Chapter 7 - THE MAN SHE WAS TOLD TO FEAR
Victor placed his gun on the floor.
Slowly.
Chloe stared.
Outside, agents shouted commands.
Marco muttered, “This is a setup.”
Victor ignored him.
“Tommy.”
The boy looked up.
“Stay beside Chloe.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Walk outside.”
Chloe grabbed his arm.
“You didn’t kill them.”
It came out more like a question than she intended.
Victor heard that.
His eyes changed.
“No.”
She swallowed.
“Then why are they arresting you?”
“Because someone wants us looking in the wrong direction.”
“Victor—”
“I did not kill your parents.”
She wanted to believe him.
Everything inside her screamed to believe him.
But she had known him less than a month.
He had admitted he was dangerous.
People feared his name.
He carried weapons to dinner.
His brother kidnapped Tommy.
His family had been connected to her father.
Chloe whispered, “Tell me the truth.”
“I am.”
“Did you know my father?”
“No.”
“Did you know he was investigating your company?”
“No.”
“Did you order anything related to him?”
“No.”
Victor stepped closer despite the agents outside.
“I swear to you.”
“On what?”
The question struck him.
Victor did not believe in many sacred things.
Family had betrayed him.
Law was purchasable.
Power was temporary.
Then he looked at Tommy.
“On your brother’s life.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
That was enough.
“Okay.”
Victor almost sagged with relief.
He touched her cheek.
“I’m going outside.”
“No.”
“If I resist, everyone here gets hurt.”
“What happens to us?”
“Marco’s lawyer handles everything.”
Marco nodded.
Victor leaned toward him.
“Protect them.”
“With my life.”
Victor’s gaze snapped back.
“Preferably with somebody else’s.”
Marco smiled faintly.
Victor walked outside.
Agents forced him to his knees in the snow.
Cameras appeared almost immediately.
Too quickly.
News crews had been tipped.
Victor Russo arrested for double murder.
Chloe watched through the cracked storage door.
Her chest felt torn open.
One agent pulled Victor’s arms behind him.
Another pushed his head down.
Victor looked up once.
Straight at Chloe.
Not afraid.
Not ashamed.
Checking that she was safe.
Then they took him away.
By morning every television station carried the story.
CHICAGO BUSINESSMAN WITH ORGANIZED CRIME TIES ARRESTED IN 5-YEAR-OLD COLD CASE.
The prosecution claimed newly recovered evidence linked Victor to the vehicle that struck Chloe’s parents.
A payment from one of Victor’s companies had gone to the drunk driver two days before the crash.
Chloe sat in Russo’s library beside Tommy and Mrs. Gable.
“That’s impossible.”
Marco paced.
“The company was one Victor inherited after his father died.”
“The payment?”
“Authorized using Victor’s signature.”
Chloe stared.
“Was it his?”
Marco hesitated.
“It looks like it.”
Mrs. Gable snapped, “It was forged.”
Everyone looked at her.
“How do you know?” Chloe asked.
“Because Victor was in Sicily that week.”
Marco stopped.
“What?”
Mrs. Gable’s face changed.
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
“He was with me.”
Marco stared.
“Why?”
Mrs. Gable looked toward Chloe.
“His father sent him away after an assassination attempt.”
Chloe stood.
“You can prove it?”
“Passport records. Hotel records. Photographs.”
“Why didn’t Victor say anything?”
Marco cursed.
“Because admitting why he went to Sicily reveals details from another case.”
“What case?”
“The assassination of a prosecutor.”
Chloe’s face fell.
Mrs. Gable said, “Victor was helping that prosecutor.”
Everyone turned.
Marco stared at her.
“How much do you know?”
“More than all of you apparently.”
For the first time, Mrs. Gable sat.
“My husband worked for Robert Russo.”
Chloe knew Robert was Victor’s father.
“He discovered Luca had been meeting secretly with Antonio Rossi. My husband told Victor.”
“What happened?”
“Three days later, my husband died.”
Chloe whispered, “How?”
“Car accident.”
The room chilled.
Mrs. Gable continued.
“Victor was twenty-two. He came to me after the funeral and promised he would discover the truth.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“But he hired you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Mrs. Gable’s eyes filled.
“Because I had nowhere else to go.”
Chloe understood.
Victor collected abandoned people.
Marco.
Mrs. Gable.
Employees.
Now Chloe and Tommy.
Not because he enjoyed being needed.
Because he understood being left.
Marco’s phone rang.
His face hardened.
“The judge denied bail.”
“What?”
“He’s being held pending a federal hearing.”
“That quickly?”
“Exactly.”
Chloe stood.
“Take me to him.”
“No visitors.”
“Take me.”
Marco looked at her.
Then smiled slightly.
“You’re beginning to sound like Victor.”
Two hours later, through attorneys and favors Marco insisted she never ask about, Chloe sat across from Victor in a secure interview room.
Glass separated them.
He wore a plain detention uniform.
She hated seeing it.
Victor picked up the phone.
“You okay?”
She almost laughed.
“You’re in jail.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Tommy is safe.”
“Good.”
“Mrs. Gable found your alibi.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“I told her to destroy those records years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because they connect me to prosecutor Daniel Hayes.”
“The murdered prosecutor.”
“Yes.”
“Were you involved?”
“In keeping him alive.”
She stared.
Victor continued.
“Hayes was investigating Crown Exchange.”
Chloe gripped the phone.
“You knew about it?”
“Not the name.”
“How much did you know?”
“That someone in my father’s organization was paying government officials. Hayes believed Luca was involved.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because until yesterday I had no proof it connected to your family.”
Chloe leaned forward.
“Victor, if you keep deciding what I can handle, this will never work.”
His eyes locked onto hers.
“This?”
She froze.
He did too.
Neither looked away.
Chloe whispered, “Whatever this is.”
Victor’s voice lowered.
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder.”
A smile touched his mouth.
Then vanished.
“There’s something you need to do.”
“What?”
“Leave Chicago.”
“No.”
“Chloe.”
“Already discussed.”
“This is different.”
“How?”
“The charges came from inside the Justice Department. Luca has reach I underestimated.”
“Then we expose him.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
Victor looked toward the security camera.
“There’s a former federal agent named Samuel Pierce.”
“Who is he?”
“The man Hayes trusted.”
“Where?”
“Wisconsin. Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“He disappeared ten years ago.”
“Very reassuring.”
Victor’s mouth twitched.
“If anyone knows how Crown Exchange worked, it’s Pierce.”
“Why didn’t Luca kill him?”
“Maybe he thinks he did.”
Chloe understood.
“You want me to find him.”
“I want Marco to find him.”
“And me?”
“I want you somewhere safe.”
“Victor.”
He sighed.
“Fine. Go with Marco.”
“Better.”
“Chloe.”
“Yes?”
“If this gets worse…”
“It will.”
“You’re terrible at reassurance.”
“So are you.”
He looked at her for a long moment.
“Do you regret falling asleep in my bed?”
The question surprised her.
Chloe thought about Tommy’s kidnapping.
Gunfire.
His brother.
Her parents.
Federal charges.
Then she thought about Victor sleeping peacefully beside her.
“No.”
His face softened.
“Neither do I.”
The line clicked.
Time ending.
Chloe pressed her hand to the glass.
Victor stared.
Then placed his palm against hers from the other side.
Not touching.
Almost.
She whispered, “I’m getting you out.”
Victor’s eyes darkened with emotion.
“You don’t owe me rescue.”
She shook her head.
“This isn’t debt.”
“What is it?”
Chloe looked at him.
“I’m still figuring that out.”
Then the guards took him away.
Marco found Samuel Pierce twenty-four hours later.
He lived under the name Samuel Price in a rural town outside Green Bay.
Chloe insisted on going.
Tommy remained under guard with Mrs. Gable.
Pierce was seventy.
Thin.
Suspicious.
And when Chloe showed him her father’s letter, he almost shut the door.
“Robert Bennett.”
“You knew him?”
Pierce looked at Marco.
Then Chloe.
“You need to leave.”
“My parents were killed.”
“I know.”
“Victor Russo is being blamed.”
Pierce’s face hardened.
“Victor didn’t kill your parents.”
Chloe’s knees nearly weakened.
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because he was supposed to die with them.”
Silence.
Chloe stared.
Pierce opened the door wider.
“Come inside.”
For three hours, Samuel Pierce explained the truth.
Crown Exchange was not merely corruption.
It was a protection system.
Politicians protected judges.
Judges protected police.
Police protected shipping routes.
Shipping money funded campaigns.
At the center were Antonio Rossi, Luca Russo, and several powerful public officials.
Robert Bennett discovered the financial pattern.
Prosecutor Daniel Hayes discovered the legal pattern.
Victor discovered his brother’s involvement.
“They planned to meet,” Pierce said.
“Who?”
“Your father and Victor.”
Chloe’s heart stopped.
“When?”
“The night your parents died.”
She stared.
“Victor never said that.”
“He didn’t know Robert was the source.”
“Why didn’t they meet?”
“Victor was forced out of Chicago after Luca tried to have him killed.”
Pierce handed her a file.
Inside was an old photograph of Victor at twenty-three.
Much younger.
Still hard-eyed.
Next to him was Daniel Hayes.
Pierce continued.
“Robert Bennett planned to turn over evidence when Victor returned.”
“But my parents died first.”
“Yes.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
Marco asked, “Who ordered it?”
Pierce looked toward the window.
“Luca.”
“Proof?”
Pierce stood.
“Follow me.”
They went into the basement.
Behind a false wall sat metal file boxes.
Years of evidence.
Recordings.
Bank documents.
Photographs.
Pierce opened one box.
“Your father gave me copies.”
Chloe’s hands shook.
“He knew he might die.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you expose this?”
Pierce looked ashamed.
“My daughter was twelve.”
Chloe understood before he continued.
“They threatened her.”
Pierce nodded.
“I ran.”
Marco said, “We can protect you now.”
Pierce laughed bitterly.
“Nobody can.”
A gunshot shattered the basement window.
Pierce jerked.
Blood appeared on his shirt.
Chloe screamed.
Marco pulled her down.
More shots.
Security returned fire upstairs.
Pierce collapsed.
Chloe crawled toward him.
“No.”
His hand grabbed hers.
“Listen.”
Blood touched his lips.
“Grant.”
“Senator Grant?”
Pierce nodded.
“He runs it now.”
Chloe bent closer.
Pierce whispered, “Luca answers to him.”
Then another shot struck the wall.
Marco shouted, “We move now!”
Chloe grabbed the evidence box.
They escaped through a rear cellar door into the snow.
Pierce died before reaching the vehicle.
But the files survived.
And buried inside them was something no one expected.
A recorded conversation dated five years earlier.
The night before Chloe’s parents died.
Luca’s voice.
Senator Grant’s voice.
And a third man.
Victor Russo’s father.
Robert Russo.
Victor had believed Luca murdered their father because of Crown Exchange.
The recording revealed something worse.
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Robert Russo had ordered the murder of Chloe’s parents himself.
And Luca had merely carried it out.
