Chapter 7 - THE BETRAYAL INSIDE MY HOUSE
I reached for the drawer beside the fireplace.
For twenty years, my first instinct had been to reach for a weapon whenever danger entered my home.
But before my hand touched the drawer, I heard Sophie laugh upstairs.
I stopped.
The girls were finally together.
Elena was with them.
And whoever had entered my house was now a threat to all three.
“Marco,” I said, “get Elena and the girls out through the back staircase.”
He shook his head.
“I'm not leaving you.”
“That's not a request.”
His eyes held mine for a moment.
Then he nodded.
I pulled out my phone and called Agent Brooks.
“Someone just entered the property.”
“Are you safe?”
“Not sure.”
“Do not confront them. Get everyone out if you can.”
I heard movement in the hallway.
Then footsteps.
Slow.
Careful.
A shadow crossed the kitchen doorway.
I stepped back.
“Come out where I can see you.”
The footsteps stopped.
A man's voice answered.
“Boss?”
I knew that voice.
“Isaiah?”
My second driver appeared with both hands raised.
Isaiah Reed was thirty-eight, broad-shouldered, and usually so quiet that strangers forgot he was in the room.
He had worked for me for seven years.
His face was pale.
“Please don't shoot.”
I stared at him.
“Why did you come in through the side entrance?”
He swallowed.
“I needed to get something.”
“What?”
He looked toward the hallway.
“A device.”
Marco returned from the stairs.
“The girls are moving to the rear exit.”
Isaiah immediately lowered his head.
“I'm sorry.”
My stomach sank.
“Show me.”
He took a small electronic module from his pocket.
It was connected to the same remote security network Victor controlled.
“Victor made me install it,” Isaiah admitted.
Marco stepped forward angrily.
“You've been spying on the family?”
Isaiah flinched.
“I didn't want to.”
I held up my hand.
“Let him talk.”
Isaiah looked at me.
“Victor called me three weeks ago. He knew everything about my son.”
I remembered Isaiah had an eleven-year-old boy named Caleb.
“Go on.”
“He knew where Caleb went to school. He knew his baseball practice schedule. He even knew which bus he took home.”
His voice cracked.
“He told me that if I didn't do exactly what he said, Caleb would disappear.”
Marco's anger faltered.
Isaiah wiped his forehead.
“I've been feeding Victor information. Your appointments. Your driving routes. Which properties you used.”
“How much?”
“Everything he asked for.”
I looked at the module.
“And tonight?”
“He wanted me to make sure the system stayed connected. When I heard he'd sent someone to burn that apartment, I knew things were getting worse.”
“Why did you come back?”
Isaiah looked ashamed.
“I wanted to remove the device before anyone else got hurt.”
I studied him.
A man who had betrayed me.
A father terrified of losing his child.
For most of my life, I would have seen only the betrayal.
Now, after meeting Ruby, I could see the terror.
“Where's Caleb?” I asked.
Isaiah blinked.
“At my sister's.”
“Does Victor know?”
“Yes.”
I called Brooks again.
“I have a cooperating witness. His son may be in danger.”
She asked for details.
I gave them.
Then I turned to Isaiah.
“You're going to tell her everything.”
He stared at me.
“Boss, Victor will kill me.”
“Then we'll make sure he doesn't get the chance.”
Marco looked at me in surprise.
I understood why.
The old Dante Moretti would have punished Isaiah first and asked questions afterward.
But I'd begun to understand something my daughters knew instinctively.
A frightened person doesn't become trustworthy because you frighten them more.
Sometimes, they become trustworthy when you give them a reason to stop lying.
Agent Brooks sent a security team to move Elena and the girls to an independently protected location.
The lakeside house was no longer safe.
As we prepared to leave, Ruby appeared at the bottom of the staircase clutching Mr. Buttons.
“Are we moving again?”
Elena knelt.
“Just for a little while, sweetheart.”
Ruby looked toward the suitcases.
“But we just got here.”
“I know.”
“Did we do something wrong?”
The question stopped me.
“No,” I said.
Ruby looked at me.
“Then why do we always have to leave?”
I didn't know how to explain the cruelty of adults to a child who had already experienced too much of it.
So I told her the simplest truth.
“Because some people made dangerous choices. And right now, it's our job to keep you safe.”
Ruby looked toward Sophie.
“Can she come too?”
Sophie rushed forward.
“Of course I'm coming!”
Ruby seemed relieved.
She held Sophie's hand.
“Okay.”
That one word nearly broke me.
Ruby wasn't asking for the biggest house.
Or the nicest toys.
She wanted the one person who made her feel less alone.
Her sister.
Before we left, Isaiah approached me.
“Boss, there's something else.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“About Michigan Avenue.”
I watched him carefully.
“Go on.”
“Victor told me exactly which route to take that afternoon.”
“That doesn't mean anything.”
“He usually avoids downtown traffic. But that day, he insisted we stop near the flower stand.”
I felt my pulse quicken.
“Why?”
Isaiah hesitated.
“I heard him talking on the phone. He said a woman was meeting a reporter there.”
Elena turned.
“A reporter?”
Isaiah nodded.
“Someone named Maya Ellis.”
Elena grabbed the back of a chair.
“Oh, God.”
I looked at her.
“You know her?”
“She contacted me three weeks ago. She said she was investigating the Blackbird Fund.”
“Did you meet her?”
“I was supposed to. That afternoon.”
My stomach tightened.
“You were meeting her at the flower stand?”
Elena nodded.
“Ruby was waiting outside while I finished my shift.”
I turned toward Isaiah.
“So Victor deliberately brought us to the same block.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know Elena would be there?”
Isaiah looked down.
“I think so.”
“Then why would he risk putting us together?”
Isaiah swallowed.
“I don't know. But he told someone on the phone that he needed to get the woman before she handed over the ledger.”
The ledger.
Whatever Elena had discovered six years ago, Victor was still trying to find it.
And he had apparently arranged to have us all in the same place.
Maybe he had expected to take Elena quietly while I remained inside the vehicle.
Maybe he hadn't anticipated Sophie seeing Ruby.
Whatever his plan had been, it had gone terribly wrong.
Elena stepped closer.
“Maya never showed up for our meeting.”
I looked at her.
“Did she call?”
“No.”
“Have you heard from her since?”
She shook her head.
I called Brooks and explained everything.
Her response was immediate.
“We'll locate Ms. Ellis.”
“She's in danger.”
“We're taking that seriously.”
I looked toward Sophie and Ruby.
They were standing beside the door, waiting patiently.
Two little girls whose innocent curiosity had interrupted a criminal operation years in the making.
Elena quietly said, “Dante, Victor didn't put us together so we could find each other.”
“Then why?”
“Because he thought I was about to expose him.”
My phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent a message.
There were no words.
Only a photograph.
It showed Maya Ellis, a young woman with dark hair, sitting in a dimly lit room.
Her wrists appeared bound in front of her.
May you like
Beside the photograph was a handwritten sign.
BRING ME THE ORIGINAL BLACKBIRD LEDGER, OR THE REPORTER DISAPPEARS TOO.
