Chapter 7 - The Trap at Vale Holdings
By morning, the federal task force had enough evidence to arrest several of Mateo’s associates.
Not Mateo.
He disappeared before the first warrant was signed.
His house was empty.
His phone was off.
His office had been cleared.
And every surveillance camera in the parking garage beneath Vale Holdings had mysteriously failed for seventeen minutes around midnight.
Dominic stared at the security report like it had personally insulted him.
“He has someone inside the building,” he said.
Lena nodded.
“Probably more than one.”
We were gathered in the Lake Forest kitchen.
Daniel had been moved to a secured private floor under a false patient name.
Priya remained with him.
Marco’s arm was bandaged.
Dominic had not slept.
Neither had I.
Lena placed a folder on the table.
“We have a bigger problem.”
She opened it.
“Mateo has been transferring assets since yesterday. Millions. He is trying to move enough money to disappear.”
Dominic scanned the pages.
“He won’t run.”
“You sound sure.”
“He thinks Chicago belongs to him.”
Lena folded her arms.
“Then what will he do?”
Dominic looked at me.
“Take it.”
I understood.
“From you.”
“Yes.”
Vale Holdings was more than a corporation.
It was the legitimate face of a family empire.
Real estate.
Shipping.
Construction.
Security.
Hospital supply contracts.
Some clean.
Some not.
Dominic had spent the last decade separating them slowly.
Mateo had apparently spent the same decade weaving them back together.
“He has board access?” Lena asked.
“Temporary authority if I’m incapacitated.”
“You should revoke it.”
“I did an hour ago.”
“And?”
“He challenged it through the family trust.”
Lena frowned.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning there is an emergency board session tonight.”
I stared at him.
“You are not going.”
Dominic looked at me.
“That is exactly what you would say if I told you not to go somewhere.”
“That doesn’t make it less intelligent.”
His mouth moved slightly.
“Maybe I am learning from you.”
Lena interrupted.
“We can use the meeting.”
I looked at her.
“As a trap?”
“If Mateo attends.”
“He will,” Dominic said.
“How do you know?”
“Because he needs the board to believe I am unstable.”
“After your brother is shot and your wife reappears?” I asked.
Dominic’s eyes held mine.
“Especially then.”
The plan formed quickly.
Too quickly for my comfort.
Lena would place agents inside the building disguised as staff.
Dominic would attend the meeting.
He would confront Mateo with enough evidence to provoke him into talking.
Everything would be recorded.
I hated every part of it.
“You are assuming he confesses,” I said.
“No,” Lena replied. “We are giving him an opportunity to make mistakes.”
“He has survived this long by not making them.”
Dominic looked at me.
“He made one.”
“What?”
“He underestimated Daniel.”
I thought of the flash drive.
Then I thought of Mateo’s call.
“He also underestimated me.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“That is why you are not going.”
I stared at him.
Lena looked toward the ceiling.
Marco suddenly found the window fascinating.
I leaned forward.
“Excuse me?”
Dominic seemed to realize what he had done.
He closed his eyes briefly.
Then opened them.
“I would strongly prefer that you not go.”
“Better.”
“But?”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“He wants you.”
“Which is exactly why my presence may force him to react.”
“That is not a reason to put you in the same room.”
Lena said, “Actually, it is.”
Dominic turned on her.
“Detective.”
“She would be protected.”
“No.”
I folded my arms.
“You told me twelve hours ago you were done deciding for me.”
His jaw clenched.
“I was hoping your decisions would be less suicidal.”
“And I was hoping your apology would last more than half a day.”
Marco coughed.
Dominic glared at him.
I looked at Lena.
“If I go, what is my role?”
“Nothing heroic. You sit. You listen. You leave the moment I tell you.”
Dominic said, “She is not going.”
I turned back to him.
“I am.”
We stared at each other.
Then, slowly, he exhaled.
“Fine.”
I blinked.
That was easier than expected.
He pointed at me.
“But you wear a vest.”
“Fine.”
“You stay beside Marco.”
“Fine.”
“You do exactly what Lena says.”
“Fine.”
“If Mateo moves toward you—”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
His voice changed.
Fear.
Not control.
Fear.
“If he moves toward you, I will forget every promise I made about bodies.”
The room went quiet.
I stepped closer.
“Then don’t.”
His eyes searched mine.
“For me,” I said.
Something in him settled.
He nodded.
The boardroom at Vale Holdings occupied the forty-second floor.
Glass walls.
Chicago skyline.
A table long enough for sixteen people.
Before the elevator doors opened, Lena stopped me and adjusted the microphone hidden beneath my collar.
“If I say leave, you leave.”
“I heard you the first four times.”
“Five may save your life.”
Marco handed me a slim ballistic vest that fit beneath my blazer.
Dominic watched while I put it on.
His expression was terrible.
“You can still change your mind,” he said.
“So can you.”
“I cannot.”
“Then neither can I.”
“That logic is offensive.”
“So is your face right now.”
“What is wrong with my face?”
“You look like you’re deciding how many people you can fit into Lake Michigan.”
Marco muttered, “That is a specific face.”
Dominic glared at him.
I touched Dominic’s hand before the elevator opened.
“Remember.”
His eyes dropped to our hands.
“No bodies.”
He looked back at me.
“No bodies.”
The doors opened.
For once, I believed him before he proved it.
By eight that evening, twelve board members were seated.
Mateo arrived last.
Of course he did.
He wore charcoal gray.
No tie.
No visible weapon.
He smiled when he saw me.
“That is brave.”
Dominic stood beside me.
“No. Brave was believing you were family.”
Mateo’s smile thinned.
We sat.
The meeting began with lawyers arguing about voting authority.
Then Dominic placed copies of Daniel’s financial records on the table.
The room changed.
One board member swore.
Another pushed his chair back.
Mateo did not touch the papers.
“Fabricated.”
Dominic leaned back.
“Daniel found them in your private server.”
“My private server?”
“The one under Meridian Medical.”
Mateo’s eyes moved toward me.
There.
Tiny reaction.
Lena was listening through my earpiece.
Keep him talking.
I looked at Mateo.
“You used my hospital.”
He smiled.
“I supplied your hospital.”
“You tried to kill Daniel with potassium.”
“Did I?”
“You knew enough to send someone in scrubs.”
Mateo’s eyes sharpened.
“Careful, doctor.”
Dominic’s hand flattened on the table.
I touched his wrist.
Just once.
He looked at me.
Stayed seated.
Mateo noticed.
“You really did change him,” he said.
“I didn’t.”
I looked at Dominic.
“He changed himself.”
That seemed to anger Mateo more than any accusation.
“Do you know what he was before you?” Mateo asked me.
“Yes.”
“No, you know what he showed you.”
“That line worked on me once.”
His smile disappeared.
I continued.
“You gave me a package. You edited a recording. You made me believe Dominic killed my father.”
Several board members turned toward Mateo.
He leaned back.
“You cannot prove that.”
“Daniel did.”
I watched his face.
“Daniel recovered the original files.”
Mateo’s eyes changed.
There.
Lena’s voice came through my earpiece.
He did not know that.
I kept going.
“He also found Antonio Rivas’s payment.”
Mateo’s gaze flicked toward Dominic.
“Your brother always was too curious.”
Silence.
Dominic said quietly, “What did you say?”
Mateo realized the mistake.
Too late.
“You heard me.”
“You knew Daniel was investigating.”
“Everyone knew.”
“No,” Dominic said. “They didn’t.”
Mateo’s composure cracked.
“You think Daniel was some kind of hero? He was digging through things that kept this family alive.”
“My father warned me about your father.”
Mateo laughed.
“Victor was dying before Thomas Mercer ever touched him.”
I stopped breathing.
Dominic went still.
Mateo realized it too late.
He had just named my father in a context no one else had introduced.
I whispered, “You knew.”
Mateo looked at me.
For the first time, there was no charm left.
“Your father thought ethics made him untouchable.”
Rage burned through me.
“You had him killed.”
“He had choices.”
“He had a family.”
“So did mine.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
His voice hardened.
“My father built half of what Victor used to become king. Then Victor planned to cut him out.”
Dominic said, “So your father tried to kill mine.”
Mateo’s face twisted.
“And yours survived because her father interfered.”
There it was.
The truth.
Ugly.
Petty.
Generational.
My father had died because he saved a patient and refused to ignore what he discovered.
I felt tears in my eyes.
I refused to let them fall.
Dominic’s voice was deadly calm.
“And three years ago?”
Mateo looked at him.
“You were going to expose everything.”
“Yes.”
“You were going to dismantle the routes.”
“Yes.”
“You were going to turn the family into real estate developers and charity donors.”
“Yes.”
Mateo laughed.
“You were going to make us weak.”
“No,” Dominic said. “I was going to make us free.”
Mateo’s hand moved beneath the table.
Lena’s voice exploded in my earpiece.
Move!
Marco grabbed my chair.
Dominic lunged.
Mateo pulled a gun.
The first shot shattered the glass wall.
The second hit Dominic.
He staggered.
My world stopped.
“Dominic!”
Agents flooded the room.
Board members screamed and dropped to the floor.
Mateo grabbed me around the neck and pulled me backward.
The gun pressed against my ribs.
Dominic was on one knee.
Blood spread across his white shirt.
His eyes found mine.
Mateo shouted, “Back up!”
Agents froze.
Lena aimed her weapon.
“Let her go.”
Mateo dragged me toward the door.
I forced myself to breathe.
Surgeons do not panic.
Not when blood is everywhere.
Not when a heart stops.
Not when a gun is pressed to your body.
We assess.
We identify leverage.
We act.
Mateo’s grip around my neck was too high.
His right arm held the gun.
His balance was backward because he was pulling me.
I shifted my weight.
Then I drove my heel into his knee.
He shouted.
The gun moved.
Dominic lunged from the floor.
A shot fired.
Mateo fell.
Agents swarmed him.
I hit the carpet.
Then I crawled toward Dominic.
He collapsed against the boardroom table.
Blood soaked his side.
I tore open his shirt.
The entry wound was below the rib cage.
Not the heart.
But the blood was too fast.
“Call an ambulance!”
Someone said it was already coming.
Dominic looked at me.
His face was gray.
“Evie.”
“Don’t talk.”
“I kept the promise.”
“What promise?”
“No bodies.”
I almost laughed and cried at the same time.
“You are not allowed to die after making a joke that bad.”
His mouth moved.
Then his eyes closed.
I pressed both hands against the wound.
“Dominic!”
No response.
My husband’s blood covered my fingers.
And suddenly I was back at 1:17 A.M.
Another Vale bleeding beneath my hands.
May you like
Another heart I could not afford to lose.
Only this time, the man on the floor was the one I had spent three years trying not to love.
