Chapter 8 - The Debt Written in Blood
Damian's face told Elena the statement was true.
"What does he mean?"
"Not now."
"Damian."
The intercom came alive again.
Gabriel laughed.
"He never told you?"
Damian aimed at the nearest camera.
"Keep talking and you'll regret surviving that boat."
"I've regretted many things. Surviving isn't one."
Rafael's voice came through Damian's earpiece.
"We're tracking the internal signal."
Gabriel continued.
"Arthur saved Damian from his own father."
Elena stared.
Damian said nothing.
"What happened?"
He finally looked at her.
"When I was twenty-one, I tried leaving."
"Leaving the family?"
"Yes."
That sounded impossible.
"Why?"
"Because my father ordered a man killed in front of his children."
Damian's voice was flat.
"I refused to participate."
Ethan listened silently.
"Vincent decided refusal was contagious."
Elena understood before he finished.
"He was going to kill you."
"Not exactly."
Damian's mouth hardened.
"He was going to make an example of me."
Gabriel's voice came through the speakers.
"Vincent ordered Damian beaten nearly to death and dumped near the river."
Elena's face went white.
"Stop listening to him."
"But Arthur found you."
Damian looked away.
"Yes."
Arthur had been driving home from a shipping office.
He found twenty-one-year-old Damian bleeding in an alley and recognized him.
Instead of calling Vincent, Arthur took Damian to his own apartment.
Elena's apartment.
The same one she still lived in.
"I was twelve," she whispered.
"You were asleep."
"You were there?"
"For three days."
A memory surfaced.
A locked spare bedroom.
Her father telling her a coworker was sick.
A man coughing behind the door.
"Oh my God."
Damian nodded.
"Arthur hid me."
"Why?"
"Because he knew my father would finish it."
"And then?"
"Arthur negotiated."
"With Vincent?"
"Yes."
"What could an accountant possibly have said to a mafia boss?"
Damian almost smiled.
"Your father had copies of enough financial records to send Vincent away for twenty years."
Elena laughed through shock.
"That sounds like Dad."
"He told Vincent if anything happened to me, the files went federal."
Ethan grinned weakly.
"Grandpa blackmailed a mafia boss."
Damian glanced at him.
"Successfully."
The intercom clicked.
Gabriel sounded almost annoyed.
"Touching."
Damian's eyes turned cold.
"Where are you?"
"Close."
"You came here for Orpheus."
"I came for what is mine."
"Nothing here belongs to you."
"Cross Holdings was supposed to be mine."
"You lost it when you became stupid."
Gabriel's voice hardened.
"You were always Vincent's favorite."
"He tried to kill me."
"And still chose you."
That was the wound.
Not money.
Not power.
Jealousy fermented for decades.
Gabriel had wanted the empire because he had wanted his brother's approval.
Vincent gave both to Damian.
Rafael interrupted.
"Signal located. Old wine tunnels beneath the north wing."
Damian moved.
Elena grabbed him.
"No."
He looked at her.
"You are not going alone."
"Yes, I am."
"That seems to be your answer to everything."
"It has kept me alive."
"Has it kept you happy?"
Damian stared.
Wrong question.
Or perhaps exactly right.
Elena continued.
"You spent five years sleeping alone because loving someone once got her killed."
"Elena."
"And now Gabriel is using that fear."
His jaw tightened.
"Stay with Ethan."
"Don't turn me into another person you leave behind for my own protection."
Damian's expression changed.
She regretted the sentence instantly.
Isabella.
But he did not become angry.
He touched Elena's cheek.
The gesture was so gentle Ethan politely looked away.
"If something happened to you because of me—"
"It would be Gabriel's fault."
Her own words again.
Damian closed his eyes briefly.
"You are infuriating."
"So I've heard."
He kissed her.
It wasn't planned.
That was what frightened him.
Damian Cross planned everything.
Routes.
Meetings.
Revenge.
War.
But Elena's face was suddenly beneath his hand, her breath caught between them, and five years of deliberate emptiness collapsed.
The kiss lasted only seconds.
Damian pulled away first.
Elena stared.
Ethan cleared his throat.
"I am still in the room."
Elena's face turned scarlet.
Damian looked at him.
"You mention this to anyone and I'll deny it."
Ethan smiled.
"Who would believe me?"
Rafael's voice broke through.
"Boss."
Reality returned.
Damian looked at Elena.
"Stay here."
This time she nodded.
Not because she wanted to.
Because Ethan needed her.
Damian and Rafael descended into the old service tunnels beneath the estate.
The Cross mansion had been built during Prohibition.
Hidden passages once moved liquor.
Later, they moved weapons.
Damian had sealed most of them.
Apparently Gabriel had reopened one.
They found three unconscious guards.
Alive.
Gabriel was making a point.
He wanted conversation.
Damian reached the old wine cellar.
Gabriel stood beneath a single light.
He was sixty-two.
Lean.
Elegant.
Silver-haired.
He looked enough like Vincent to make Damian hate him immediately.
"Hello, nephew."
Damian raised his gun.
"Give me a reason."
Gabriel smiled.
"I have insurance."
A video feed appeared on a monitor.
Elena's room.
Ethan beside her.
A man stood outside their door.
Damian's pulse changed.
"Call him off."
"Give me Orpheus."
"Call him off."
Gabriel pressed a button.
The man outside Elena's room raised a gun.
Damian removed the flash drive from his pocket.
Rafael stared.
"Boss."
Gabriel held out his hand.
Damian tossed it across the room.
Gabriel caught it.
"Good boy."
Damian's expression did not change.
"Call him off."
Gabriel sent a message.
On-screen, the gunman lowered his weapon and walked away.
Gabriel smiled.
"You always were sentimental."
"You have no idea."
Gabriel slid the drive into a laptop.
The screen requested authentication.
"Password."
"Don't look back."
Gabriel typed it.
The files opened.
His satisfaction lasted two seconds.
Then every file began deleting itself.
Gabriel's face changed.
"What did you do?"
Damian smiled.
"Arthur taught me something too."
The flash drive was a copy.
Rafael had installed a destructive script.
Gabriel pulled his gun.
Damian fired first.
The bullet struck Gabriel's hand.
His pistol dropped.
Gabriel screamed.
Rafael tackled him.
Damian crouched beside his uncle.
"You killed Isabella."
Gabriel laughed through pain.
"I ordered Marco to frighten her."
"With a car bomb?"
"Marco got ambitious."
"You killed Arthur."
"He wouldn't give me Orpheus."
"You poisoned my father."
Gabriel's eyes gleamed.
"Vincent deserved worse."
Damian pressed the gun beneath his chin.
Gabriel smiled.
"Do it."
Damian's hand tightened.
Then he thought of Elena.
If Ethan died tomorrow because someone wants my key, would that make it my fault?
No.
Why?
Because you didn't choose this.
Damian lowered the gun.
Gabriel's smile vanished.
"You think mercy makes you different?"
"No."
Damian stood.
"Living long enough to watch everything you built disappear is not mercy."
Federal agents arrived forty minutes later.
Gabriel Cross left Damian's estate in handcuffs.
By dawn, the house was quiet.
Elena found Damian sitting alone in his bedroom.
The same room where everything had started.
He had removed his jacket.
Blood stained the bandage on his shoulder again.
"You tore your stitches."
"So Samuel tells me."
She sat beside him.
Neither mentioned the kiss.
For almost a minute.
Then Elena said, "Ethan already named our first child."
Damian nearly choked.
"What?"
She smiled.
"I'm joking."
His stare could have frozen fire.
"That wasn't funny."
"It was a little funny."
He looked toward her.
Then laughed.
A real laugh this time.
Elena leaned against him.
Gradually his arm came around her.
"Gabriel's alive," she said.
"Yes."
"Marco's alive."
"For now."
"Federal prosecutors have the evidence."
"Copies."
"You're going to cooperate?"
Damian looked at her.
"Some of what I do won't survive sunlight."
"Maybe that's not a bad thing."
"No."
She waited.
Damian had spent his entire adult life building something powerful enough that nobody could hurt him.
Yet every wall had only made the empty rooms larger.
"I'm getting out," he said.
Elena lifted her head.
"Of what?"
"The parts of this business that require men like Gabriel."
"Can you?"
"Eventually."
"Why?"
He stared at her.
"Because for the first time in five years, I have something I don't want blood touching."
Her breath caught.
Before she could answer, Samuel burst through the door.
"Ethan has a donor."
Elena stood so quickly she nearly fell.
"What?"
Samuel smiled.
"Potential donor. Very strong match."
She covered her mouth.
"Who?"
Samuel's expression became strange.
"The donor asked to remain anonymous."
Damian's eyes narrowed.
Elena looked between them.
"Samuel."
The doctor hesitated.
Then turned toward Damian.
"You didn't tell her?"
Elena stared at Damian.
"Tell me what?"
Damian looked extremely unhappy.
Samuel sighed.
"Damian was tested yesterday."
Elena stopped breathing.
"No."
Damian stood.
"It's preliminary."
"No."
"Hale—"
"You are not giving my brother your kidney."
His eyebrows rose.
"You say that as though I'm donating a car."
"You were shot two days ago!"
"Graze."
"You get shot constantly!"
"Not constantly."
Samuel muttered, "Often enough."
Elena's eyes filled.
"Why would you do this?"
Damian's answer was quiet.
"Because Arthur Hale once saved my life."
May you like
He looked toward the guest room where Ethan slept.
"And I've spent seven years too late returning the favor."
