Chapter 5 - Someone Inside the Walls
Rocco saw the van before the gate finished closing.
“Boss.”
Dominic turned toward the monitor.
The service entrance camera showed a white maintenance vehicle entering the property.
“Scheduled?”
“No.”
Rocco checked the work log.
“Credential says emergency HVAC.”
“At ten seventeen at night?”
“No request from facilities.”
Dominic stared at the screen.
“Kill exterior lights on the west wing.”
Rocco looked at him.
“Why?”
“If Sloan is inside, I don’t want him knowing we’ve spotted him.”
The west lawn went dark.
Dominic took off his suit jacket.
Rocco opened a drawer.
Inside were two handguns.
Dominic looked at him.
“No shooting unless somebody forces it.”
Rocco nodded.
“What about Charles and Vivien?”
“Keep them separated without making it obvious.”
Rocco issued orders through his earpiece.
Dominic watched the van stop beside the old service building.
Three men exited.
The third wore a cap low over his face.
But Dominic recognized Peter Sloan’s walk.
Six years.
Hundreds of security briefings.
Christmas bonuses.
His children had once swum in Dominic’s pool.
Betrayal often wore familiar shoes.
“They’re heading toward the utility access.”
Rocco said.
Dominic understood.
The old tunnels.
The same network Marin had used.
“Where does that lead?”
“Everywhere.”
Dominic moved.
The lower service corridors were cold and narrow.
Rocco followed with two men.
They moved without flashlights.
Dominic knew enough of the mansion’s layout to understand where Sloan was going.
Not the office.
Not the vault.
The east wing.
His mother.
They took the lower staircase.
Ahead, a faint light moved.
Dominic raised one hand.
Everyone stopped.
Voices.
“…five minutes.”
Sloan.
Another man answered.
“We get the original and go.”
Original.
The forged power-of-attorney document.
Dominic’s suspicion hardened into certainty.
Sloan whispered.
“Girl?”
“Not here.”
“What about the nurse?”
“Handle her if she comes back.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Rocco saw it.
He touched Dominic’s arm once.
Wait.
Dominic waited.
The men continued.
“Mrs. Virelli?”
“No harm.”
“Orders?”
“Keep her quiet.”
Sloan snorted.
“She’s already quiet.”
Dominic moved before Rocco could stop him.
He stepped around the corner.
“Not quiet enough.”
Three heads turned.
Sloan went white.
One man reached inside his jacket.
Rocco’s gun appeared.
“Don’t.”
The man froze.
Dominic walked forward.
His hands remained empty.
His eyes stayed on Sloan.
Peter Sloan looked as if he had aged ten years in ten seconds.
“Boss.”
“Peter.”
“I can explain.”
“That sentence has disappointed men for centuries.”
Sloan swallowed.
Dominic stopped six feet away.
“What are you here to steal?”
“Nothing.”
Dominic looked toward the man beside him.
“You?”
Silence.
Dominic looked back at Sloan.
“Charles sent you?”
Sloan said nothing.
“Vivien?”
Nothing.
Dominic stepped closer.
“I know about the camera loops.”
Sloan’s face twitched.
“I know about the East Greenwich security attempt.”
Now Sloan looked frightened.
“And I know you were called by Charles Morrow fifteen minutes before you drove onto my property.”
Sloan closed his eyes briefly.
Dominic lowered his voice.
“So we can stop pretending you’re good at this.”
Sloan looked up.
“They have my daughter.”
Dominic stopped.
Rocco’s expression changed.
“What?”
Sloan’s voice cracked.
“They have her.”
Dominic studied him.
Peter’s daughter was seventeen.
Claire Sloan.
Boarding school in Connecticut.
“What happened?”
“She didn’t come back to her dorm tonight.”
Sloan’s eyes filled.
“I got a video.”
“When?”
“An hour ago.”
“Show me.”
Sloan hesitated.
One of the other men shifted.
Rocco pressed his gun toward him.
“Don’t.”
Sloan removed his phone.
He opened a video.
Claire sat in a chair.
Hands free.
Not visibly injured.
A man’s voice spoke from behind the camera.
“Do what Mr. Morrow asks.”
The video ended.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“What did they ask?”
“The original document.”
“Where is it?”
Sloan looked toward the ceiling.
“Mrs. Virelli hid it.”
“You know where?”
“No.”
“Then why come here?”
“I was told to search her room.”
Dominic looked at the two other men.
“They with Morrow?”
Sloan nodded.
One man cursed.
Dominic’s gaze moved to him.
“Name.”
No answer.
Rocco struck him once in the stomach.
The man folded.
Dominic looked at Rocco.
“I said no scene.”
“That wasn’t a scene.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Almost.
He turned back to Sloan.
“When did Charles recruit you?”
“Four months ago.”
“For what?”
“At first?”
Sloan swallowed.
“Information.”
“What information?”
“Your schedule.”
“Board meetings?”
“Yes.”
“Private travel?”
“Yes.”
“My mother?”
Sloan looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“You sold information about my mother?”
“They said it was for the merger.”
“And you believed that?”
“I needed money.”
Sloan whispered.
“My divorce.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You make two hundred thousand dollars a year.”
“I had debt.”
“That’s your explanation?”
“No.”
Sloan shook his head.
“It’s the reason.”
Dominic looked away.
There was a difference.
Reasons explained.
They did not excuse.
“Where is Claire?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who sent the video?”
“Burner.”
Dominic held out his hand.
Sloan gave him the phone.
Dominic passed it to Rocco.
“Send everything to Carlo.”
Rocco did.
Dominic looked at Sloan.
“You want your daughter back?”
“Yes.”
“Then tonight you work for me.”
The two men with Sloan stared.
Dominic’s men restrained them.
Sloan looked confused.
“What do you want?”
“You’re going to find the document.”
Sloan blinked.
Dominic continued.
“And then you’re going to tell Charles you have it.”
Rocco understood immediately.
Sloan did too.
“He’ll want me to bring it.”
“Yes.”
“They’ll know if it’s fake.”
“Then we won’t give them a fake.”
Sloan stared.
Dominic stepped closer.
“We’re going to give them exactly what they came for.”
Upstairs, Marin returned through the hidden panel.
Isabella pointed urgently toward the desk.
The drawer was open.
Marin froze.
“Vivien?”
Isabella nodded.
“Did she find the copy?”
Isabella shook her head.
Then she pointed beneath the wheelchair.
Marin crouched.
Taped beneath the seat was another envelope.
She pulled it free.
Inside was the original forged power-of-attorney amendment.
Blue ink.
Notary stamp.
Two witness signatures.
Marin stared.
“How did you get this?”
Isabella smiled.
Then wrote:
STOLE IT BACK.
Despite everything, Marin laughed once.
“You stole your own forged document?”
Isabella nodded proudly.
Marin studied the witnesses.
One name meant nothing.
The second did.
Peter Sloan.
Marin’s smile vanished.
At that exact moment, Dominic entered through the hidden panel.
Marin nearly screamed.
He held up one hand.
“Sorry.”
She showed him the document.
“We found the original.”
Dominic looked at it.
Then at the witness line.
Peter Sloan.
“Perfect.”
Marin stared.
“Perfect?”
Dominic took the document.
“Vivien wants this tonight.”
Isabella’s eyes sharpened.
Dominic crouched beside his mother.
“I’m going to let her have it.”
Isabella grabbed his wrist.
Hard.
Dominic met her eyes.
“Trust me.”
Isabella looked furious.
He almost smiled.
“There she is.”
His mother did not smile back.
Dominic lowered his voice.
“If we hold this, Vivien knows we’re against her.”
He pointed toward the document.
“If we give it back, she thinks she still controls tomorrow.”
Isabella slowly released his wrist.
Marin asked the question both women were thinking.
“What if she uses it?”
Dominic folded the paper.
“Then she commits the crime in front of everyone who matters.”
He looked at his mother.
“And this time, Ma, you won’t have to convince anyone what happened.”
Minutes later, Sloan texted Charles Morrow.
FOUND IT.
Charles responded almost immediately.
BRING TO ME.
Sloan looked at Dominic.
“What do I say?”
Dominic took Sloan’s phone.
His thumbs moved.
NOT SAFE.
Charles replied:
WHY?
Dominic typed:
VIRELLI SECURITY ACTIVE.
Three dots appeared.
Then:
TOMORROW.
Dominic wrote:
WHERE?
The answer came seconds later.
OLD BOATHOUSE.
11:45 PM.
Dominic handed the phone back.
Rocco checked his watch.
Eleven twelve.
Dominic looked around the room.
“We have thirty-three minutes.”
Sloan’s face tightened.
“For what?”
May you like
Dominic’s expression became cold.
“To find out whether Charles Morrow values a forged document more than your daughter.”
