Chapter 4 - The Child Knew the Secret Location No Adult Could Find
Damon drove through Chicago like a man with nothing left to lose.
Marcus sat beside him.
Selena held Ruby's rabbit in the back seat.
Marco had insisted on coming.
Damon almost told him no.
Then he remembered Marco had just risked everything to expose Elias.
Trust came slowly.
But tonight, he needed every ally he could find.
“What's the song?” Damon asked Selena.
She hesitated.
“Ruby learned it when she was two.”
“Sing it.”
Selena did.
“One house.
Two lights.
Three doors.
Four steps.
Five windows.”
Damon frowned.
“That's it?”
“No.”
“There are more numbers.”
She continued.
“Six trees.
Seven stones.
Eight steps down.
Nine turns left.
Ten for Daddy.”
Marcus looked at Damon.
“That isn't a song.”
“No.”
“It is a map.”
Damon understood.
Ten steps.
Something underground.
They traced the pattern to an abandoned property in Lakeview that had once belonged to Damon’s father.
The house had been empty for years.
Damon remembered it.
His father used it for private meetings.
They entered through the back.
No furniture.
No power.
Nothing obvious.
Then Ruby's song gave them the path.
Six trees outside.
Seven stones near the foundation.
Eight steps down.
Behind a false wall they found a staircase.
Nine turns left.
At the bottom stood a steel door.
Damon opened it.
Inside was a man tied to a chair.
Alive.
Thin.
Bruised.
Gray at the temples.
“Daddy!”
Ruby's voice echoed from behind them.
Damon spun.
She was standing in the doorway.
Selena screamed.
“Ruby!”
She ran forward.
Gabriel lifted his head.
“Selena?”
Damon stared.
The man who had supposedly betrayed his family was alive.
Very much alive.
Gabriel looked at Damon.
“I'm sorry.”
Damon walked toward him.
For six years, he had imagined killing this man.
Now he could barely speak.
“You were alive.”
Gabriel nodded.
“I tried to come back.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because Victor would kill everyone.”
“Your daughter.”
“Especially her.”
Damon's voice broke through his control.
“You let me believe you betrayed my father.”
“I had no choice.”
“You had six years.”
“I spent six years trying to make sure Ruby stayed alive.”
Damon looked at the child.
She ran to Gabriel.
He held her.
The reunion broke something inside Damon.
Gabriel kissed Ruby's hair.
“Daddy missed you.”
“I told Uncle Damon.”
Gabriel looked at Damon.
“You trusted him.”
Ruby nodded.
“He's the good man.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“I knew she would find you.”
Damon crouched.
“What exactly did you hide?”
Gabriel looked at him.
“The ledger was never the target.”
“What?”
“The ledger is only proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“Who controls the Delgato network.”
Damon waited.
“It isn't Victor.”
“Then who?”
Gabriel looked toward Selena.
“Your uncle.”
Damon went still.
“My uncle is dead.”
“No.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“He staged his death.”
The underground room seemed to become smaller.
“Who?”
Gabriel gave him the name.
“Rafael Reyes.”
Damon's blood ran cold.
His father's younger brother.
The man Damon had mourned as a child.
The man supposedly killed in a motorcycle accident fifteen years earlier.
The man who had been buried.
The man whose photograph still hung in the Reyes estate.
“He’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
Gabriel explained.
Rafael had secretly built alliances with the Delgatos.
He manipulated Victor.
He betrayed Damon's father.
He arranged the warehouse explosion.
He framed Gabriel.
And then he disappeared.
But he had one problem.
The ledger.
Gabriel had hidden the original ledger.
Rafael had never found it.
“He needs Ruby,” Gabriel said.
“Why?”
“Because your father hid the final key in the one person Rafael would never suspect.”
Damon looked at Ruby.
“What key?”
Gabriel smiled sadly.
“Her name.”
Damon frowned.
“Her name?”
“Ruby Castillo.”
Gabriel reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a photograph.
On the back was a sequence of letters and numbers.
Damon recognized the pattern.
It matched the vault system.
“Her birth certificate number?”
“No.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“It's an encryption key.”
Ruby's legal identity had been deliberately constructed to protect the ledger.
Her middle name.
Her birth date.
Her mother's maiden name.
Together they formed the code.
Damon understood why they wanted her.
They didn't need to hurt her.
They needed access.
“We have to move.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Rafael already knows we're here.”
The lights went out.
Damon drew his weapon.
Gunfire erupted from the stairwell.
Marcus pushed Selena behind cover.
Marco returned fire.
Gabriel grabbed Ruby.
Damon shouted,
“Back exit!”
They moved through the underground tunnel.
Bullets struck concrete behind them.
Damon reached a steel door.
It was locked.
Ruby suddenly pointed.
“Seven.”
Damon looked at the keypad.
He entered seven.
Nothing.
“Eight.”
He entered eight.
The door unlocked.
They escaped into an alley.
Snow fell heavily.
A convoy waited.
Damon froze.
The vehicles were Reyes security cars.
His own people.
One man stepped forward.
“Boss.”
Damon recognized him.
Jonathan Pierce.
His head of transportation.
Jonathan smiled.
“Welcome home.”
Damon's instincts screamed.
Something was wrong.
He raised his weapon.
Jonathan raised his.
Then everything exploded into chaos.
Gunfire.
Shouting.
Car doors.
Marcus pulled Damon behind cover.
Gabriel shielded Ruby.
Marco fired toward Jonathan.
Jonathan vanished into the snow.
Damon looked at Gabriel.
“You knew this would happen.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
“I knew Rafael was close.”
Damon looked toward the city.
“Then we stop running.”
Gabriel nodded.
“You're finally ready.”
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“For what?”
“To finish your father's war.”
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