Chương 12
And for the first time in his adult life, he did not trust the systems his father had built around him.
His phone buzzed.
A message from Vivien.
At hospital.
Doctor examining her now.
Roman stared at it.
Then another message arrived.
This one from Elena.
Stay alive until I’m done being mad at you.
His throat tightened.
He read it again.
No forgiveness.
No tenderness.
Just an instruction delivered with the kind of irritation only Elena could make sound like love without meaning to.
Roman looked at Vincent on the monitor.
“Daniel gets out of the SUV.”
Vincent listened.
“He approaches alone.”
Another pause.
“No weapons.”
Vincent turned toward the passenger window and spoke to the occupant.
Roman continued.
“My security searches him at the gate.”
Vincent said, “He won’t like that.”
“I don’t care.”
“He has reasons not to trust Marino security.”
“Then he can leave.”
Vincent relayed something.
A moment later the passenger door opened.
A man stepped out.
Thin.
Forty, maybe.
Dark hair cut close.
He wore no coat despite the cold.
Roman had met Daniel Cross twice years ago.
The man on the screen was older, harder, but unmistakably him.
Daniel looked directly toward the camera.
Then he raised both hands.
Luis came through Roman’s earpiece.
“My guys are moving.”
“Search him.”
“They will.”
Daniel walked toward the gate.
Roman watched him carefully.
Not a dead man.
Not a ghost.
Just a frightened human being who had spent years making himself absent.
The guards searched him.
No weapon.
One wallet.
One phone.
One folded sheet of paper.
Luis said, “Paper’s a photocopy.”
“Of what?”
“Looks like a ledger page.”
Roman closed his eyes.
“Let him in.”
The gate opened.
Daniel walked through alone.
Vincent remained outside with the SUV.
Roman met Daniel in the library.
Not the office.
He did not want anyone near his computers.
Luis stood near the door.
Daniel noticed him immediately.
“You always need witnesses?”
Roman answered, “Tonight.”
Daniel looked around the library.
His eyes paused on the landscape hiding the safe.
“You still have that ugly painting.”
Roman said nothing.
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Your father hated it too.”
“You knew my father better than you claimed.”
Daniel’s smile disappeared.
“I knew enough.”
Roman pointed to a chair.
Daniel remained standing.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“Did Sabrina fake your death?”
“Which time?”
Roman’s expression hardened.
Daniel shrugged.
“The first disappearance was unofficial.”
“And the second?”
“Sabrina created a paper trail after your father died because we weren’t sure who inherited his information.”
“You mean me.”
“I mean everyone.”
Roman crossed his arms.
“Why not tell me?”
Daniel looked at him for several seconds.
“Because you were sleeping with my sister.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“I wasn’t.”
Daniel gave a short laugh.
“Apparently everyone but you knows how ridiculous that sounds.”
Luis looked at the floor.
Roman ignored him.
“Why are you here?”
Daniel took the folded photocopy from his pocket and placed it on the library table.
“Because your wife found the one thing my sister and I spent years failing to find.”
Roman did not touch the paper.
“What?”
“The original payment index.”
“I was told ledger pages.”
“The pages are part of it.”
Daniel tapped the photocopy.
“But the index connects the initials to actual identities.”
Roman stared at him.
“And it’s in the Baltic contracts?”
“No.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
Daniel continued.
“The contracts tell you which alias belongs to which consortium member.”
“Then where is the payment index?”
Daniel looked toward the safe.
“Your father hid it somewhere no one would search.”
Roman waited.
Daniel’s eyes moved back to him.
“In something belonging to you.”
Roman felt a chill.
“What?”
“When you were twenty-seven, your father gave you a leather-bound copy of The Count of Monte Cristo.”
Roman did not move.
He had not thought about the book in years.
It had been a birthday present.
Anthony had written an insulting note inside about patience.
Roman kept it in the private study because throwing it away had always felt too much like admitting the gift mattered.
Daniel watched his face.
“You still have it.”
Roman turned toward the door.
The private study was across the hall.
He crossed to it fast enough that Luis followed.
The shelves were lined with books nobody had touched in years.
Roman found the dark red leather spine near the bottom.
He pulled it free.
It felt normal.
Daniel entered behind him.
“Inside the back cover.”
Roman opened it.
Nothing.
He ran his thumb along the leather.
Then he noticed the seam.
A thin second layer.
Roman took a letter opener from the desk and slid it beneath the edge.
The leather lifted.
A folded sheet rested underneath.
Yellowed.
Thin.
Real.
Roman unfolded it.
Names filled the page.
Aliases beside them.
Account numbers.
Dates.
Payment codes.
One name near the bottom made Roman stop.
Not because it belonged to a judge.
Not because it belonged to a cop.
Because it belonged to Vincent Hale.
Roman looked toward the library doors.
Daniel spoke quietly behind him.
“That’s why he brought me here.”
Roman stared at the name.
“What did he take money for?”
Daniel did not answer immediately.
Then he said, “Your brother.”
Roman turned.
Daniel’s face had gone pale.
“The night Gabriel was arrested, Vincent paid the witness who disappeared.”
Roman’s breath stopped.
Daniel continued.
“But the payment wasn’t to protect Gabriel.”
Roman’s fingers tightened around the index.
“It was to protect your father from what Gabriel had found.”
Roman looked at Daniel as if the room had tilted.
“What did Gabriel find?”
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
“I don’t know exactly.”
Roman stepped closer.
“You just told me my brother’s arrest was tied to something he found.”
“Yes.”
“So tell me what.”
“I know pieces.”
“Then start with those.”
Daniel looked toward Luis.
Roman followed his eyes.
“He stays.”
Daniel nodded once.
“Gabriel found payments moving through one of Anthony’s freight companies.”
May you like
Roman said nothing.
“He thought your father was paying protection money.”
