Chapter 5 - The Mother Who Wasn't a Victim
Ramon returned to the hospital.
Elena was awake.
He closed the door behind him.
“You knew my father.”
Elena nodded.
“You knew my mother.”
Another nod.
“You knew the ledger.”
She looked away.
“You knew all of it.”
“I knew enough.”
“Then tell me.”
Elena looked at him.
“I was not just one of the children Gabriel rescued.”
Ramon waited.
“I was his partner.”
The words hit hard.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“You're the woman from the photographs.”
“Yes.”
“You helped him.”
“Yes.”
“Then why were you hanging from a tree?”
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
“Because I refused to tell them where the ledger was.”
Ramon stared.
“Who?”
“Clara.”
“And the people working for her?”
“Yes.”
“Why Lia?”
Elena took a deep breath.
“Because Lia was born carrying a piece of the truth.”
Ramon frowned.
“She's a child.”
“She memorized something.”
“What?”
“A name.”
“Whose name?”
Elena hesitated.
“Every person who helped the Black Thorn.”
Ramon stared.
“That is impossible.”
“No.”
“She can't remember hundreds of names.”
“She can.”
“How?”
Elena looked toward the door.
“Because Lia doesn't memorize the way other children do.”
Ramon remembered the little girl describing sounds she shouldn't have noticed.
“What are you saying?”
“She remembers voices.”
A cold feeling spread through him.
“She heard them when she was younger.”
“Yes.”
“They were talking around her.”
“Yes.”
“And she memorized them.”
“Yes.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“She remembers every conversation.”
Ramon understood.
Lia was not the key to a vault.
She was a living witness.
A child who had overheard the names of powerful people involved in the Black Thorn.
That was why they wanted her.
That was why Elena had been tortured.
“Where is the ledger?”
Elena smiled sadly.
“You already have it.”
Ramon frowned.
“What?”
She pointed toward his chest.
The black thorn pendant hung beneath his shirt.
Ramon pulled it free.
“You said this was the key.”
“It is.”
“To what?”
Elena reached out.
“Twist the center.”
He did.
The pendant opened.
Inside was a tiny rolled strip of paper.
Ramon unfolded it.
A series of numbers.
Coordinates.
He looked at Elena.
“Where?”
“The church.”
He left.
At the abandoned church, Ramon found the altar cracked.
He remembered being baptized there.
His father had stood beside him.
His mother had cried.
He never understood why.
Now he did.
Under the stone was a steel compartment.
Inside lay the ledger.
Hundreds of pages.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Photographs.
Bank accounts.
And one list at the end.
THE MEN WHO TOOK CONTROL OF THE BLACK THORN AFTER GABRIEL LEFT.
At the top was a name Ramon knew.
Mateo Alvarez.
His mother's doctor.
Second:
A federal judge.
Third:
The director of a major bank.
Fourth:
A senator.
And fifth:
Someone Ramon never expected.
Victor.
His own head of security.
Ramon stared at the name.
Victor had been with him for eleven years.
He had protected his life.
Protected Lia.
Protected Elena.
Or had he?
Ramon returned to the compound.
Victor was waiting.
“Boss.”
Ramon looked at him.
“How long?”
Victor's face changed.
Ramon drew his weapon.
“How long have you been working for them?”
Victor slowly lowered his hands.
“You don't understand.”
“I understand enough.”
“I protected you.”
“You sold my father.”
“No.”
“You sold Elena.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“I was seventeen.”
Ramon froze.
“What?”
“My sister was taken.”
Victor's voice broke.
“They told me if I didn't work for them, she would die.”
Ramon remembered Marcus-like stories.
Another man trapped by the same machine.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Victor hesitated.
“Under the Ortega estate.”
Ramon's blood ran cold.
The old family mansion.
The place he'd thought was empty for years.
He ordered the grounds searched.
They found a hidden bunker beneath the wine cellar.
Inside were five women.
Two children.
And one elderly woman.
Victor collapsed when he saw her.
“My sister.”
Ramon stared.
The Black Thorn hadn't merely infiltrated his family.
It had been living beneath it.
Then an alarm sounded.
Matteo ran in.
“Boss!”
“What?”
“Someone breached the west gate.”
“Who?”
Matteo's face was pale.
“Clara.”
Ramon looked toward the cameras.
Clara Voss walked through the compound.
Behind her were twenty armed men.
But she wasn't looking for him.
She was looking for Lia.
Ramon turned.
“Where is she?”
Matteo swallowed.
“She disappeared.”
“What?”
“She's gone.”
Ramon ran upstairs.
The room was empty.
The window was open.
On the bed lay one thing.
A note.
Written in a child's handwriting.
Daddy Ramon, don't be angry. I know where they took my mother.
Ramon stared.
May you like
Then beneath it:
I'm going to get her back.
