Z

I stared at Ethan’s phone long after the call disconnected.

Mason knew.

The man my sister was supposed to marry had known something about our father’s death.

Maybe for years.

Maybe from the beginning.

Ethan took the phone gently from my hand.

“We need to move.”

“I need to find Elena.”

“We will.”

“You keep saying that.”

“Because running blindly toward Victor gets you killed.”

“You don’t understand.”

His eyes hardened.

“I understand better than you think.”

We returned to the hotel through an underground entrance.

I ran straight to Sophie.

She was asleep on Nora’s chest.

The sight almost broke me.

For the first time that morning, something in the world still looked peaceful.

I took Sophie and held her so tightly she stirred.

“Easy,” Nora murmured.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for loving your child.”

My eyes filled.

Ethan stood in the doorway.

For a man people called the King of Chicago, he suddenly looked almost uncomfortable watching me cry.

Nora noticed.

“Ethan.”

“What?”

“Tea.”

“I don’t want tea.”

“It isn’t for you.”

He stared at her.

She stared back.

Thirty seconds later, Ethan Callahan was making me tea.

That should not have been funny.

It was.

A tired laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

Ethan looked over.

“Something amusing?”

“You.”

“Making tea?”

“The terrifying crime boss making chamomile.”

“I own restaurants.”

“That isn’t the same thing.”

“No.”

His mouth almost curved.

Then his phone buzzed, and the warmth disappeared.

Mason had been found.

He had made it three blocks from Union Station before Ethan’s men cornered him.

They brought him to one of Ethan’s offices.

I insisted on going.

Sophie stayed with Nora this time.

I hated it less because Sophie smiled when Nora made ridiculous duck noises.

Mason sat at a conference table when we arrived.

His face had been cleaned.

The blood on his shirt wasn’t his.

That scared me.

I walked directly to him.

“Where is my sister?”

“Rachel—”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

I slapped him.

Hard.

Nobody stopped me.

Mason touched his cheek.

“I deserved that.”

“You deserve worse.”

Ethan remained near the door.

Silent.

Watching.

Mason looked exhausted.

“I love Elena.”

“You kidnapped her?”

“No.”

“You worked with the man who did.”

“I worked for Victor because my father forced me to.”

“You’re thirty-four years old.”

“I was seventeen when this started.”

“So was Elena when Dad died.”

That shut him up.

I placed the photograph from the locker on the table.

“Tell me everything.”

Mason stared at his father’s face.

Then he broke.

Robert Reed and Victor Sloane had spent two decades using Callahan-owned construction contracts to launder money.

Judge Halpern arranged property auctions.

Robert purchased buildings cheaply.

Victor moved cash through renovations that never happened.

Dad discovered it while reconciling accounts.

Patrick Callahan discovered the fraud shortly afterward.

He wanted it stopped.

Victor learned Dad planned to cooperate with federal investigators.

Robert arranged the crash.

Mason heard them discussing it.

He was seventeen.

He said nothing.

“Why?” I asked.

“My father told me they’d kill my mother.”

“So you let them kill mine?”

“I was a kid.”

“My father was a father.”

Mason looked down.

“I know.”

“And Elena?”

“I told her six months ago.”

Everything made sense.

The sudden wedding.

Elena’s panic.

The call.

She hadn’t invited me because she wanted reconciliation.

She had invited me because she knew the truth had finally come back.

“She wanted the ledger,” Mason said.

“Why?”

“To give it to federal investigators.”

“Then why the wedding?”

“Cover.”

I stared.

“Elena was going to marry you as cover?”

“No. We really were going to get married.”

He laughed bitterly.

“Believe it or not, people can be terrible and still love someone.”

I glanced toward Ethan.

His face revealed nothing.

“What happened last night?” Ethan asked.

Mason swallowed.

“My father called.”

“Robert?”

“Yes.”

“He said Victor knew Elena had the key.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where is Robert?”

Mason hesitated.

Ethan took one step closer.

I finally understood why grown men feared him.

He didn’t threaten.

He didn’t shout.

He simply looked at people as though whatever protection they thought existed around them was imaginary.

“Where is your father?”

“Old Lakeshore meatpacking plant.”

Ethan’s men immediately moved.

Mason stood.

“If you go there, Victor will know.”

“Victor already knows.”

“He has Elena.”

“And that’s the only reason he’s still breathing.”

Mason looked at me.

“There’s something else.”

Of course there was.

“There’s always something else.”

“Your father didn’t die immediately.”

The room went silent.

My stomach turned.

“What?”

Mason looked sick.

“The crash didn’t kill him.”

I gripped the back of a chair.

“He was alive?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“I don’t know. Maybe twenty minutes.”

“And?”

“My father went down to the wreck.”

I wanted him to stop.

I needed him to continue.

“He found Gabriel alive.”

Mason’s eyes filled.

“And he finished it.”

I closed my eyes.

Eleven years of believing Dad died alone in a drunk-driving accident disappeared.

In their place came something worse.

He had survived.

He had been conscious.

Someone had looked him in the eyes and decided he still needed to die.

I didn’t realize Ethan had crossed the room until his hand steadied my elbow.

This time, I didn’t pull away.

“Why tell me now?” I asked Mason.

“Because Elena made me promise that if anything happened to her, you’d know.”

“You don’t get to make promises to my sister.”

“I know.”

His voice cracked.

“I know.”

Then every light in the building went out.

Darkness.

Someone shouted.

Ethan grabbed me and pulled me behind the conference table.

Gunfire erupted in the hallway.

Three deafening shots.

Then silence.

My ears rang.

Ethan’s arm remained across my shoulders.

“Stay down.”

“What about Sophie?”

“She’s nowhere near here.”

A red emergency light flickered on.

One of Ethan’s men appeared.

“Boss.”

“What?”

“Perimeter breach.”

“Victor?”

“Not Victor.”

The guard looked toward Mason.

“It’s Robert Reed.”

Mason went white.

“My father?”

Another gunshot sounded downstairs.

Then a speaker crackled overhead.

An old man’s voice filled the office.

“Mason.”

Mason closed his eyes.

Robert Reed continued.

“You disappoint me.”

Ethan reached inside his coat.

But Robert wasn’t finished.

“And Rachel Morales?”

My blood froze.

“I should have dealt with both daughters eleven years ago.”