CHAPTER 2 THE MAN WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD
The knocking came again.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Dominic Vale stood perfectly still.
His gun remained raised.
Across the underground room, Nathan Cross looked like a man waiting for a sentence.
Dominic slowly turned toward him.
“You said I had no brother.”
Nathan didn't answer.
“You said my parents had one child.”
Nothing.
“You said my father died without leaving another heir.”
Nathan's lips parted.
“Dom…”
“Don't call me that.”
The words cut through the room.
Nathan lowered his eyes.
Dominic pointed toward the hidden door.
“Open it.”
Nathan shook his head.
“You don't understand what is behind there.”
“Then help me understand.”
“I can't.”
Dominic's expression became colder.
“You've lied to me for seventeen years.”
“I was protecting you.”
“No.”
Dominic took another step forward.
“You were protecting yourself.”
Nathan looked up.
For a moment, neither man moved.
Then another knock came from behind the door.
This time it was louder.
BANG.
Harper's voice suddenly echoed in Dominic's memory.
Mommy always says goodbye.
His stomach tightened.
He had spent years believing his estate was the safest place in the city.
He had surrounded it with armed guards, cameras, biometric locks, reinforced gates and underground security rooms.
Yet someone had been living beneath his feet.
Someone had been watching his family.
Someone had photographed Harper.
Someone had kept records on him.
And Nathan had known.
Dominic reached for the door handle.
Nathan grabbed his arm.
“Don't.”
Dominic looked down at Nathan's hand.
Then at his face.
“Take your hand off me.”
Nathan released him.
“There's a reason that door stays closed.”
“What's the reason?”
“Because your father ordered it.”
Dominic froze.
“My father?”
Nathan nodded.
“Your father knew about Elias.”
The name seemed to poison the air.
Dominic had spent most of his life trying to understand the man who raised him.
Victor Vale had been ruthless.
Brilliant.
Cold.
A man whose reputation had frightened politicians and criminals alike.
Victor had died when Dominic was twenty-six.
A heart attack, according to every document.
A clean death.
A simple death.
But Dominic suddenly wondered how much of that story had been fabricated.
“What happened to Elias?”
Nathan looked at the door.
“He was fifteen.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“Fifteen?”
“When your father discovered him.”
“Discovered him where?”
Nathan hesitated.
“In the old eastern property.”
Dominic's mind raced.
His father had owned dozens of properties.
Factories.
Warehouses.
Safe houses.
Hotels.
But there was one place Dominic had been forbidden to enter as a child.
A house outside the city.
He had always assumed it was abandoned.
“Why would my father hide his own son?”
Nathan's voice dropped.
“Because Elias wasn't supposed to exist.”
Dominic stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Nathan swallowed.
“Your mother didn't give birth to him.”
Silence.
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“Then who did?”
Nathan didn't answer.
Dominic shoved the door open.
It didn't move.
Locked from the other side.
His jaw tightened.
“Move.”
Nathan stepped back.
Dominic kicked the steel door.
Nothing.
He kicked again.
The frame groaned.
“Dom, stop.”
Dominic kicked a third time.
The lock cracked.
A fourth kick sent the door flying inward.
Darkness swallowed the hallway.
Dominic raised his weapon.
“Elias!”
No answer.
He stepped inside.
The corridor was narrow.
Concrete walls.
Exposed pipes.
A single light flickering overhead.
Every few feet, there were old surveillance cameras.
Most were dead.
One wasn't.
Its red light was blinking.
Dominic stopped beneath it.
Someone was watching.
He raised his gun and fired.
The camera exploded.
Nathan whispered:
“He knows you're here.”
Dominic turned.
“Who?”
Before Nathan could answer, every light in the corridor switched on.
One after another.
Then the final door at the end opened.
A man's voice came through the darkness.
“You finally came looking for me.”
Dominic froze.
The voice was calm.
Almost amused.
A figure stepped into the light.
Tall.
Thin.
Dark hair.
A scar ran from his left temple down toward his cheek.
He wore black trousers and a white shirt.
No shoes.
No weapon.
But there was something in his eyes that made Dominic lower his gun by half an inch.
The stranger looked exactly like him.
Not similar.
Not vaguely related.
Exactly.
The same jaw.
The same eyes.
The same expression.
Even the same small scar above the right eyebrow.
Dominic stared.
The stranger smiled.
“Hello, little brother.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Dominic couldn't breathe.
“You're Elias.”
“I was wondering how long it would take.”
Dominic raised the gun again.
“Stay where you are.”
Elias laughed quietly.
“Still pointing guns before asking questions.”
“You know who I am.”
“I know everything about you.”
“Then you know what happens when someone threatens my family.”
Elias's smile disappeared.
“I never threatened your family.”
“You watched Harper.”
“I protected Harper.”
“You locked Mia in that cellar.”
“No.”
Elias looked toward Nathan.
“Nathan did.”
Dominic slowly turned.
Nathan's face was expressionless.
“Is that true?”
Nathan didn't answer.
Elias stepped closer.
“You think Nathan betrayed you tonight.”
Dominic kept his gun trained on him.
“He did.”
Elias shook his head.
“No.”
A pause.
“He betrayed you seventeen years ago.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“What happened seventeen years ago?”
Elias looked at him.
“Your father's death.”
The words struck harder than a bullet.
“My father died of a heart attack.”
“That is what they told you.”
“Who is they?”
Elias smiled bitterly.
“Everyone you trusted.”
Dominic's grip tightened.
“My mother?”
Elias didn't answer.
“Was she involved?”
Still nothing.
“Answer me.”
Elias looked toward the ceiling.
“Your mother tried to save me.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“From what?”
“From your father.”
The room went silent.
Elias walked toward an old table.
He picked up a photograph.
Then handed it to Dominic.
Dominic stared at it.
The photograph showed Victor Vale standing beside a young boy.
Elias.
But there was another person in the picture.
A teenage girl.
Dominic recognized her immediately.
His mother.
But she wasn't smiling.
She was crying.
On the back of the photograph was a date.
August 17, 2009.
Dominic's eyes widened.
“That was three weeks before my father died.”
“Yes.”
“What happened that night?”
Elias looked directly into his eyes.
“I disappeared.”
Dominic looked at Nathan.
“And you helped him.”
Nathan finally spoke.
“I had no choice.”
Dominic laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“No choice?”
Nathan stepped forward.
“Your father gave me an order.”
“What order?”
“To make sure Elias never came back.”
Dominic's face went cold.
“You obeyed.”
“I was twenty-four.”
“You still obeyed.”
Nathan's eyes filled with regret.
“I thought I was saving you.”
“From my own brother?”
“From what he knew.”
Dominic turned toward Elias.
“What did you know?”
Elias stared at him for several seconds.
Then he said:
“Your father didn't die.”
Dominic's heart stopped.
“What?”
“Victor Vale survived the heart attack.”
Nathan suddenly moved.
“Elias.”
Elias ignored him.
“He survived.”
Dominic's voice dropped.
“Then where is he?”
Elias looked toward the floor.
“That's the question I've been trying to answer for seventeen years.”
A sudden alarm screamed through the underground room.
Red lights flashed.
Nathan pulled out his weapon.
Dominic spun toward the corridor.
“What happened?”
Nathan looked at the security monitor.
His face drained of color.
“Someone breached the eastern gate.”
“How many?”
Nathan stared at the screen.
“Thirty.”
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“Police?”
Nathan shook his head.
“No.”
“Whose men?”
Nathan zoomed in.
A convoy of black SUVs was moving through the estate.
Dominic recognized the symbol painted on the first vehicle.
A silver crown.
His blood ran cold.
Elias whispered:
“They found you.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Who?”
Elias's expression became deadly serious.
“The men who killed your father.”
Then every phone in the underground room began ringing at the same time.
Dominic's.
Nathan's.
Elias's.
And from upstairs, Harper's small voice suddenly screamed:
“MR. VALE!”
Dominic ran toward the stairs.
But before he reached them, the entire estate went dark.
And in the darkness…
A woman's voice came through the security speakers.
Claire.
“Dominic…”
A pause.
“Come upstairs.”
May you like
Her voice trembled.
“Your daughter is with me.”
