Chapter 11 - THE CHOICE NO DAUGHTER SHOULD MAKE
Grace watched the video seventeen times.
Dominic finally took the phone away.
“Enough.”
“Give it back.”
“No.”
“My father is alive.”
“I know.”
“My mother is with him.”
“I know.”
“Then give me the phone.”
Dominic placed it in his pocket.
“You're destroying yourself.”
Grace pushed him.
“My father died when I was twelve!”
Dominic didn't move.
“I cried at a grave with no body in it.”
Her voice cracked.
“I spent eighteen years thinking I forgot what his voice sounded like.”
Dominic let her hit his chest again.
“And now he's alive.”
Grace broke.
Dominic caught her.
For a moment she fought him.
Then stopped.
She cried against the shirt of the man she had been terrified of less than four days earlier.
Dominic held her quietly.
No promises.
No empty reassurance.
When Grace finally pulled away, she wiped her face.
“I'm going.”
Dominic said, “No.”
She almost laughed.
“Of course.”
“Sterling won't release them.”
“I know.”
“He'll kill you after he gets what he wants.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because he has my parents.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“And I have a plan.”
Grace looked up.
“I don't like your plans.”
“You've never actually followed one.”
“Fair.”
The plan required Vanessa.
She agreed immediately.
Sterling believed his daughter was still hiding.
She would contact him.
Tell him she had escaped Dominic.
Tell him she knew Grace intended to surrender.
Meanwhile, Marco would trace every signal.
Adrian, recovering from his gunshot wound, insisted on joining.
Dominic stared at him.
“You can barely stand.”
Adrian smiled.
“Neither could your mother six years ago. Apparently stubbornness runs in the family.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Don't.”
Adrian lowered his gaze.
“Fair.”
The DNA result had not returned.
Grace suspected Dominic feared the answer more than any bullet.
Vanessa called Richard.
He answered.
“Where are you?”
“Dad…”
She cried convincingly.
Grace wondered how much was acting.
“Dominic grabbed me.”
“Are you safe?”
“For now.”
“Where?”
“I need help.”
Richard's voice softened in a way Grace hadn't expected.
“Vanessa, listen to me. You're my daughter. I will always protect you.”
Vanessa looked at Grace.
Pain crossed her face.
The same word.
Protect.
Always.
“Where are Grace's parents?”
“Not your concern.”
“I heard them talking. Grace is coming.”
Silence.
“What did you hear?”
“She'll surrender.”
Richard exhaled.
“Good.”
“Where?”
“I'll handle it.”
“Dad—”
“Go home.”
“Home isn't safe.”
A pause.
Then Richard said, “Meet Thomas at the old campaign warehouse in Cicero.”
Marco immediately circled the location.
Vanessa continued.
“And Grace?”
Richard replied, “She'll be at the same place soon enough.”
The call ended.
Dominic looked at Marco.
“Everything we have.”
The Cicero warehouse appeared abandoned from the street.
It wasn't.
Thermal cameras showed at least nineteen people inside.
Two vans.
Multiple armed guards.
Grace's parents were likely there.
Dominic's plan began at 11:40 p.m.
Vanessa entered first.
Grace followed fifteen minutes later wearing a hidden microphone and tracker.
Dominic hated every second.
“You can still stop.”
Grace looked at him inside the vehicle.
“Would you?”
He didn't answer.
“Exactly.”
Dominic adjusted the tiny microphone beneath her collar.
His fingers brushed her neck.
Both froze.
Grace whispered, “If we survive this…”
“Yes?”
She almost said something.
Instead, “You owe me a new job.”
Dominic smiled.
“I know a hotel.”
“Not funny.”
He touched her cheek.
“Come back.”
Grace's breath caught.
“I will.”
She entered alone.
Richard Sterling stood in the center of the warehouse.
Her mother sat beside Daniel.
Grace stopped.
Her father looked older than photographs.
Thinner.
Scar across his cheek.
But it was him.
“Gracie.”
She couldn't move.
Richard smiled.
“Touching.”
Grace looked at him.
“Let them go.”
“The film.”
“You already know it's been copied.”
“I don't care about copies.”
“Why?”
Richard stepped closer.
“Because the microfilm wasn't only evidence.”
Grace frowned.
“What?”
“There was a code embedded in it.”
Her father's face changed.
“Don't tell her.”
Richard struck Daniel.
Grace screamed.
“Stop!”
“Daniel built financial accounts for Adrian.”
Richard smiled.
“Accounts containing more money than most governments.”
Dominic listened from the command vehicle.
Marco whispered, “He's admitting everything.”
Dominic didn't care.
His eyes remained on Grace's tracker.
Inside, Richard continued.
“The code unlocks them.”
Grace stared.
“I don't know the code.”
“Your father does.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
Richard pressed a gun to Helen.
“Then perhaps he remembers.”
Grace stepped forward.
“Take me.”
Richard laughed.
“You're not valuable anymore.”
Those words changed everything.
Grace realized the threat had always been leverage against Daniel.
Her father wasn't being held because Sterling feared his testimony.
He needed Daniel's access.
Grace looked at him.
“Dad.”
Daniel met her eyes.
Then smiled.
A tiny smile.
The one he used when teaching chess.
Grace remembered.
Powerful men lose because they believe everyone else is afraid to move.
Daniel moved first.
He kicked Richard's knee.
Helen threw herself sideways.
Grace grabbed a metal chair.
Chaos exploded.
Dominic's team breached simultaneously.
Gunfire.
Smoke.
Screaming.
Grace crawled toward her mother.
Daniel attacked one guard.
Even after eighteen years in hiding, he moved like a man who remembered violence.
Dominic entered.
Richard fired.
Dominic returned fire.
Richard disappeared behind machinery.
Grace untied Helen.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Daniel reached them.
Grace stared at him.
For half a second neither knew what to do.
Then she slapped him.
Hard.
Daniel froze.
“You let me think you were dead.”
His eyes filled.
“I know.”
Grace hit his chest.
“You let me mourn you.”
“I know.”
“I hate you.”
“I know.”
Then she threw her arms around him.
“I missed you.”
Daniel held her like he would never let go.
“I missed you every day.”
Dominic appeared.
“We need to move.”
Daniel looked at him.
Recognition.
“You're Antonio's boy.”
Dominic's expression tightened.
“Apparently that's complicated.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“Everything with Antonio was complicated.”
A gunshot sounded.
Daniel jerked.
Grace screamed.
Blood spread across his side.
Richard Sterling stood behind them.
Gun raised.
Dominic fired.
Richard disappeared through a side exit.
Grace caught her father.
“No, no, no.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I'm okay.”
“You're bleeding.”
“I've done that before.”
“Not funny!”
Dominic lifted Daniel.
“Vehicle.”
They rushed outside.
Richard's convoy fled east.
Marco pursued.
Then radio erupted.
“They're heading downtown.”
“Where?”
“Sterling Tower.”
Daniel grabbed Dominic's sleeve.
“Stop him.”
“Why?”
“The records.”
“What records?”
Daniel struggled to breathe.
“He has everything there.”
Grace pressed cloth to his wound.
“He'll destroy it.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
His eyes widened.
“He'll destroy the building.”
Dominic froze.
Sterling Tower stood forty stories high in downtown Chicago.
Campaign offices.
Law firms.
Businesses.
Night staff.
Hundreds nearby.
Grace whispered, “He'll kill everyone.”
Daniel nodded.
“To erase the archive.”
Dominic called Marco.
“Evacuate the tower.”
Then Daniel grabbed Grace.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“Sterling isn't alone.”
Grace looked toward Dominic.
“What do you mean?”
Daniel's voice weakened.
“Someone inside the DeLuca family helped him for thirty years.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Who?”
Daniel whispered a name.
Dominic stopped breathing.
“That's impossible.”
Grace stared.
“Who?”
Dominic's face drained of color.
Before he could answer, his phone rang.
Margaret.
He answered.
“Mom?”
No response.
Then a man's voice.
One Dominic recognized.
Uncle Salvatore.
Antonio DeLuca's younger brother.
The man who had helped raise Dominic after Antonio died.
“Hello, nephew.”
Dominic's expression became murderous.
Salvatore laughed softly.
“You always were slow to see betrayal when it came from family.”
Dominic whispered, “Where is my mother?”
“With me.”
Grace looked at Daniel.
He closed his eyes.
Salvatore continued.
“Richard Sterling thinks he's going to destroy his tower and disappear.”
A pause.
“He won't.”
Dominic's voice was ice.
“What do you want?”
“What I've always wanted.”
“Say it.”
“The DeLuca empire.”
Dominic looked toward Grace.
Salvatore continued.
“And now that Adrian has returned…”
His voice hardened.
“…I finally get to kill the man who should have died thirty years ago.”
The call ended.
Grace stared at Dominic.
Richard Sterling planned to destroy a Chicago skyscraper.
Salvatore had Margaret.
Adrian was a target.
And Daniel was bleeding in Grace's arms.
Dominic looked at the skyline.
For the first time, the war was no longer hidden.
May you like
It had reached the entire city.
And before sunrise, one family was going to lose everything.
