Chapter 3 - The Traitor in the House
The gunman fired first.
Damian moved faster.
He slammed Elena behind the concrete lockers as the bullet struck metal where her head had been.
Rafael returned fire.
The basement exploded with deafening gunshots.
Elena covered her ears.
Damian crouched in front of her, one hand braced against the floor and the other holding his pistol.
"Stay down."
Another bullet tore through a locker.
"Wasn't planning on standing."
His eyes flicked toward her.
Even then, even there, she saw the almost-smile.
Then it vanished.
Rafael shouted, "He's moving!"
Damian leaned around the lockers and fired twice.
Silence.
Footsteps thundered toward the stairs.
A door slammed.
Rafael ran after the gunman.
Damian turned back to Elena.
"You hit?"
"No."
He looked anyway.
Shoulders.
Arms.
Hands.
His fingers closed briefly around her wrist.
Her pulse hammered beneath his thumb.
"I'm fine."
Damian released her.
Only then did Elena notice blood spreading beneath his jacket.
"You're not."
"It's a graze."
"You've been shot."
"Technically."
"That is not a technical distinction."
He stared at her.
Then he laughed once.
A low, surprised sound as if his own body had betrayed him.
Elena had never heard Damian Cross laugh.
Apparently neither had Rafael, because when he returned, he stopped dead.
"The hell happened?"
"Nothing."
Rafael looked between them.
"Right."
The gunman had escaped through an old service tunnel.
But the abandoned locker remained.
So did Arthur Hale's letter.
They returned to the estate with the ledger locked inside Damian's briefcase.
Samuel stitched Damian's shoulder while Elena sat nearby reading her father's message.
The handwriting blurred twice.
She wiped her eyes before anyone noticed.
My dearest Elena,
If you are reading this, the man who killed me is probably still close to Damian Cross.
I discovered that Marco Salvi has been stealing from Cross shipments for years. But the theft is only part of it. He has been financing men inside Damian's organization, slowly replacing loyal people with his own. His goal is not money. His goal is control.
Elena stopped.
Damian's expression became stone.
She continued.
I tried to warn Damian, but I believe Salvi learned I was collecting evidence.
If something happens to me, the ledger contains names, payments and routes. Do not take it to police. Some of them are included.
There is one more thing.
Elena frowned.
What?
Damian asked.
She read aloud.
"Marco Salvi knows about the Hale children."
Ethan looked up from the sofa.
"Us?"
Elena read the next sentence.
"He believes I told Elena where I hid the ledger. I didn't. I only gave her the key."
Her hand began trembling.
"Because nobody pays attention to a teenage girl's necklace."
Damian lowered his gaze.
Arthur had been right.
For seven years, the key had remained hidden in plain sight.
Elena finished.
If Elena or Ethan is ever threatened, Damian Cross is the only man I trust to keep them alive.
Please forgive me for leaving you this burden.
Dad.
The room remained silent.
Elena folded the letter carefully.
"You knew Marco."
Damian stared at the ledger.
"I still do."
"Yesterday he was sitting at your table."
"Yes."
"Offering you his daughter."
"Yes."
"And you let him leave."
"I didn't know this existed."
Elena stood.
"Call the police."
Damian looked at her.
"You heard your father's warning."
"I don't care. There has to be one honest cop in Chicago."
"There are many. I don't know which ones Salvi owns."
"Then the FBI."
"Possibly."
"Possibly?"
Damian rose despite Samuel's protest.
"Your father's ledger isn't just evidence against Marco. It lists people who work for me. Government officials. Union contractors. Port authorities."
"Good. Arrest them all."
"You think they'll sit quietly while we schedule their handcuffs?"
Elena's voice rose.
"What do you want me to do? Hide here forever?"
"No."
"Then tell me the plan."
Damian walked toward her.
"First, we identify every traitor inside my organization."
"You mean before they identify us."
"They already have."
That chilled her.
Damian opened the ledger.
Names filled the pages.
Payments.
Dates.
Codes.
Rafael leaned over his shoulder.
Then cursed.
"What?"
Damian pointed.
A security captain.
Two drivers.
A household maintenance supervisor.
And beside a date from three weeks earlier:
E. Hale — East Wing access confirmed.
Elena's stomach turned.
"They've been watching me."
"Yes."
"Why didn't they just take the key from my apartment?"
"Maybe they searched."
She thought of the broken lock six months ago.
Police had called it attempted burglary.
Nothing had been stolen.
Except someone had opened her jewelry drawer.
"Oh God."
Damian saw the realization.
"They were looking for it."
Elena sat.
Ethan moved beside her.
She held him automatically.
Damian studied the boy.
"Where's the necklace when you shower?"
"Usually bathroom counter."
"At work?"
"Under my uniform."
"At home?"
She touched her chest.
"Always."
"That's why they couldn't find it."
Rafael flipped another page.
"Boss."
Damian looked.
A payment from Salvi's network had been made to someone identified only as V.
The amount was enormous.
The note read: HOSPITAL ACCESS.
Elena stood again.
"Ethan."
Samuel stepped toward the boy.
"I'm checking him into a private unit tonight."
"No," Damian said.
Elena turned.
"No?"
"Not a hospital Salvi has already entered."
"Then where?"
Damian looked at Samuel.
"Can you arrange dialysis here?"
Samuel nodded slowly.
"With proper equipment and nurses, temporarily."
"Do it."
Ethan blinked.
"In the mansion?"
Damian shrugged.
"I have enough outlets."
Ethan laughed again.
Elena didn't.
"You're turning your house into a hospital."
"I'm turning it into somewhere Salvi cannot reach him."
"You can't promise that. Someone already got over the wall."
"That won't happen again."
The words were quiet.
Absolute.
Rafael closed the ledger.
"There's another problem."
He pointed to the page.
The payment marked HOSPITAL ACCESS had been authorized using initials.
V.S.
Vivienne Salvi.
Damian's expression changed.
Elena noticed.
"The woman from dinner?"
He looked at her sharply.
"How do you know about dinner?"
"The staff talks."
"Apparently I need quieter staff."
"Is she involved?"
"I don't know."
"She's Marco's daughter."
"That doesn't make her guilty."
Elena folded her arms.
"That's surprisingly reasonable for a mafia boss."
Samuel choked on his coffee.
Damian looked tired.
"I'm beginning to regret saving you from the floor."
"You haven't paid me for today."
"There she is."
For the first time since reading the letter, Elena smiled.
It vanished when Damian's phone rang.
Vivienne.
He answered.
"What?"
Her voice came fast.
"Damian, don't hang up."
"Talk."
"My father knows."
Everyone in the room became still.
Vivienne continued.
"He knows you found Arthur Hale's ledger."
Damian's gaze moved to Elena.
"How?"
"I don't know. He's furious. He's calling everyone."
"Where are you?"
"My apartment."
"Stay there."
"No. You don't understand."
Damian heard fear in her voice.
Real fear.
"My father sent men to Mercy General."
Elena grabbed Damian's arm.
"Ethan isn't there."
Vivienne continued.
"They're looking for the Hale boy."
"We have him."
Silence.
Then Vivienne whispered, "Thank God."
Damian's expression hardened.
"Why do you care?"
"Because I signed those hospital access forms."
Elena went cold.
Vivienne began crying.
"I thought they were for charity donations. My father told me he wanted to pay the boy's bills anonymously. I didn't know."
Damian said nothing.
"Damian, listen to me. He has someone else inside your estate."
Rafael swore.
"Who?"
"I don't know his name."
"Find it."
"I heard my father say they're going to force Elena to give them the location of a second ledger."
Elena frowned.
"There isn't another ledger."
Vivienne's voice broke.
"According to my father, there is."
Damian looked at Arthur's letter.
"What second ledger?"
"He called it the insurance file."
Rafael began searching through the locker contents again.
Photograph.
Letter.
Black ledger.
Nothing else.
Vivienne whispered, "Damian, my father said Arthur Hale hid proof of something much worse than theft."
"What?"
"He said if it comes out, half the men running Chicago go to prison."
The lights went out.
The entire estate dropped into darkness.
A second later the backup generator should have activated.
It didn't.
Rafael pulled his gun.
"That's impossible."
Damian turned toward Elena and Ethan.
"Down."
A crash came from the hallway.
Then a scream.
One of the guards shouted.
Damian pushed Elena behind the stone fireplace.
"Stay with Ethan."
"Where are you going?"
"To end this."
He reached the doorway.
Elena caught his hand.
It surprised both of them.
"Don't get killed."
Damian looked down at her fingers wrapped around his.
Nobody told Damian Cross not to die.
They usually assumed he couldn't.
His thumb moved once across her knuckles.
Then he pulled away.
"Lock the door behind me."
Damian vanished into the darkness.
Elena shoved a chair beneath the handle.
Samuel turned on his phone flashlight.
Ethan whispered, "Ellie."
"I'm here."
A shot echoed below.
Then another.
Footsteps approached.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Someone stopped outside the bedroom.
The handle moved.
Elena covered Ethan's mouth.
A male voice came through the door.
"Elena Hale."
She froze.
"I know you're in there."
Samuel raised a metal fireplace poker.
The man outside laughed softly.
"Your father left something for you."
Elena stared at the brass key still around her neck.
May you like
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
"He also left you a message Damian Cross was never supposed to hear."
