Chapter 5 - The Price of a Name
Dominic did not shout.
That frightened Noah more than shouting would have.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” Dominic said.
Maria wiped tears from her face. “I turned around for one second. One second. A man came in wearing a maintenance jacket. He said the water line had burst behind the building. Sophie saw him, and then—”
“And then?”
“He took her.”
Claire made a sound that did not seem human.
Dominic caught her before she fell.
For one brief second, she pressed both hands against his chest, shaking violently.
Then she pushed away.
“Find her,” she whispered.
Dominic’s face became ice.
“I will.”
His phone rang.
Gabriel.
Dominic answered.
“Hello, nephew.”
“If she is harmed—”
“You will do nothing,” Gabriel interrupted. “You will bring me Vincent’s ledger.”
Dominic looked at Claire.
Gabriel continued, calm and almost amused.
“Midnight. The old Vale shipyard in East Boston. Alone.”
“She’s five years old.”
“And you are thirty-eight. Yet both of you are still your father’s weakness.”
The call ended.
Noah stepped close. “We can bring a team.”
“No.”
“Sir—”
“He expects that.”
“We can’t let you walk in alone.”
Dominic looked toward the broken Harbor House window.
For most of his life, he had solved problems with force. Men obeyed him because they feared what happened when they did not.
But this was Sophie.
And Claire.
And a child who had trusted him without knowing his name.
“Noah,” he said, “get every honest law-enforcement contact we have. Not the ones my father owned. The ones who wanted him in prison.”
Noah looked startled.
“You’re involving the police?”
“Yes.”
“That will expose us.”
Dominic met his eyes.
“Good.”
At eleven forty-five that night, Dominic drove alone toward the abandoned shipyard.
But he was not alone.
Claire sat in the passenger seat, wearing a bulletproof vest over her sweater.
“You’re not coming,” Dominic had told her.
“I am,” she had replied. “You can lock me in a room, handcuff me to a radiator, or have your men carry me out of the city. I’m still coming.”
He had believed her.
So he had given her a vest.
The ledger sat on the seat between them.
A black leather journal, worn at the corners.
Claire looked at it.
“All those names.”
“Yes.”
“Could it destroy your family?”
“It should.”
The shipyard rose from the dark waterfront like the skeleton of something enormous. Rusted cranes reached toward low clouds. Wind dragged salt across the empty docks.
Dominic parked.
“Noah’s people are in position,” he said.
Claire nodded.
“Is Sophie alive?”
Dominic looked at her.
“She will be.”
It was not certainty.
It was a vow.
Inside the main warehouse, Gabriel Vale stood beneath a hanging industrial lamp. Anthony Rusk stood beside him, holding Sophie in one arm.
She was awake.
Her eyes found Dominic immediately.
“Mr. Quiet,” she said softly.
Claire surged forward.
Rusk raised his gun.
Claire stopped.
Gabriel smiled.
“Family reunion.”
Dominic held up the ledger.
“Let her go.”
Gabriel laughed.
“Your father should have made you his heir sooner. You finally sound like him.”
“No,” Dominic said. “I sound like the man he should have been.”
Gabriel’s smile vanished.
For the first time, anger showed through.
“You think a few charity checks erase what Vincent Vale was?”
“No.”
“You think helping children makes you clean?”
“No.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
Dominic looked at Sophie.
“Because she deserves a life that has nothing to do with us.”
Gabriel nodded toward the ledger.
“Put it down.”
Dominic did.
“Kick it over.”
He did.
Gabriel bent to pick it up.
And that was when Sophie screamed.
Not in fear.
In defiance.
She bit Anthony Rusk’s hand.
Rusk cursed and loosened his grip.
Claire moved first.
She ran.
Dominic ran at the same time.
Gunfire exploded through the warehouse.
Dominic shoved Claire behind a steel support beam as bullets tore sparks from the concrete. Noah’s team entered from the east door. Federal agents came through the rear.
Gabriel grabbed the ledger and ran toward the docks.
Dominic followed him into the rain.
They faced each other at the end of the pier.
Gabriel held a gun in one hand and the ledger in the other.
“You would burn everything our family built?”
Dominic stepped closer.
“No. I would stop pretending it was worth saving.”
Gabriel raised the gun.
A shot cracked through the night.
Gabriel’s weapon flew from his hand.
He stared down at his bleeding shoulder.
Behind Dominic, Claire stood with Sophie wrapped tightly in her arms.
Noah had fired the shot.
Federal agents closed in.
Gabriel looked at Dominic one final time.
“You’ll die without the name.”
Dominic watched them put handcuffs on his uncle.
May you like
“Then I’ll learn how to live without it.”
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