Chapter 2 - THE NAME HIS FATHER BURIEDDominic had carried wounded men before.
He had carried his brother from a wrecked car three nights earlier.
He had carried his mother down the marble staircase of their family home after she collapsed at his father's funeral eight years ago.
But carrying Mia Calder through the underground passage with his nephew pressed against his chest felt different.
Because someone was hunting both of them.
And because Mia had known his name.
"West exit!" Marcus shouted.
Gunfire tore into the concrete wall behind them.
Dominic ducked automatically, shielding Leo's head with one hand while keeping Mia balanced against his shoulder.
She was frighteningly light.
Too much blood.
"She's crashing," Marcus said.
"I can see that."
Leo began crying.
That sound did something to Dominic that bullets couldn't.
It frightened him.
"Get the car!"
Two of Marcus's men pushed ahead. Another fired down the corridor.
The hidden tunnel ended beneath an underground parking garage belonging to a neighboring office building. Dominic didn't have time to ask how his father had constructed an escape route beneath two city blocks without anyone knowing.
Later.
If there was a later.
The SUV doors opened.
Dominic climbed inside with Mia and Leo.
"Northwestern?" the driver asked.
"No hospital."
Marcus looked at him.
"She needs surgery."
"And whoever attacked us will watch the hospitals."
Dominic pulled out his phone.
"Take us to Dr. Kessler."
Twenty-seven minutes later, they entered a private medical suite concealed on the upper floor of a residential tower Dominic owned.
Dr. Samuel Kessler had spent fifteen years as a trauma surgeon before becoming the physician wealthy Chicago families called when discretion mattered more than insurance forms.
He took one look at Mia and began issuing orders.
"Gunshot?"
"Knife, maybe."
"Out."
Dominic didn't move.
"Dominic."
"Save her."
"I'll have better odds if you're not standing over me looking like you plan to murder the operating table."
Marcus touched Dominic's shoulder.
"Leo."
Dominic looked down.
His nephew had stopped crying.
The baby simply stared up at him with the same dark eyes Anthony had possessed as a child.
That almost broke him.
Dominic carried Leo into the adjoining room.
For ten minutes, he stood beside the window while Chicago glittered below.
A city of lights.
A city he could influence.
A city he could intimidate.
Yet he could not force one injured stranger to survive.
Marcus entered carrying the flash drive.
"I made an isolated copy."
"And?"
"Encrypted."
"Crack it."
"We're trying."
Dominic turned.
"Mia said Anthony gave it to her."
"Could be lying."
"She took a blade protecting Leo."
"We don't know that."
"Someone ordered her killed before they ordered my nephew killed."
Marcus couldn't argue with that.
Dominic's phone rang.
His mother.
He answered.
"Dominic?"
Elena Moretti sounded shaken.
"Did you find him?"
Dominic studied Marcus.
"Not yet."
He hated lying to his mother.
But Mia's warning had changed the rules.
The person who ordered Leo taken is already inside your house.
"God help us," Elena whispered.
"Where are you?"
"At the estate. Celeste is here. Your uncle arrived ten minutes ago."
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
Uncle Salvatore.
His father's younger brother.
A man who had been part of the Moretti organization since before Dominic was born.
"Anyone else?"
"Your cousins. Security. Father Bennett."
"Lock your bedroom."
"What?"
"Do it."
"Dominic, you're frightening me."
"Good. Fear keeps people alive."
He hung up.
Marcus understood.
"You suspect Salvatore?"
"I suspect everyone."
Including, Dominic hated admitting, his mother.
Two hours passed.
At 2:41 a.m., Kessler entered.
"She'll live."
Dominic stood immediately.
"The injury?"
"Knife wound below the ribs. Missed the liver by less than an inch. Significant blood loss. Old bruising suggests she was held somewhere before tonight."
"Tortured?"
Kessler didn't answer directly.
"Someone hurt her."
Dominic looked toward the treatment room.
"When can she talk?"
"Not now."
"Five minutes."
"Absolutely not."
"Three."
Kessler glared at him.
"You're a nightmare."
"I've been told."
"Tomorrow morning."
Dominic accepted that because the alternative was losing the only witness who might explain what was happening.
At four in the morning, the encryption team called.
"We're in."
Dominic and Marcus entered the secure office.
The flash drive contained hundreds of files.
Financial records.
Scanned contracts.
Old photographs.
Audio recordings.
And one folder.
CALDER / 1998
Dominic stared at the name.
"Mia."
Marcus opened it.
The first document was an incorporation certificate for a logistics company called Calder Maritime & Freight.
Founder:
Jonathan Elias Calder.
Dominic leaned closer.
The company had been established in 1987.
Its original routes, warehouse locations, and client list looked disturbingly familiar.
Marcus opened another document.
Moretti Freight was incorporated in 1999.
One year after Calder Maritime disappeared.
The addresses were identical.
Dominic felt cold.
"Keep going."
They found court filings.
Missing-person reports.
Private investigator notes.
Then a newspaper scan.
CHICAGO SHIPPING ENTREPRENEUR AND WIFE KILLED IN LAKE MICHIGAN BOATING ACCIDENT.
Jonathan Calder.
His wife, Rebecca.
Both dead.
Their eight-year-old daughter survived because she had been staying with relatives.
Dominic looked at the photograph.
Mia.
As a child.
"Jesus," Marcus whispered.
The next file was an audio recording.
Dominic pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then his father's voice.
Vittorio Moretti.
A voice Dominic had not heard in eight years.
"...Calder won't sell."
Another male voice responded.
Salvatore.
Dominic recognized him instantly.
"Then stop asking."
"What are you suggesting?"
"I'm suggesting accidents happen on the lake every day."
Dominic stopped breathing.
Vittorio answered quietly.
"He has a wife."
"So?"
"And the child?"
"She's eight. She doesn't know anything."
Dominic paused the recording.
Marcus looked at him.
Neither man spoke.
Dominic restarted it.
His father's voice returned.
"If we do this, there's no going back."
Salvatore laughed.
"We passed that point years ago."
Dominic shut it off.
The room seemed too small.
His father.
His uncle.
Murder.
Everything Dominic had inherited might have been built on the blood of Mia Calder's parents.
Marcus opened another file.
"There's more."
A legal trust.
Created by Jonathan Calder six months before his death.
Calder Maritime ownership had been divided among future descendants.
If evidence of fraud or coercive transfer emerged, controlling ownership would revert through the Calder family bloodline.
Dominic frowned.
"That has nothing to do with Leo."
Marcus kept reading.
Then stopped.
His expression changed.
"What?"
"Anthony married Helena Price."
"I know who my brother married."
"Helena's mother's maiden name was..."
Marcus turned the screen.
Calder.
Dominic stared.
"No."
"Rebecca Calder had a younger sister. Margaret."
Helena's grandmother.
Meaning Leo descended from the Calder family.
Mia wasn't the only surviving heir.
Leo was one too.
The flash drive contained DNA confirmations and updated trust documents.
Dominic finally understood Mia's warning.
Leo had inherited proof.
And potentially ownership.
If the records became public, Moretti Holdings could face catastrophic litigation.
But that still didn't explain why Anthony had given Mia the drive.
Or who wanted Leo dead.
A quiet voice came from the doorway.
"Because Anthony found out."
Dominic turned.
Mia stood there.
Barefoot.
Pale.
One hand pressed against the bandage beneath her borrowed shirt.
Dr. Kessler was behind her looking furious.
"I told her not to get up."
Mia ignored him.
Dominic rose slowly.
"You should be in bed."
"And your nephew should be dead."
The room went silent.
Dominic walked toward her.
"Explain."
Mia's eyes went to the old photograph on the screen.
For a moment, all her strength disappeared.
"My parents."
Dominic said nothing.
Mia looked back at him.
"Anthony contacted me four months ago."
"Why?"
"He found old records after Vittorio died. At first he thought the Calder company had been bought legally. Then he found payments to police officers, forged signatures, evidence connected to my parents' deaths."
Dominic's voice hardened.
"My brother knew my father killed your parents?"
"He suspected it."
"And you trusted him?"
"No."
That answer surprised him.
"I hated him."
"Anthony?"
"All of you."
Dominic accepted the blow.
Mia continued.
"But Anthony kept coming back. He brought documents. He apologized for things he hadn't personally done. He said he had a son now, and every time he looked at Leo he wondered what kind of inheritance he was giving him."
Dominic looked toward the room where the baby slept.
"What happened three days ago?"
"Anthony called me. He said he had proof identifying the person who was still covering everything up."
"Salvatore."
Mia hesitated.
"No."
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
"Then who?"
"Anthony wouldn't tell me over the phone."
She reached for a chair.
Her legs trembled.
Dominic instinctively caught her elbow.
She flinched away.
He released her immediately.
Mia sat.
"He said we were meeting at nine that night."
"The night of his crash."
"Yes."
"He never arrived."
"No."
Her eyes met his.
"But someone else did."
Dominic felt the room tighten.
"Who?"
"Your mother."
Elena Moretti.
Dominic stared at her as if she'd spoken a language he didn't understand.
"My mother?"
"She came to my apartment."
"What did she want?"
"The drive."
"Did she threaten you?"
"No."
"Then what?"
Mia's voice broke.
"She begged me to take Leo and run."
Marcus swore quietly.
Dominic looked away.
Nothing made sense anymore.
"My mother helped you kidnap my nephew?"
Mia's face hardened.
"I did not kidnap Leo."
"Then who removed him from the penthouse?"
"His mother."
Dominic stopped.
"Helena?"
"She handed him to me."
"Where is she?"
Mia looked at the floor.
"I don't know."
"That's not good enough."
"Men came before we could leave the building. Helena distracted them while I used a service elevator. Your mother gave me the address to the safe room."
Dominic leaned toward her.
"Who were the men?"
"I don't know."
"Who gave the order?"
"I heard one name."
Dominic waited.
Mia swallowed.
"Adrian."
Marcus looked at Dominic.
Dominic's expression turned blank.
Because there was only one Adrian in their inner circle.
Adrian Moretti.
Dominic's cousin.
Salvatore's son.
The man Dominic had appointed chief financial officer of Moretti Holdings.
The man with access to every company account.
Every security contractor.
Every property.
Every password.
Mia watched Dominic absorb it.
Then she said quietly:
"Anthony discovered money leaving the company. Millions of dollars. He traced it to Adrian."
"For what?"
"He didn't know."
A secure phone on Marcus's desk rang.
Marcus answered.
His face changed instantly.
"Dominic."
"What?"
"We just received a live video feed."
"From where?"
"The estate."
The monitor flickered.
Dominic saw the great hall of his childhood home.
His mother sat tied to a chair.
Blood ran down one side of her face.
Standing behind her was Adrian.
Perfect suit.
Calm smile.
Gun resting casually against Elena's shoulder.
Adrian looked into the camera.
"Hello, cousin."
Dominic's hands curled into fists.
Adrian smiled wider.
"I hear you found the baby."
Dominic glanced at Mia.
Impossible.
Only six people knew.
Adrian continued.
"Bring me Leo."
Elena shook her head wildly.
"No!"
Adrian struck her.
Dominic stepped toward the monitor.
"Touch her again and I'll—"
"You'll what? Burn Chicago down?"
Adrian laughed.
"That's the problem with our family, Dominic. Everyone thinks you're the dangerous one."
His smile disappeared.
"But you never figured out who taught the monsters where to hide."
Then Adrian leaned closer to the camera.
"Bring me the child and the Calder woman before sunrise."
Dominic's voice became almost unnaturally calm.
"And if I don't?"
Adrian lifted the gun.
May you like
He pressed it to Elena's temple.
"Then your mother becomes the first Moretti who dies tonight."
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