Chapter 3 - The Brother's Secret
Marco laughed.
It wasn't amusement.
It was disbelief.
“You cannot possibly believe that.”
Adrian remained motionless.
Gabriel held the phone.
“Luca said Marco?”
“He said the order came from Mr. Moretti's office.”
Marco spread his hands.
“We both are Mr. Moretti.”
“He specified you.”
Sofia stepped between the brothers.
“Stop.”
Marco stared at Adrian.
“You think I tried to kill you?”
“I haven't said anything.”
“You didn't have to.”
Adrian picked up the photograph.
“Someone knew about the harbor meeting. Someone knew Harper's address. Someone sent a man to her door claiming my brother wanted me home.”
Marco's face tightened.
“That proves nothing.”
“No.”
Adrian slipped the photograph into his coat.
“But it gives me questions.”
Harper watched them.
Whatever affection existed between the brothers had years of resentment buried beneath it.
Marco poured another drink.
“Go see Luca.”
“I intend to.”
Adrian turned toward Harper.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
His expression suggested the matter was closed.
Harper disagreed.
“Someone photographed me helping you. Someone knows my name. I'm not sitting in this house while everyone whispers around me.”
“It's safer.”
“You told me my apartment was safe until it wasn't.”
“I never said it was safe.”
“Exactly.”
Marco unexpectedly smiled.
“I like her.”
Adrian gave him a look that erased the smile.
Harper folded her arms.
“I'm coming.”
Twenty minutes later, she sat beside Adrian in the back of an armored SUV.
Gabriel drove.
Two additional vehicles followed.
Harper looked at the convoy.
“This is normal for you?”
“No.”
“What is normal?”
“Less complicated.”
“Your definition of complicated includes attempted murder?”
Adrian glanced at her.
“Usually business meetings are worse.”
Harper almost smiled.
Then she remembered where they were going.
Luca Ferraro was under police guard at Massachusetts General.
He had been found unconscious inside an abandoned warehouse.
Detective Mercer met them outside the room.
“You shouldn't be here.”
Adrian walked past him.
Mercer blocked the door.
“Luca is a witness.”
“He's my friend.”
“He's also terrified.”
Adrian stopped.
“Of Marco?”
Mercer studied him.
“That's what he claims.”
Harper noticed something.
“You don't believe him.”
Mercer looked at her.
“I believe people say many things when they're afraid.”
Adrian entered.
Luca looked terrible.
Bandages covered his forehead and one arm.
When he saw Adrian, tears filled his eyes.
“I thought you died.”
“So did everyone else.”
Luca looked toward Harper.
“Who is she?”
“The reason I didn't.”
Adrian pulled a chair closer.
“Tell me what happened.”
Luca swallowed.
“The harbor meeting was fake.”
Adrian's expression sharpened.
“What?”
“The buyer never existed.”
“You arranged it.”
“I arranged what I was told to arrange.”
“By whom?”
Luca looked toward the door.
“Marco.”
Harper watched Adrian carefully.
He showed almost nothing.
“Continue.”
“Marco said there was a shipment problem. He told me to get you to Pier Nine at midnight.”
“You didn't question it?”
“He's your brother.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“What happened after the shooting?”
“I ran.”
“You left me.”
Shame crossed Luca's face.
“I thought you were dead.”
“Who fired?”
“Men I didn't recognize.”
“Who paid them?”
“I don't know.”
“Then you don't know Marco ordered it.”
Luca hesitated.
“No.”
Adrian stood.
“Someone used him.”
“Adrian—”
“Think.”
Luca stared.
“Who else knew Marco gave you the instructions?”
Luca's face slowly changed.
“Sofia.”
Harper felt the room become colder.
Adrian didn't move.
“Why?”
“She was there when he called me.”
Adrian walked out.
Harper followed.
In the hallway, he stopped.
For the first time since she had met him, Adrian looked genuinely shaken.
“Sofia?” Harper asked.
“She was engaged to me.”
Harper blinked.
“Was?”
“Until three months ago.”
“What happened?”
“My father died.”
“That ended your engagement?”
“No.”
Adrian looked through the hospital window at the gray city.
“My father's death changed me. I discovered things about the family I couldn't ignore anymore.”
“What things?”
“Businesses that weren't businesses. People being hurt because someone owed money. Politicians being paid. Police being bought.”
Harper thought about Mercer.
“You wanted out.”
“I wanted the organization legitimate.”
“And Sofia?”
“She thought I was destroying everything my father built.”
Harper understood.
“Marco agreed with her.”
“Yes.”
“So your brother and former fiancée are on the same side.”
“Politically, yes.”
“That's not a comforting sentence when your family politics involve bullets.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You should never have brought me upstairs.”
Harper's voice softened.
“You would have died.”
“Maybe that would have been simpler.”
“For whom?”
Adrian didn't answer.
They returned to the mansion after dark.
Sofia was gone.
Marco claimed she had driven into Boston.
Adrian immediately ordered Gabriel to locate her.
Harper wandered through the library while Adrian met privately with his security team.
Books covered three walls.
On the fourth stood photographs.
Adrian as a child.
Marco beside him.
Vittorio Moretti behind them.
Another photograph showed Adrian at perhaps twenty, smiling in a way Harper had never seen.
Beside him stood a woman.
Not Sofia.
Harper heard footsteps.
Marco entered.
“My mother,” he said.
Harper looked at the photograph.
“She was beautiful.”
“She was.”
“What happened?”
“Car accident.”
Harper looked at him.
Marco poured a drink from the library bar.
“You think I'm trying to kill my brother.”
“I don't know you.”
“Neither does Adrian anymore.”
“That's an interesting defense.”
Marco smiled bitterly.
“Adrian sees betrayal everywhere.”
“Someone shot him.”
“And therefore I did it?”
“I didn't say that.”
“You didn't have to.”
Same words he'd used earlier.
Marco sat.
“Our father spent forty years building something powerful. Not all of it was legal. I won't insult you by pretending otherwise.”
Harper remained silent.
“Adrian returned after Father's death and decided he could clean everything overnight. End relationships. Close businesses. Return money. Cooperate quietly with investigators.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
“To you.”
“To most people.”
Marco laughed.
“You don't understand our world.”
“No. And I don't want to.”
Marco studied her.
“That is precisely why Adrian likes you.”
Harper's heart stumbled.
“He doesn't like me.”
“He brought you here.”
“Because somebody threatened me.”
“He could have put you in a hotel with guards.”
Harper didn't answer.
Marco stood.
“Be careful.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No.”
His expression became unexpectedly serious.
“Adrian has enemies he doesn't understand yet.”
“Do you?”
Marco looked toward the doorway.
“I understand one thing. Whoever attacked him wanted the family to turn against itself.”
Harper remembered Luca.
“Then why would Luca accuse you?”
“Because somebody wanted him to.”
Before Harper could ask more, a crash echoed upstairs.
They ran.
Adrian's bedroom door stood open.
A guard lay unconscious in the corridor.
Gabriel rushed inside.
The room was empty.
Window open.
Curtains moving in the freezing air.
Adrian had disappeared.
Harper ran toward the window.
A black car sped away from the rear of the estate.
“Adrian!”
Gabriel grabbed his phone.
Marco shouted for security.
Then Harper noticed something on the floor.
Adrian's phone.
The screen was cracked.
A message remained open.
COME ALONE OR HARPER DIES.
Harper stared.
“They used me.”
Marco read it.
His face hardened.
“To get Adrian out of the house.”
Gabriel asked, “Who sent it?”
Harper looked at the number.
Unknown.
Then another message arrived.
Not on Adrian's phone.
On hers.
A photograph.
Adrian sat inside a dark room, his hands restrained.
Behind him stood Sofia.
Harper's breath stopped.
May you like
Beneath the photograph were four words.
YOU SAVED THE WRONG MAN.
