Chapter 5 - What Belongs to Damian Cross
The address belonged to an abandoned meatpacking warehouse on the south side.
Rafael studied satellite images inside Damian's SUV.
"Three entrances. Rooftop access. Freight door facing the river."
Damian checked his weapon.
"Salvi will expect the front."
"So we don't use it."
Elena sat opposite them.
"You aren't killing Marco before we know where Vivienne and the Vosses are."
Damian looked up.
"You staying in the car was part of the deal."
"I never agreed to that deal."
"You agreed by getting into my car."
"No. I got into your car because you took my phone."
"Because you tried calling the police."
"Normal people do that during kidnappings."
"Normal people aren't carrying evidence against half the city."
Rafael stared intently at his tablet, pretending not to listen.
Elena leaned forward.
"You need Marco alive."
"I need his information."
"Same result."
"Different philosophy."
Despite the situation, Rafael smiled.
Damian noticed.
"Something funny?"
"Nothing, boss."
"You can walk home."
"In this weather?"
"Try me."
The SUV stopped two blocks from the warehouse.
Damian turned to Elena.
"You stay with the driver."
"If someone comes—"
"The doors lock automatically."
"I can help."
"You've helped enough."
Her face changed.
Damian immediately knew he'd chosen the wrong words.
"You mean I've caused enough trouble."
"No."
"My father died because of these people. Ethan was targeted because of this key. Your estate was attacked after I showed up."
"None of that is your fault."
"Funny. You can say it about me."
He understood the accusation.
Isabella.
Damian looked away.
Elena reached into her pocket.
"Take this."
The brass key.
He frowned.
"Why?"
"Because if you don't come back, I don't want Marco getting it."
"The locker is empty."
"I know."
"Then it's useless."
"Maybe."
She closed his fingers around it.
"My father trusted you."
Damian stared at the key.
Then at her.
"I haven't earned that."
"Then come back and start."
He left without answering.
Elena watched Damian, Rafael and six men disappear into the snow.
Ten minutes passed.
Then fifteen.
The driver said nothing.
Her phone remained in Damian's coat.
She hated helplessness.
At twenty-one minutes, gunfire echoed from the warehouse.
The driver reached for his radio.
"Team Three?"
Static.
Elena looked toward the alley.
A figure appeared.
One of Damian's guards.
He stumbled against the SUV.
The driver unlocked the door.
The guard opened it.
Elena saw his face.
The security badge.
And remembered the gunman from locker 317.
Not the same man.
But the same symbol.
Before she could shout, the guard shot the driver.
The sound inside the vehicle was deafening.
Elena screamed.
The traitor reached for her.
She kicked him in the face and scrambled across the seat.
He grabbed her ankle.
She struck him with Damian's forgotten metal flashlight.
Once.
Twice.
His grip loosened.
Elena tore free and ran.
The warehouse was the only place she could go.
Inside, everything smelled of rust and frozen concrete.
She heard voices.
Marco.
"You disappoint me, Damian."
Elena hid behind a steel column.
Across the open floor, Damian stood surrounded by armed men.
Rafael was beside him.
Vivienne sat tied to a chair near the loading dock.
Thomas Voss lay bleeding nearby.
Mrs. Voss was nowhere visible.
Marco Salvi smiled.
"You could have married my daughter and inherited half of this peacefully."
Vivienne closed her eyes.
Damian's voice remained flat.
"I don't marry property."
Marco's smile vanished.
"You insult my family."
"You offered your daughter like a shipping contract."
Vivienne looked at Damian.
Something like gratitude crossed her face.
Marco lifted a pistol toward her.
"Give me the drive."
"No."
"Your maid will be next."
Damian's expression didn't move.
Elena's heart pounded.
Marco had no idea she was inside.
"I know what happened to Isabella," Marco continued.
That changed Damian.
Barely.
But Elena saw it.
"So did Arthur Hale."
Damian's voice dropped.
"You killed him."
Marco shrugged.
"He was sentimental. Thought loyalty mattered."
Damian raised his gun.
Eight weapons immediately pointed back.
Marco laughed.
"You still don't understand. Arthur's ledger doesn't destroy me. The second file destroys you."
Damian went still.
Elena listened.
"What is on it?"
"The truth about your father."
Damian's face hardened.
Marco smiled.
"Vincent Cross wasn't dying naturally."
Rafael swore.
Marco continued.
"Someone poisoned him slowly for eighteen months."
Damian stared.
"No."
"Ask Arthur."
"Arthur's dead."
"Exactly."
Marco laughed.
"And do you know why Isabella died? Because she found medical records Arthur had given her."
Damian's pistol shifted.
For the first time, his hand wasn't perfectly steady.
Elena understood.
This wasn't only criminal evidence.
It was the answer to five years of grief.
Marco enjoyed every second.
"Give me the drive and I'll tell you who ordered the bomb."
Damian said nothing.
Marco aimed at Vivienne's head.
"Ten seconds."
"Father," Vivienne whispered.
He didn't look at her.
"Nine."
Damian reached inside his coat.
Elena realized what he was going to do.
Trade the drive.
Everything her father died protecting.
She stepped from behind the column.
"Marco."
Every head turned.
Damian's face went white with fury.
Elena held up the brass key.
"You want Arthur's evidence?"
Marco stared.
"Elena, no," Damian said.
She ignored him.
"You've been searching for this for seven years."
Marco narrowed his eyes.
"The drive isn't enough."
"You're right."
She prayed she sounded confident.
"My father split the encryption."
Marco hesitated.
It was a lie.
But a plausible one.
"The key opens the physical locker," Elena said. "The serial number is also part of the password."
Damian understood immediately.
Marco did not.
"Bring it here."
"Release Vivienne."
Marco laughed.
"She's my daughter."
"Then act like it."
Vivienne began crying silently.
Elena took another step.
"Release Thomas too."
"Elena," Damian said quietly.
She looked at him.
His eyes were furious.
Terrified.
She had never imagined Damian Cross could be terrified of anything.
Not until she realized the fear was for her.
Marco gestured.
One guard cut Vivienne loose.
She ran toward Damian.
Another dragged Thomas aside.
Elena lifted the key.
"Now Mrs. Voss."
Marco's mouth tightened.
"She's already dead."
Elena stopped.
Thomas screamed.
"No!"
A door burst open above them.
Mrs. Voss appeared on the catwalk with a guard's weapon in her hands.
"Actually," she shouted, "I'm becoming extremely difficult to kill."
Chaos erupted.
Rafael fired.
Damian grabbed Vivienne.
Elena ducked.
Marco's men scattered for cover.
A bullet struck the column beside Elena.
Damian crossed twenty feet of open floor under gunfire.
He reached her, wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her behind a concrete barrier.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"The driver was shot."
His anger vanished.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
He checked anyway.
Elena grabbed his face between both hands.
"Damian. I'm fine."
He froze.
Nobody touched him like that.
Not anymore.
Gunfire echoed.
Yet for one impossible second the warehouse disappeared.
Damian's hand closed over hers.
Then Rafael shouted, "Boss!"
Marco was running toward the river exit.
Damian moved.
He caught Marco near the loading dock.
The two men collided against a steel railing.
Marco swung first.
Damian took the blow, then drove his fist into Marco's ribs.
Marco pulled a knife.
Elena saw the flash of steel.
"Damian!"
He caught Marco's wrist.
They struggled.
The knife fell.
Damian punched him again.
Marco collapsed.
Damian raised his pistol.
Marco laughed through blood.
"Do it."
Damian's finger tightened.
Elena approached slowly.
"If you kill him, he takes the truth with him."
Damian didn't look at her.
"He killed your father."
"Then make him answer for it."
"He killed Isabella."
"Then don't let him escape by dying."
Marco's smile disappeared.
Damian stared down at him.
Five years of rage filled the silence.
Then Damian lowered the weapon.
"Rafael."
His security chief stepped forward.
"Make sure he stays alive."
Marco spit blood at Damian's shoes.
"You've gotten soft."
Damian looked toward Elena.
"No."
Then back at Marco.
"I've gotten patient."
Police sirens approached.
Not ordinary police.
Federal agents.
Vivienne had contacted them before her father abducted her, sending the ledger photographs she'd secretly taken.
Marco stared at his daughter.
"You betrayed me."
Vivienne stood straighter.
"No. I stopped becoming you."
Hours later, back at the estate, Damian inserted Arthur's flash drive into an isolated computer.
Elena stood beside him.
Ethan slept upstairs after dialysis.
Samuel watched from the opposite side of the study.
A password prompt appeared.
Damian entered 317.
Denied.
Elena thought about her father.
The music box.
Her childhood.
"He used to call me Ellie."
Damian typed ELLIE317.
Denied.
Ethan wandered into the study wrapped in a blanket.
"What was Dad always saying?"
Elena frowned.
Ethan smiled faintly.
"'Two plus two is four even when everyone lies.'"
Damian typed 224.
The screen unlocked.
Folders appeared.
Financial records.
Medical files.
Photographs.
Audio recordings.
One folder was labeled:
VINCENT CROSS.
Another:
ISABELLA REED.
Damian stopped breathing.
Elena touched his arm.
"Open it."
He did.
A medical report appeared.
Repeated doses of an anticoagulant and toxic compound had accelerated Vincent Cross's illness.
Below it was a list of authorization signatures.
Marco Salvi.
Two doctors.
And one more name.
Damian leaned closer.
"No."
Elena read it.
Her blood went cold.
The person who had approved access to Vincent Cross's medication was someone still living inside Damian's estate.
May you like
Mrs. Evelyn Cross.
Damian's mother.
