Chapter 7 - The Father Who Came Back Bleeding
For the second time in twenty-four hours, Elena watched a man bleed because of secrets her family had buried before she was old enough to understand them.
Gabriel hit the pavement.
Federal agents tackled the shooter.
Dante dragged Elena and Toby behind cover.
"Stay here."
"My father!"
"Elena."
She shoved him.
"My father!"
Dante caught her shoulders.
"The shooter is down."
Elena tore away and ran.
Gabriel lay on the wet concrete.
Blood spread beneath his coat.
An FBI medic pressed gauze against his side.
"It's abdominal. We need transport."
Elena dropped beside him.
"Dad."
Gabriel opened his eyes.
"Ellie."
"No."
She grabbed his hand.
"No. You don't get to come back for thirty seconds and die."
Despite the pain, he almost smiled.
"Still stubborn."
"You made me that way."
The ambulance arrived within minutes.
Elena rode with Gabriel.
Toby traveled with Rosa, who had been brought under protection.
Dante followed separately.
At NYU Langone, Gabriel was rushed into surgery.
Elena stood in the hallway wearing blood on her hands.
She stared at it.
Dante approached.
"He'll have the best surgeons."
She laughed bitterly.
"You really do solve everything with access."
"When access helps."
Elena turned.
"Did you know about Wexler?"
"No."
"My father trusted the FBI and one of the agents tried to kill him."
"Which means Wexler has people inside the Bureau."
Elena closed her eyes.
"This keeps getting bigger."
"Yes."
"Tell me something small."
Dante looked at her.
"What?"
"Anything."
He hesitated.
"I hate olives."
Elena stared.
"What?"
"You asked for something small."
A laugh escaped her.
Unexpected.
Broken.
But real.
Dante smiled slightly.
"I also dislike jazz before breakfast."
"That's not a personality."
"I'm trying."
Elena sat.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then she looked at him.
"Why did my father trust you enough to put your name in the letter?"
Dante leaned against the wall.
"Because after the warehouse, I changed."
"How?"
"I stopped believing my family was automatically right."
"That low a bar?"
"For a nineteen-year-old Vancel, revolutionary."
Elena almost smiled.
Dante continued.
"Gabriel used to tell me power was only useful if you could control what you did with it."
"Do you?"
"Sometimes."
"Greg might disagree."
"I haven't touched Greg."
"Really?"
"Michael frightened him."
"That's different?"
"Technically."
Elena shook her head.
Then Dante became serious.
"Your father made me promise something too."
"What?"
"If anything happened to him, I was supposed to protect you and your mother."
Elena stared.
"You didn't."
"No."
Dante's voice was quiet.
"I didn't know where you were. Sofia changed your records and moved repeatedly. When I finally found traces of you years later, I still believed Gabriel might have killed my mother."
"So you stayed away."
"Yes."
"And after you learned he didn't?"
"I searched again."
"For us?"
"Yes."
"When did you find me?"
"Eight months ago."
Elena stared.
"You knew where I was for eight months?"
Dante nodded.
"Why didn't you approach me?"
"Because someone else was watching you."
"Mercer."
"I wasn't sure."
"What changed Friday night?"
"The Palermo package."
"The message about the girl."
"And Victor Saye appeared near your building two days ago."
Elena's anger softened slightly.
"So you went to the Velvet."
"Yes."
"Why ask me to dance?"
Dante looked almost embarrassed.
"I needed an excuse to speak to you without making it obvious I had come specifically for you."
Elena stared.
"Your brilliant covert strategy was to ask the waitress to dance in front of an entire nightclub?"
"When you say it that way—"
"It was the least subtle thing you could have done."
"I hadn't planned for Greg."
"You stared at me for thirty seconds."
"I recognized the pendant."
"You could have asked for water."
Dante considered that.
"Yes."
"You're terrible at being normal."
"I've been told."
Elena looked down.
"Why did you take me to your home?"
"Because I didn't know who inside the Velvet belonged to Luciano."
"Not because you wanted to seduce me?"
Dante's eyebrow lifted.
"Would you like the flattering answer or the useful one?"
"Useful."
"No."
Elena felt oddly disappointed.
Dante noticed.
Then he added, "That was not what I intended when I approached you."
Her eyes met his.
The air changed.
Before either could speak, Dr. Mendez entered.
"Gabriel is out of surgery."
Elena stood.
"Is he alive?"
"Yes."
Her knees nearly gave out.
Dante caught her arm.
This time she did not pull away.
"The bullet damaged his liver but missed the major vessels. He lost a lot of blood. He's stable."
"When can I see him?"
"Soon."
Elena closed her eyes.
"Thank you."
Dante's phone rang.
Rourke.
He answered.
"What?"
Silence.
Dante looked toward Elena.
"What happened?" she asked.
He ended the call.
"The agent who shot Gabriel is dead."
"What?"
"Killed in custody."
"How?"
"Poison."
Elena stared.
Dante looked toward the hospital windows.
"Wexler is cleaning up."
Gabriel regained consciousness shortly after sunset.
Elena entered alone.
He looked impossibly fragile beneath the hospital sheets.
For several seconds, father and daughter simply stared at each other.
Then Gabriel cried.
That surprised Elena.
As a child, she had believed fathers did not cry.
Apparently daughters grew up to discover that most things children believe about adults are wrong.
"I'm sorry."
Gabriel's voice was barely audible.
Elena sat.
"You don't get to start there."
He nodded.
"Fair."
"Start with Mom."
Gabriel closed his eyes.
"Sofia knew I survived."
"For sixteen years?"
"Yes."
Elena felt anger rise.
"She lied to me."
"To protect you."
"Everyone keeps saying that."
Gabriel looked at her.
"Because it was true."
"No."
Elena's voice shook.
"You protected me from information. You didn't protect me from grief."
Gabriel had no response.
"I grew up thinking you were dead. Toby grew up without knowing you existed. Mom died believing I had to carry everything alone."
"I know."
"No, you don't."
Tears filled Elena's eyes.
"You got to know you were alive."
Gabriel turned his face away.
"I was a coward."
The admission stopped her.
He looked back.
"At first, I stayed away because Luciano would have killed you."
His voice trembled.
"Later, I stayed away because I was ashamed."
"Of what?"
"The things he said at the pier."
Elena waited.
Gabriel inhaled painfully.
"I helped Alessandro Vancel build financial structures to hide criminal profits."
Her stomach tightened.
"I wasn't innocent."
"Did you kill people?"
"No."
"Did you know people were being killed?"
"Eventually."
"How eventually?"
"Too late to pretend I hadn't benefited."
Elena looked toward the floor.
Gabriel continued.
"When I discovered Luciano was using the same systems to finance trafficking, bribery, and political corruption, I tried to expose him."
"What did Wexler have to do with it?"
Gabriel's expression darkened.
"Charles Wexler was Alessandro's attorney before entering politics. He helped create the relationships that protected the family."
"Dante thinks Wexler was his father's closest friend."
"He was."
"Did Alessandro know?"
"Not everything."
"Convenient."
Gabriel winced.
"I taught you skepticism."
"You taught me nothing. You were gone."
The words hurt him.
Elena saw it.
She did not take them back.
After a moment, Gabriel said, "The recording is in the old Vancel estate."
Dante entered quietly.
Gabriel looked at him.
"You always did ignore doors."
"You always did choose terrible moments to get shot."
Something passed between them.
Affection beneath anger.
Dante approached.
"Where?"
Gabriel looked at Elena.
"Your pendant has two functions. The numbers opened the archive. The Saint Michael figure itself is a mechanical key."
Elena removed it.
Gabriel pointed.
"Press the wing."
She did.
A tiny metal blade emerged from the bottom.
Elena stared.
"That's absurd."
Dante looked impressed.
Gabriel almost smiled.
"Your mother designed it."
"Mom?"
"She was better at practical hiding places than I was."
"Where does it fit?"
"In a wall safe beneath the chapel at the old Vancel estate in Westchester."
Dante went still.
"The chapel burned."
"Partially."
"My father sealed it after my mother died."
"I know."
Dante looked at Gabriel.
"What's on the recording?"
Gabriel's expression became grim.
"Wexler discussing Isabella's murder with Luciano."
Dante stopped breathing.
Elena looked at him.
His face became empty.
"You're sure?"
"I recorded it myself."
Dante's voice dropped.
"You had proof for sixteen years."
"I couldn't retrieve it without the pendant."
"You could have contacted me."
"I thought you'd kill Luciano before we exposed Wexler."
Dante laughed once.
Without humor.
"You were probably right."
Gabriel looked at Elena.
"That's why Sofia wrote what she did."
Dante stepped away.
Elena saw his fists tighten.
"Isabella died because she discovered Wexler was using Vancel companies to funnel foreign money into political campaigns," Gabriel said.
Dante's eyes closed.
"Luciano arranged the murder. Wexler approved it."
Silence.
Then Dante asked, "Why Gabriel's gun?"
"To frame him. And because Wexler knew you already trusted Gabriel."
Dante looked toward the window.
"It worked."
Gabriel's face filled with regret.
"Yes."
Elena stood between two men damaged by the same lie.
"What happens if we get the recording?"
Gabriel looked at her.
"If it's intact, Wexler is finished."
"And Luciano?"
"The recording implicates him too."
Dante said, "Then we go tonight."
Gabriel shook his head.
"No."
"Why?"
"Wexler knows I'm alive. He knows what I was protecting."
"He doesn't know where."
Gabriel looked at Dante.
"Your mother's chapel."
Dante understood.
"Wexler attended her funeral."
"He knows you sealed it."
Elena's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
She looked at the screen.
A photograph.
The old Vancel estate.
Fire burning through one wing.
Below it:
SOME SECRETS SHOULD STAY BURIED.
Dante took the phone.
His face changed.
"The chapel."
Gabriel tried to sit up.
"Go."
Elena looked at Dante.
"If the safe burns—"
"It's fireproof."
"What about the building collapsing?"
Dante was already calling Rourke.
Elena grabbed her coat.
Dante looked at her.
"No."
She stared.
"Are we really doing this again?"
"It's dangerous."
"So is working at the Velvet."
"This is slightly more dangerous."
"The key is mine."
"I can take it."
Elena closed her fist around the pendant.
"No."
Dante looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel shrugged weakly.
"She gets that from her mother."
Elena headed for the door.
Dante followed.
Behind them, Gabriel called out.
"Dante."
He turned.
Gabriel's voice softened.
"Don't become Luciano trying to defeat him."
Dante stared.
May you like
Then nodded.
It was the first promise Elena had seen him make without words.
