Chapter 5 - The Night Roman Chose Us Over His Empire
The first gunshot struck the basement door.
Marcus shoved me behind the concrete wall.
“Down!”
Roman drew a pistol from beneath his jacket.
I stared at him.
“You brought a gun?”
He looked at me as though I had asked whether water was wet.
Another bullet tore through wood.
Marcus fired back.
“Three shooters,” he said.
“How do you know?” I whispered.
“Sound.”
That answer did nothing for me.
Roman grabbed my hand.
“There’s another exit.”
“How do you know?”
“I grew up here.”
He pulled me toward the rear wall.
Marcus covered us while Roman kicked through a rotted wooden panel.
Behind it was a narrow service tunnel.
“Go.”
“What about Marcus?”
“He’ll follow.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
Marcus shouted, “Natalie, respectfully, this is not the moment to become difficult.”
Roman almost smiled.
“See?”
I crawled.
The tunnel opened near the old boathouse.
Rain had started again.
Apparently every major disaster in my life now required rain.
Roman followed.
Then Marcus emerged.
Blood ran down his arm.
“You’re hit.”
“Grazed.”
“I know what men say when they don’t want medical attention.”
Marcus looked at Roman.
“She has been here three days and already sounds like you.”
Roman ignored him.
A vehicle approached.
Marcus raised his weapon.
Then relaxed.
“Our team.”
We escaped.
But the message was clear.
Sebastian knew we had discovered Blackwater.
He knew about the drive.
And he knew Roman was getting closer to Luca.
When we returned to the estate, another crisis was waiting.
Leo was missing.
For approximately forty-seven seconds.
They were the longest forty-seven seconds of my life.
I ran screaming through Roman’s house while security locked every gate.
Then a housekeeper found Leo in the pantry.
He had gone looking for cookies.
I collapsed to my knees and held him so tightly he complained.
“Mom, I can’t breathe.”
“I don’t care.”
“That’s not nice.”
I laughed and cried at the same time.
Roman stood in the doorway.
He looked shaken.
Actually shaken.
Later, when Leo was asleep, I found Roman alone on the terrace.
“You thought he had been taken.”
“Yes.”
“So did I.”
“I know.”
“I can’t live like this.”
Roman stared toward the lake.
“You shouldn’t have to.”
“I want out.”
His shoulders tightened.
“Okay.”
The answer surprised me.
“What?”
“I’ll arrange new identities if you want. A house somewhere else. Enough money—”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“I’m not disappearing with your money.”
“Natalie—”
“I want this finished.”
“That is not the same as out.”
“My father died because he tried to stop Sebastian. Your brother disappeared doing the same thing. If Leo and I run, Sebastian keeps doing this to someone else.”
Roman said nothing.
“I’m afraid.”
“So am I.”
That admission shocked me.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Of what?”
He turned.
“Losing you.”
The world seemed to stop.
Roman immediately looked away.
But it was too late.
I had heard it.
Neither of us spoke.
I should have walked inside.
Instead, I stepped closer.
“You barely know me.”
“I know enough.”
“That’s not romantic.”
“I wasn’t trying to be.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
We stood inches apart.
It would have been easy.
Too easy.
Then Marcus opened the terrace door.
“We found Luca.”
Roman went completely still.
Alive.
Luca was alive.
He had been living under the name Luke Marino in northern Wisconsin.
Not hidden in luxury.
Not protected by Sebastian.
He worked repairing boat engines near Green Bay.
Roman refused to believe it until Marcus showed him a recent photograph.
Older.
Bearded.
Scar across one cheek.
But unmistakably Roman’s brother.
We left before dawn.
Luca was closing his workshop when Roman stepped from the SUV.
He dropped a wrench.
Neither brother moved.
Eleven years disappeared between them.
Roman’s voice cracked.
“Luca.”
Luca stared.
Then punched him.
Hard.
Roman fell against the SUV.
Marcus reached for his weapon.
I stopped him.
Roman wiped blood from his mouth.
“I deserved that?”
Luca hit him again.
Roman did not fight back.
“You buried me.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“You believed him.”
“I was twenty-three.”
“So was I.”
Roman grabbed Luca’s coat.
“I buried an empty coffin!”
Luca shoved him.
“I spent three years chained in a room your family owned!”
Roman froze.
“You think I knew?”
“I didn’t know what to think!”
Both men stood breathing hard.
Then something broke.
Luca hugged him.
Roman held his brother like a drowning man.
I looked away.
Some moments did not belong to outsiders.
Later, Luca told us everything.
He and my father discovered Sebastian had been expanding the organization into narcotics and trafficking without Roman’s father knowing.
They collected evidence.
Sebastian found out.
Luca tried to flee.
His car was switched.
Another body was placed inside.
Luca was imprisoned at Blackwater.
My father was murdered.
Three years later, Luca escaped during a storm and disappeared.
“Why didn’t you contact Roman?”
Luca looked at his brother.
“Because Sebastian sent me proof Roman had taken over the organization.”
Roman understood.
“He made you think I became him.”
“Yes.”
Luca swallowed.
“I thought if I came back, you’d kill me.”
Roman looked devastated.
Sebastian had not merely imprisoned Luca.
He had stolen eleven years between brothers.
“What does he want now?” I asked.
Luca looked at me.
“The ledger.”
“We have it.”
“No. You have Daniel’s copy.”
My heart dropped.
“What does that mean?”
“There’s another.”
Roman leaned forward.
“Where?”
“Your father kept the original.”
Roman frowned.
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then where is it?”
Luca stared at him.
“In his coffin.”
Silence.
I genuinely thought he was joking.
He wasn’t.
Roman’s father had apparently discovered Sebastian’s betrayal near the end of his life.
Too late to act openly.
He hid the master ledger inside a false compartment beneath his coffin lining.
“How do you know?” Roman asked.
“Your mother told me.”
Roman stopped breathing.
“You saw her?”
“Once. Before she died.”
Roman looked as though he had been stabbed again.
“She knew you were alive?”
“She helped me escape.”
Roman sat down.
His mother had carried that secret to her grave to protect Luca from Sebastian.
The original ledger could destroy everything Sebastian had built.
It could also destroy much of the DeLuca empire.
Legitimate companies had been funded with illegal money decades earlier.
Government seizures.
Investigations.
Bankruptcy.
Roman could lose billions.
Marcus said it aloud.
“If we turn that ledger over, DeLuca Holdings may collapse.”
Roman looked at me.
I understood what he was being asked to choose.
His empire.
Or the truth.
“Don’t look at me,” I said.
“Why?”
“Because this has to be your decision.”
He was silent.
Then Leo wandered into the room holding a juice box.
Luca stared at him.
“Who’s the kid?”
“My son,” I said.
Leo walked toward Roman.
“Can you open this?”
Roman took the juice box.
Something about the simplicity of it changed his expression.
He inserted the straw.
Handed it back.
Leo smiled.
“Thanks.”
Roman watched him walk away.
Then he looked at Luca.
“Open the grave.”
Marcus blinked.
“Roman.”
“All of it.”
“You could lose the companies.”
“Then I lose them.”
“The houses.”
“Fine.”
“The money.”
“I have enough.”
Luca stared at his brother.
Roman’s voice became steady.
“Our father built an empire by convincing himself that protecting the family justified everything.”
He looked toward me.
“I am not making the same mistake.”
We retrieved the ledger the next night.
Roman stood beside his father’s open grave while workers lifted the coffin.
He did not look away.
Neither did Luca.
Inside the false compartment were three books.
Names.
Payments.
Murders.
Judges.
Police.
Politicians.
Sebastian.
Everything.
Roman called a federal prosecutor whose name did not appear anywhere in the records.
He arranged to surrender the evidence.
For twelve hours, it seemed like we might actually win.
Then Sebastian called.
Roman answered on speaker.
“Nephew.”
Roman’s face turned cold.
“You are not my uncle.”
Sebastian laughed softly.
“I was more of a father to you than your father ever was.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“You became sentimental.”
“You killed Daniel Brooks.”
“A necessary correction.”
My hands clenched.
Roman looked at me.
Then Sebastian said:
“Before you deliver those books, you should check on the boy.”
My blood stopped.
I ran upstairs.
Leo’s room was empty.
Window open.
One security guard lay unconscious outside.
On Leo’s pillow sat his dinosaur.
And a black phone.
It rang.
I answered.
Sebastian’s voice filled the room.
“Bring me the original ledger by midnight.”
I could not breathe.
“If you hurt my son—”
“Mrs. Brooks, I have survived forty years because I never threaten what I am unwilling to destroy.”
Roman took the phone.
“If you touch him, there will be nowhere on earth—”
Sebastian laughed.
“Midnight. The old shipping terminal.”
The call ended.
Roman stared at the phone.
Marcus whispered, “If we give him the ledger, we lose everything.”
Roman looked at me.
May you like
He did not hesitate.
“Then we lose everything.”
