Chapter 11 - The Empty WarehouseRafael removed the mask slowly.
He wanted Vincent to see his face.
That was the point.
Rafael Corvino had always been the quiet member of the family. At dinners, he sat at the far end of the table. At funerals, he stood behind the older men. When Vincent inherited the empire, Rafael had congratulated him without a trace of resentment.
He had also visited Vincent in the hospital every morning.
“You were there,” Vincent said.
Rafael stepped over the broken wall.
“Every day.”
“You knew who ordered the shooting.”
“I helped arrange it.”
Tessa kept one hand beneath Vincent’s arm.
“What do you want?” she asked.
Rafael looked at her.
“You are the Morgan heir.”
“So you know my family.”
“I know the bloodlines.”
“And you still used my sister.”
“I used everyone.”
“Why?”
“Because people are easier to control when they believe they are acting freely.”
Vincent studied him.
“You wanted the trust.”
“I wanted what your father stole from us.”
“My father stole nothing.”
“He took the Compact from the original families and built his own empire on it.”
“He protected Chicago from men like you.”
Rafael laughed.
“Your father was not a hero. He was simply better at hiding the bodies.”
Vincent’s voice hardened.
“Where is Noah?”
Rafael motioned toward the street.
“Safe.”
“Bring him here.”
“You’re not in a position to give orders.”
“Then why are you talking to me?”
Rafael’s expression changed slightly.
Because Vincent was right.
If Rafael wanted to kill him, he would have done it already.
“You will come to the mansion,” Rafael said. “You will sign the harbor papers. Then the trust will be transferred to the children.”
“You said the children were useful.”
“They are.”
“What do you plan to do with them?”
Rafael looked toward Lauren.
“Raise them properly.”
Lauren stepped forward.
“You will never touch my child.”
Rafael’s gaze became cold.
“Your child belongs to a family you never understood.”
“And you think that makes you entitled?”
“I think blood is the only entitlement that matters.”
Tessa shifted her weight.
Vincent noticed.
She was preparing to move.
He whispered, “Wait.”
Rafael heard him.
“You trust her now?”
Vincent looked at Tessa.
“I trust her more than I trust anyone here.”
Rafael smiled.
“That is why she will be the key.”
He pointed toward Tessa.
“Bring her too.”
“No,” Vincent said.
“Without her, the trust cannot open.”
“You don’t need her.”
“Your father’s records disagree.”
Rafael nodded to his men.
They moved forward.
Tessa grabbed the metal handle of a broken lamp and swung it toward the nearest guard.
The lamp struck his wrist.
He shouted.
Marco fired from the floor.
Evelyn fired from behind the kitchen doorway.
The room erupted.
Vincent fell backward as Tessa dragged him toward the basement stairs.
Lauren and Maya followed.
They reached the basement just as Rafael’s men flooded the townhouse.
A hidden door stood behind the furnace.
Marco shoved it open.
“Where does this lead?” Tessa asked.
“Old sewer access,” Evelyn said.
They entered.
The door closed behind them.
The passage was narrower than the tunnel beneath the mansion. Water covered the floor ankle-deep. Vincent’s chair could not move through it.
Tessa and Marco lifted him.
This time Vincent helped by gripping the metal rails overhead.
His arms burned.
His body felt fragile and strong at once.
They carried him into the darkness.
Behind them, Rafael’s men fired through the door.
Bullets struck the pipes.
A burst of steam filled the corridor.
Everyone screamed.
Maya pulled Lauren forward.
Evelyn led them toward a maintenance ladder.
At the top was an abandoned freight station.
The station had been empty for years, but a black van waited beside the tracks.
Marco forced open the back doors.
“Get inside.”
They piled into the vehicle.
Tessa climbed in last.
Before the doors closed, she looked back at the station.
A figure stood beneath the broken roof.
Rafael.
He did not pursue them.
He simply watched.
The van drove for forty minutes before stopping at an old warehouse near the river.
Vincent recognized it.
His father had once stored contraband there. After the shooting, Vincent had ordered it closed.
The building was enormous and dark.
Inside, a dozen armed men waited.
Marco’s men.
They had escaped the mansion before Rafael’s takeover.
Vincent was transferred into a sturdy wheelchair.
His wound had reopened, and blood soaked through the bandage.
Dr. Ward was not there to treat him.
Tessa cleaned it while he sat on a wooden crate.
“You should be in a hospital,” she said.
“So should Maya.”
“She needs one.”
“She has one.”
Tessa looked around the warehouse.
“This is not a hospital.”
“It has electricity.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“It has doctors.”
“Dead or loyal?”
“Both.”
She pressed the bandage harder.
Vincent winced.
“Try not to enjoy that.”
“I’m considering it.”
Lauren sat on a mattress near the wall, wrapped in a blanket.
She looked exhausted but determined.
Maya had taken the laptop to a worktable.
The flash drive was still missing.
“We need the files,” Maya said.
“Samuel has them,” Marco replied.
“He copied the drive.”
“Then we find him.”
Vincent looked toward Evelyn.
“Where would he go?”
“Somewhere he can sell the information.”
“Who would buy it?”
“Rafael.”
“Then we find Rafael.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed.
“You cannot attack him directly.”
“Why?”
“Because he has Noah.”
Vincent turned toward Lauren.
She held her stomach with both hands.
“We need a plan,” she said.
Vincent looked at the harbor map spread across the table.
The wedding had been canceled publicly, but Silas would still expect him at the mansion.
Rafael wanted the trust activated.
Samuel possessed the files.
Dominic had vanished.
Noah was being held somewhere unknown.
And the Board was waiting.
Then Maya looked up from the laptop.
“The flash drive isn’t missing.”
Everyone turned.
“What do you mean?” Tessa asked.
“It copied itself.”
“How?”
“Your father’s ring.”
Lauren stared.
Maya pointed to the memory card.
“There’s a second partition. The files were uploaded automatically to an encrypted server.”
Vincent moved closer.
“Can you access it?”
“I can try.”
“How long?”
“Hours.”
“You have thirty minutes.”
Maya sighed.
“You have no idea how computers work.”
“I know how pressure works.”
“You’re very annoying.”
“So I’ve been told.”
Maya connected the laptop to the warehouse network.
A password screen appeared.
Tessa looked toward Vincent.
“What’s the password?”
“The family motto.”
Maya tried several phrases.
None worked.
Evelyn approached the keyboard.
“Your father never used the family motto.”
“What did he use?” Vincent asked.
Evelyn stared at the screen.
“Your mother’s name.”
Vincent frowned.
“My mother died before the trust was created.”
“Your father loved her.”
“Her name was Elena.”
Maya typed it.
The screen remained locked.
“Full name,” Evelyn said.
Vincent remembered a photograph in his father’s study. A woman with dark hair, standing beside a lake.
“Elena Marie Corvino.”
Maya typed.
The server opened.
Files filled the screen.
Bank accounts.
Photographs.
Audio recordings.
And a live location.
Maya clicked it.
A red marker appeared on the map.
“St. Agnes Psychiatric Facility.”
Tessa stared at the screen.
“My mother.”
Vincent looked at the location.
The same facility held Elena Morgan.
It was also only three miles from the Corvino mansion.
A message appeared beneath the map.
NOAH IS HERE.
Tessa stepped closer.
“Who wrote that?”
Maya shook her head.
“It just appeared.”
The warehouse lights went out.
A single projector turned on at the far end of the room.
The wall filled with an image.
Noah sat in a small white room.
His hands were tied.
Behind him stood Rafael.
Rafael looked directly into the camera.
“Vincent,” he said, “bring Tessa Morgan to St. Agnes.”
Vincent watched Noah’s frightened face.
“Bring the harbor papers.”
Rafael leaned closer to the camera.
“And bring Lauren’s unborn child.”
Lauren screamed.
The image went black.
May you like
A final sentence appeared on the wall.
ONE FAMILY WILL LEAVE.
