
Dominic shoved Isabella behind the desk as glass shattered.
Elena’s guards returned fire from the doorway.
Paul dropped to the floor.
Dominic crawled toward the old cabinet where his father had once kept emergency weapons.
He pulled the bottom drawer.
Locked.
Isabella tossed him a pistol.
“You’re welcome.”
“You brought two?”
“I remember this family.”
Another burst of gunfire struck the wall.
Dominic fired toward a shadow in the dining room.
A man fell behind a table.
Elena moved beside him.
“How many?”
Dominic listened.
“Four minimum.”
Isabella said, “Six.”
Elena glanced at her.
“How?”
“Two different calibers.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“My sister has hobbies.”
The attackers advanced.
Dominic recognized one of them.
A security contractor who had worked at his estate.
Marcus’s man.
That answered part of it.
“Marcus sent them.”
Elena shook her head.
“No. Marcus was supposed to be contained.”
“He has people.”
“Not enough for this.”
Dominic realized.
“Richard.”
Elena nodded.
Richard knew where the old club was.
Of course he did.
Vincent and Richard had spent years there together.
The attackers were not trying only to kill them.
They were trying to destroy the evidence.
Except the box was already empty.
Dominic fired again.
“Back exit?”
Paul shouted, “Kitchen.”
They moved through the corridor.
One of Elena’s guards was hit in the shoulder.
The second pulled him behind cover.
Dominic reached the kitchen.
The back door exploded inward.
Two armed men entered.
Isabella fired first.
Dominic tackled the second into a steel prep table.
The gun slid away.
The man reached for a knife.
Dominic hit him twice and drove him to the floor.
Elena picked up the weapon.
Then froze.
She recognized the attacker.
“Samuel?”
The man looked at her.
Dominic caught the hesitation.
“You know him.”
Elena’s face went pale.
Samuel smiled through blood on his lip.
“Your father would be ashamed of you.”
Elena raised the gun.
“Who sent you?”
Samuel laughed.
“You really thought Richard Hale was the top?”
Dominic grabbed him by the jacket.
“Who?”
Samuel looked at him.
“Ask your mother.”
Then a shot came from the doorway.
Samuel jerked.
Collapsed.
Dominic turned.
The shooter disappeared.
Elena dropped beside Samuel.
He was dead.
She stared at the wound.
“He was my father’s closest friend.”
Dominic looked toward the doorway.
“Apparently not.”
They escaped through the rear alley and reached the vehicles.
Caroline had already moved the convoy after hearing gunfire.
She opened the door.
“Get in.”
Dominic climbed inside.
“Call Emma.”
Caroline dialed.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Dominic’s blood went cold.
“Call the house.”
Security answered.
“Where is Emma Reed?”
A pause.
“Sir, she left.”
Dominic frowned.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“With who?”
Another pause.
“Marcus Kane.”
Dominic stared at the phone.
“How?”
“He had transfer papers signed by you.”
“I signed nothing.”
Isabella whispered, “Forgery.”
Dominic asked, “Where is Vanessa?”
The guard’s voice became uncertain.
“Still secured.”
“Richard?”
“Still secured.”
Dominic looked at Caroline.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
“Check them visually.”
The guard walked.
Seconds passed.
Then his breathing changed.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“The senator is gone.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Vanessa?”
More footsteps.
Then:
“She’s gone too.”
Dominic hung up.
Caroline started the vehicle.
“Where?”
Dominic thought.
Richard had the resources.
Vanessa had the missing ledger.
Marcus had Emma.
And someone had taken all three from the estate without Dominic’s approval.
Then he remembered Sophia.
He called the hospital.
The private room was empty.
His mother had disappeared forty minutes earlier.
Dominic stared ahead.
Isabella saw his face.
“Mom?”
“Gone.”
Nobody spoke.
Elena looked at Dominic.
“Samuel said to ask your mother.”
Dominic slowly turned toward her.
“No.”
Isabella shook her head.
“Mom would never.”
Dominic remembered something.
Sophia’s urgency that morning.
Go to St. Agnes.
Under the third pew.
Proof.
But the church had already been searched.
A photograph had been sent to Emma.
Someone had known exactly where to manipulate them.
Someone who knew every secret.
Someone everyone underestimated because she was seventy two.
Dominic whispered, “She didn’t disappear.”
Caroline looked at him.
“What?”
“She left.”
Isabella stared.
“Why?”
May you like
Dominic looked toward the city.
“To finish something she started seventeen years ago.”
