Chapter 7 - MAYA WAS NEVER AN ACCIDENTDominic Costello looked pleased.
That bothered Luca more than the gun.
Men who had lost control did not look pleased.
Men who believed events were still moving according to plan did.
Luca remained beside the archive desk.
Marco slowly moved one hand toward his jacket.
A red laser appeared on his chest.
He stopped.
Dominic smiled.
“Marco. Always loyal.”
“Something you wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand loyalty.”
Dominic stepped inside.
“I simply understand its price.”
Luca held up Maya’s file.
“You arranged for Elena to work at my house.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To observe you.”
“You had Salazar.”
“Victor became unreliable.”
Salazar looked away.
Dominic continued.
“Your body had begun adapting to the medication.”
Luca felt sick.
“You knew.”
“Of course.”
“You increased the dose.”
“Twice.”
Salazar stared.
“That wasn’t me.”
Dominic laughed.
“No.”
Luca remembered periods when his fatigue worsened.
Two years ago.
Then seven months ago.
He had blamed age.
Stress.
“You wanted to know if recovery was happening.”
“Yes.”
“Why use Maya?”
Dominic’s eyes moved toward the file.
“Her grandmother documented unusually strong stimulus-related reflex responses in patients exposed to our compound.”
Salazar frowned.
“Sound?”
“Vibration. Emotional arousal. Sudden movement.”
Maya dancing.
Jumping.
The exact triggers that made Luca’s foot respond.
Dominic had known.
“Margaret Mercer kept records,” Dominic said. “When she died, we couldn’t locate all of them.”
Elena’s face changed.
“You watched my child to find my mother’s records?”
“Yes.”
“You put her near Luca.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened her.”
Dominic shrugged.
“That became necessary.”
Elena lunged.
Marco caught her.
Dominic’s gun remained steady.
“Careful.”
Luca looked at Maya’s file.
“You expected her to notice movement.”
“I hoped.”
“Then why threaten me when she did?”
“Because I needed you frightened enough to search.”
Silence.
Luca stared.
There it was.
The real plan.
“You wanted me here.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dominic smiled.
“Because I could never open Antonio’s vault.”
“The Foundry.”
“Gabriel left you the key.”
“Marco did.”
“But only once you started walking.”
Luca looked at Marco.
His security chief looked horrified.
Dominic continued.
“Antonio was sentimental. He believed recovery would prove you were ready.”
“You used Maya to start my recovery.”
“To motivate it.”
“You stopped my medication.”
“No. Victor did.”
“Because Elena arrived.”
“Yes.”
Every discovery had pushed Luca toward another.
The foot.
Salazar.
Foundry.
Gabriel.
Pier 19.
Dominic had built a trail.
“Why?”
Luca asked again.
Dominic’s smile faded.
“Because Gabriel hid something I need.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
“You have thousands of records.”
“Not that ledger.”
Luca glanced at the archive around him.
“What’s in it?”
Dominic’s eyes changed.
Luca understood.
Something personal.
Something that could destroy him.
“Where is it?”
Dominic raised the gun.
“That is what you’re going to tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Gabriel told Marco.”
Everyone looked at Marco.
He shook his head.
“No.”
Dominic sighed.
“You were with him before he died.”
“Yes.”
“He gave you the grave key.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“Nothing.”
Dominic fired.
The bullet struck the floor beside Marco.
Elena screamed.
Dominic aimed again.
“Try.”
Marco stared.
“He said one sentence.”
“What?”
“If Luca ever walks onto the field, look beneath home.”
Luca froze.
The baseball field.
His field.
The empty dream.
Maya’s favorite place.
Dominic smiled.
“Finally.”
Luca understood why tomorrow’s exchange had been planned there.
Dominic believed the ledger was beneath home plate.
He had needed confirmation.
Marco just gave it.
Dominic’s men disarmed everyone.
They were marched upstairs.
Luca climbed.
Dominic watched.
“You’re getting better.”
Luca hated him.
“Disappointed?”
“No.”
“You spent twelve years stopping this.”
“That was then.”
“What changed?”
“Federal investigations.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“I need the ledger before people start asking questions.”
“Then kill me afterward?”
Dominic smiled.
“Probably.”
They were transported to the mansion.
By the time they arrived, Maya was already on the baseball field.
Luca’s heart stopped.
She stood beside home plate with Rebecca holding her shoulder.
Rebecca had escaped her guards.
Of course.
Elena ran forward.
A gun stopped her.
Maya looked at Luca.
“You found me already.”
“Apparently we’re doing this twice.”
She smiled faintly.
Luca rolled toward home plate.
Dominic pointed.
“Dig.”
Marco grabbed a shovel.
Luca looked at him.
“Where?”
“Directly beneath.”
Marco removed home plate.
Soft soil.
He dug.
One foot.
Two.
Metal.
A narrow box.
Dominic’s face changed.
Marco lifted it.
Gabriel’s ledger.
Dominic stepped closer.
“Open it.”
Luca took the box.
Inside was a leather notebook.
Old-fashioned.
Handwritten.
Gabriel’s writing.
Names.
Dates.
Routes.
Payments.
Murders.
Dominic’s crimes.
Then Luca saw something unexpected.
Antonio Costello.
Their father.
Payments.
Orders.
Shipments.
Crimes from years before Dominic’s coup.
Luca stared.
Gabriel had documented all of them.
Not just Dominic.
The entire family.
Dominic laughed.
“Now you see why your brother died.”
Luca looked up.
“He wanted to expose all of us.”
“Yes.”
“Dad too.”
“Yes.”
“Me?”
Dominic smiled.
“Turn the page.”
Luca did.
LUCA COSTELLO.
Dozens of signatures.
Transactions.
Shipments.
Some real.
Some forged.
Some Luca remembered approving without reading because medication made him exhausted.
Gabriel had marked them.
L — UNAWARE.
L — MEDICATED.
L — FORGED.
His brother had been separating Luca from the crimes.
Building proof.
Dominic saw Luca’s realization.
“He still thought you could be saved.”
Luca whispered, “He was right.”
Dominic laughed.
“Were you?”
He gestured toward the mansion.
“The money came from somewhere.”
Luca looked around.
He had inherited dirty wealth.
Then made it cleaner.
But had he ever asked enough questions?
No.
That guilt was his.
Dominic continued.
“Give me the ledger.”
“No.”
A gun pressed against Maya’s head.
Luca’s eyes changed.
Dominic sighed.
“You know how this works.”
“Yes.”
Luca closed the book.
He held it out.
Dominic reached.
Luca dropped it.
Into a metal bucket beside home plate.
Then Maya did something unexpected.
She grabbed the lighter from Rebecca’s coat pocket.
Rebecca shouted.
Maya threw it into the bucket.
The ledger caught fire.
Dominic screamed.
He shoved Luca aside.
Marco attacked one guard.
Elena pulled Maya away.
Gunshots exploded.
Luca fell from his wheelchair.
His knees hit dirt.
The ledger burned.
Dominic reached into the flames with his bare hands.
Luca watched.
For twelve years that man had made him helpless.
Now Luca crawled.
Then planted one foot.
Then another.
He stood.
Without bars.
Without Salazar.
Without anyone holding him.
Dominic looked up.
Fire reflected in his eyes.
Luca took one shaking step.
Then another.
He punched his uncle.
Dominic fell backward.
For one second, everyone froze.
Luca Costello stood over him.
Not steadily.
Not gracefully.
But standing.
Dominic stared.
Luca whispered, “You should have let me stay asleep.”
Then alarms sounded from the mansion.
Marco looked toward the house.
“Fire?”
No.
Security alert.
Someone had accessed Luca’s private office.
A message appeared on his phone.
UPLOAD INITIATED.
Luca frowned.
“What upload?”
Dominic began laughing from the ground.
Even with blood on his mouth.
“You burned the wrong copy.”
Luca stared.
Dominic smiled.
“The ledger was never the danger.”
“What did you do?”
“The real archive has been uploading for twelve years.”
“Where?”
Dominic looked toward the mansion.
“Your servers.”
Luca’s face went cold.
“And at midnight, every crime committed by a Costello gets released.”
Luca looked at the timer.
11:42 p.m.
Eighteen minutes.
May you like
Dominic smiled.
“Including the crimes they’ll believe were yours.”
