Chapter 9 - THE LEDGER OF THE DEAD|
The storage facility stood on the edge of an industrial district, surrounded by chain-link fences and security lights. Teresa had given them the locker number, but she had warned them not to trust the facility's official records.
Adrian brought Dominic and one additional guard. Elena insisted on coming inside herself.
“No one touches anything until I see it,” she said.
Dominic looked toward Adrian.
Adrian nodded.
“She makes the rules.”
The guard cut the lock.
Inside the unit were old medical files, a metal cashbox, and a battered cassette recorder wrapped in plastic. Elena recognized her father's handwriting on the box.
She opened it.
A ledger lay beneath the recorder.
Rows of names filled the pages, accompanied by dates, account numbers, and coded payments. Some entries had been marked with red ink.
Elena's stomach turned when she recognized the names of two men whose deaths had been reported as accidents.
Adrian turned a page.
“Vincent's companies.”
“And payments to police officers,” Dominic added.
Elena found a familiar name halfway down the page.
Michael Ross.
Her father.
Beside his name was a date seven years earlier and a payment amount large enough to make her hands shake.
“They paid him,” she whispered. “They made it look like he accepted money.”
Adrian examined the entry.
“Your father wouldn't have taken it.”
“I know.”
At the bottom of the page was another note.
Witness secured. Medical intervention completed. Memory unreliable.
Adrian went completely still.
“That was me.”
Elena looked at him.
“What?”
“The date matches the week I returned to the family. They knew I couldn't remember everything.”
Dominic found a second envelope containing hospital records. Several pages had been altered, but the original signatures remained visible beneath the changes.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Dr. Nathan Sloane.
The physician who had treated Adrian after his return.
Adrian took out his phone.
“Find him.”
Dominic moved toward the door.
A sharp metallic click sounded from the hallway.
He stopped.
“Boss?”
The lights went out.
Elena heard the scrape of shoes, a muffled curse, and the sound of someone running.
Adrian grabbed her hand and pulled her behind the shelving units.
A flashlight beam swept across the storage room.
“Give us the ledger,” a voice ordered.
Adrian stepped forward, placing himself between Elena and the doorway.
“You're late,” he said.
The intruder fired.
The bullet struck the metal shelf inches from Adrian's shoulder.
Dominic returned fire from the corridor, forcing the attackers to retreat. Within seconds, the room filled with shouting and the pounding of running feet.
Then silence.
Elena realized Adrian was bleeding.
A thin line of red spread across his sleeve.
“You're hit!”
“It's a graze.”
“You don't get to decide that while bleeding.”
She pulled him down onto a box and examined the wound.
For a moment, the years disappeared. She was twenty years old again, kneeling beside Matthew's bed while rain struck the clinic windows.
Adrian watched her hands.
“I remember you doing this,” he whispered.
She tightened the bandage.
“Then remember this, too. I am not something your family can hide in a box.”
He met her eyes.
“I know.”
Outside, Dominic called that the attackers had escaped.
Elena looked down at the ledger.
They had the evidence.
But now someone knew exactly what they possessed.
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And whoever had ordered the attack had just made a mistake.
They had given Adrian Moretti a reason to stop protecting his family.
