Chapter 6 - The Man With the Scar
Dante grabbed Adrian by the collar.
“What happened after the river?”
Adrian’s face tightened.
“I told you—”
“My niece is gone.”
Adrian went still.
“What?”
Dante showed him the card.
Adrian stared at it.
Then all color left his face.
“I know where they took him.”
“Where?”
“A private clinic outside Joliet.”
Dante’s heart hammered.
Adrian admitted he had seen Michael alive two weeks after the crash.
They spoke for ten minutes.
Michael had told him Claire was pregnant and begged him to get her out of Chicago.
Then men arrived.
One had a scar across his face.
Owen Rusk.
Cross Plaza was an obvious trap.
Dante went anyway.
In the underground garage, a black SUV waited.
Owen Rusk stepped out.
Alive.
Dante stared.
“You died.”
Owen smiled.
“People keep saying that.”
A suppressed shot cracked.
Owen shoved Dante sideways.
The bullet shattered a concrete pillar.
They took cover.
After the shooters retreated, Dante turned on Owen.
“Ellie.”
“I know where they’re taking her.”
“Where?”
“Lake Geneva.”
The Vale family once owned a cabin there.
On the drive north, Owen told him the truth.
Michael survived the crash.
Owen pulled him from the river under Victor’s orders.
Victor wanted the ledger.
Cross wanted the duplicated evidence.
Michael refused to talk.
Weeks later Owen changed sides because Michael had once saved his son from an overdose and quietly paid for treatment.
Owen helped Michael escape.
“Where is he?” Dante asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Last time you saw him?”
“Seven years ago.”
At the cabin, they found a child’s pink hair tie beside a chair.
Then Dante heard:
“Uncle Dante?”
He ran upstairs.
Ellie stood inside a bedroom.
Untied.
Unhurt.
Claire was there too.
Ellie ran into her mother’s arms.
Dante stared.
Then footsteps approached in the hallway.
Slow.
Uneven.
A cane touched the wooden floor.
A man appeared in the doorway.
Older.
A white scar along his temple.
Gray eyes.
Dante’s entire body went still.
May you like
Michael Vale looked at his brother.
“Hey, Dante.”
