Chapter 14 - The Night the Dead Returned)
The blast threw Daniel against the marble fountain.
Glass fractured overhead. The ledger slid across the wet floor and stopped near Vincent's shoes. Daniel tried to rise. A gunshot tore through his side and dropped him to one knee.
Maria appeared behind the locked outer door. Vincent seized her as she forced the emergency panel and pressed his pistol to her temple.
"Put your weapon down," Vincent ordered Daniel. "Or the maid and her little mistake die together."
Sofia stood within the ring of gasoline, her bow half torn from her hair. She was terrified, but she did not cry.
Daniel lowered his gun.
"Matteo trusted you," he said.
"Matteo trusted everyone. That was why burying him was so easy."
"You said you did not know what happened at the pier."
"I lied. You should be accustomed to that by now."
Vincent had ordered Matteo moved to a medical facility beneath Pier Nineteen, he explained. Lorenzo wanted his rebellious son broken, not killed. But the facility was empty when Vincent returned three days later. Matteo had escaped with help from someone inside Crow's Crown.
"He has hunted us ever since," Vincent said. "A shipment vanished here, an account opened there. Your brother became a ghost who refused to protect his own woman but always found time to steal from me."
Maria's face twisted with pain.
"He protected us by staying dead," she said, though she sounded as if she needed to believe it.
"Or he found another family. Matteo always loved beginnings more than consequences."
Vincent pressed the pistol harder against her head.
"Open the trust, Daniel."
"It needs Sofia."
"It needs Moretti blood. Yours will do."
The trust device sat inside the garden fountain, hidden there by Lorenzo decades earlier. Daniel had learned its location from the decrypted ledger. He cut his palm on the lion's metal teeth and pressed it to the reader.
A screen illuminated. ACCOUNT ACCESS GRANTED.
"Transfer everything to the number I gave you," Vincent said.
Daniel began typing.
Behind Sofia, a panel shifted in the smoke.
She heard it and began singing four notes, the melody of Daniel's childhood. Maria slid a silver key from her sleeve. Daniel entered the final code but did not confirm it.
The lights died.
A tall figure in a black coat stepped from the hidden passage. A silver Moretti ring flashed on his hand as he lifted Sofia from the gasoline.
Fire raced across the far edge of the floor.
"You were always late, Danny," the stranger said.
Daniel's heart stopped.
"Matteo?"
The figure carried Sofia through the passage. Maria turned her key in the emergency lock and threw herself aside as Daniel fired. His bullet struck the remote from Vincent's hand.
The outer glass shattered.
Vincent tackled Daniel before he could reach the passage. They fell into smoke and shallow fountain water. Vincent drove a shard of glass toward Daniel's throat. Daniel caught his wrist with both hands. Blood from his side weakened him with every second.
"Your father chose the wrong son," Vincent hissed.
"He chose wrong every day of his life."
Maria kicked Vincent away and raised her gun. Vincent reached for the fallen remote.
"Don't," she warned.
He smiled and pressed the second button.
Nothing happened.
Daniel showed him the transfer screen. The code he entered had not moved money. It had disarmed the explosives connected to the trust and sent the accounts to federal investigators and international rescue agencies. Julian had rewritten the system that morning.
"The Crown is empty," Daniel said.
Vincent stared at the screen as if watching his own death.
He lunged for Maria's gun. She fired into his shoulder. Vincent stumbled backward through the broken glass and landed on the garden terrace as police sirens rose beyond the gates.
Daniel could have followed. He could have ended Vincent before law or rival families claimed him. Instead, Sofia screamed from below the mansion.
He chose the child.
Daniel and Maria entered the hidden passage. It descended into a tunnel older than the house. They found Sofia at the bottom of the stairs, frightened but unhurt. The stranger was gone.
"He left when the wall closed," she said. "I called him Daddy, but he didn't turn around."
Maria gathered her into her arms.
On the floor lay the silver signet ring, marked by the scratch Daniel had made as a boy. Inside the band was a fresh engraving.
NOT SAFE YET.
Daniel heard movement farther down the tunnel and followed despite Maria's warning. The passage ended at an iron gate opening onto the river road. A black motorcycle disappeared into the night.
Police lights flooded the estate. Vincent lay on the terrace, alive and furious, as officers surrounded him. Celeste had called authorities using evidence Daniel provided before the council meeting. The surviving Crow members surrendered when they learned their accounts were frozen.
Daniel returned to Maria and Sofia.
"Was it him?" Maria asked.
Daniel closed his hand around the ring.
"I don't know."
Sofia touched his bloodstained shirt. "You're cold again."
May you like
She took the small blanket from Mr. Buttons and laid it over Daniel's hand.
This time, he did not pretend to sleep.
