Chapter 6 - The Price of Secrets
The hours in the dark passed with agonizing slowness.
Lily eventually fell asleep,
her breathing the only rhythmic sound in the stone chamber.
I paced the floor,
my mind replaying every moment I had spent with Caleb.
I thought about the night he had been so quiet,
staring at the ultrasound of Lily.
He had known even then that his time was limited.
Around 3 AM,
a sudden,
muffled thud echoed from the stairs.
My heart stopped.
It wasn't the sound of footsteps.
It was the sound of something heavy hitting the floor.
I grabbed a heavy iron candle holder from the table,
my hands shaking violently.
“Roman?”
I whispered,
my voice lost in the shadows.
The heavy iron door of the chamber creaked open.
A figure slumped into the room,
coughing and gasping for air.
It was Roman,
but he was covered in blood,
his suit jacket shredded.
In his hand,
he clutched a small,
metal box.
“I got it,”
he wheezed,
collapsing against the wall.
I ran to him,
dropping the candle holder.
“You’re hurt!”
“It’s not mine,”
he grunted,
though his face was pale.
“They were waiting at the shop.”
“But I wasn't alone.”
He opened the box,
revealing a thick,
leather-bound book filled with names,
dates,
and bank accounts.
“This is it.”
“The Syndicate’s entire soul,
captured in ink.”
But as I looked at the book,
a piece of paper fell out.
It was a handwritten note,
the ink smudged by time.
Roman,
if you’re reading this,
you finally found the shop.
I’m sorry I couldn't be the brother you wanted.
But I had to be the man they needed.
They’re holding me at the Pilsen warehouse.
They don't know I have the ledger,
they think I lost it in the river.
Hurry,
brother.
I can't hold out much longer.
The room went cold.
Caleb was alive.
Seventeen months of grief,
seventeen months of thinking he was a ghost,
and he was just miles away,
being tortured for a secret he had already hidden.
Roman looked at the note,
his eyes filling with a raw,
unfiltered agony.
“He’s alive,”
he whispered,
his voice breaking.
“He’s been alive this whole time,
and I didn't know.”
He stood up,
his injuries forgotten,
his body fueled by a new,
deadly purpose.
“Maya,
take Lily and the ledger.”
“Get to the safe room at the back of the cathedral.”
“I’m going to get my brother.”
“You can't go alone!”
I cried,
grabbing his arm.
“It’s a trap,
Roman!”
“I don't care,”
he growled,
shaking me off.
“He’s my brother.”
“And I’m a Callahan.”
“We don't leave our own behind.”
He turned and ran back up the stairs,
the sound of his boots echoing like thunder in the stone halls.
I stood there,
May you like
clutching the ledger to my chest,
watching the man I feared go to save the man I loved.
