Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF A NAME
The gunshot echoed like a cannon blast inside the rusted warehouse.
Gabriel didn't shoot Isabella. He shot the gun right out of her hand.
Isabella screamed, dropping to her knees as the weapon skittered across the concrete.
Chaos erupted.
"Up there! On the catwalk!" one of Marcus's men shouted.
A hail of bullets tore through the metal railing in front of us.
Gabriel grabbed me and pulled me down hard. Sparks rained over our heads as bullets ricocheted off the steel beams.
"Stay flat!" Gabriel roared over the deafening gunfire.
Down below, Marcus pulled Mr. Vincent behind the engine block of one of the SUVs, using his own brother as a shield.
I peered through a gap in the grated floor.
My mother had thrown herself over Elijah, shielding his small body. Leo struggled to lean forward in his wheelchair to cover them both.
"I have to get to them!" I cried, panic choking me.
"You can't go down there, Claire! It's a firing squad!" Gabriel fired three quick shots over the railing, dropping one of Marcus's men.
Suddenly, a screech of tires echoed from outside.
The side doors burst open.
Anthony, Gabriel's head of security, stormed into the warehouse with eight heavily armed men of his own.
"Romano security! Drop your weapons!" Anthony yelled.
A massive firefight broke out between Gabriel's loyalists and Marcus's traitors.
The warehouse filled with thick, gray smoke and the deafening crack of gunfire.
"Now!" Gabriel yelled. "Move, Claire!"
We scrambled down the narrow metal staircase, keeping our heads low.
When we hit the ground floor, Gabriel laid down cover fire while I sprinted toward the center of the room.
"Mom!" I screamed.
My mother looked up. Her eyes went wide. "Claire?! What are you doing here?!"
I slid across the concrete, crashing into her. I threw my arms around her, sobbing.
"I couldn't leave you," I choked out.
Elijah peeked out from her coat. He had big, terrified brown eyes. The exact same eyes as Gabriel.
"Claire," a rough, unused voice said.
I looked up.
Leo Romano was staring at me. His face was lined with premature aging, his hair graying at the temples, but the kindness in his eyes was unmistakable.
"Thank you for taking care of my father," Leo whispered.
Before I could answer, a shadow loomed over us.
Isabella.
She was clutching her bleeding hand, her elegant gown torn and dirty.
She looked at me, then at Gabriel, who had just reached our side.
"Gabriel," she sobbed, falling to her knees. "Please. I didn't want this. Marcus forced me into it."
Gabriel looked down at her with absolute disgust.
"You tried to sell my brother for twenty million dollars. And you were going to shoot an innocent woman."
"To survive!" Isabella cried. "You don't understand what Marcus is capable of!"
"I'm learning," Gabriel said coldly.
The gunfire suddenly stopped.
Anthony’s men had overwhelmed Marcus's forces. Most of the traitors were on the ground or surrendering.
The smoke began to clear.
But my heart dropped as I looked toward the SUVs.
Marcus was backing away toward the rear exit.
And he still had Mr. Vincent.
Marcus held a silver revolver pressed hard against Vincent’s temple.
"Stand down, Gabriel!" Marcus yelled, his voice cracking with desperation. "Let me walk out that door, or your father dies!"
Gabriel froze. He raised his hands, signaling his men to hold their fire.
"Let him go, Marcus," Gabriel said, his voice trembling for the first time. "He's your brother."
"He's a fool!" Marcus spat. "He was always weak! Giving to charity, playing by the rules. I built this empire in the shadows, and he took all the credit!"
Vincent didn't look afraid.
He looked deeply, profoundly sad.
He looked at Leo in the wheelchair. A single tear rolled down the old man's cheek.
He mouthed two words to his eldest son.
I'm sorry.
"Let him go, and you can have whatever you want," Gabriel pleaded. "Money, territory. Name it."
"I want the ledger," Marcus demanded.
Gabriel blinked. "What ledger?"
"Don't play dumb with me!" Marcus snarled. "The black ledger your mother kept! The one that proved I was embezzling from the family accounts! It's the reason I had to kill her!"
Gabriel’s face went completely blank.
"I don't have it," Gabriel said softly.
"Liar!" Marcus pressed the gun harder.
Suddenly, my mother stood up.
"I have it," she said.
Everyone turned to look at her.
"Mom, no," I whispered, grabbing her arm.
She gently pulled away from me.
"Eighteen years ago," my mother said clearly, staring Marcus dead in the eye, "before Eleanor Romano died in that crash, she handed me a black ledger at the hospital. She told me to hide it. To use it to protect Leo."
Marcus's eyes widened. "Where is it?"
My mother reached into the deep pocket of her heavy wool coat.
"I've carried it with me everywhere," she said.
She pulled out a small, worn black notebook.
Marcus’s eyes locked onto it with manic hunger.
"Bring it to me," Marcus ordered.
"No!" Gabriel shouted. "Sarah, don't do it!"
But my mother was already walking forward.
She stopped ten feet from Marcus.
"Let Vincent go. And you can have it."
Marcus sneered. "Throw it on the ground."
My mother tossed the black notebook. It landed with a thud halfway between them.
Marcus greedily shoved Vincent forward. The elderly man stumbled and fell to his knees.
As Marcus lunged forward to grab the notebook, he took his eyes off my mother for exactly one second.
That was all she needed.
My mother didn't reach for a weapon.
She reached into her pocket again and pulled out a small, glittering object.
She threw it as hard as she could directly at the overhead lighting grid.
It was Isabella's diamond bracelet.
It struck a high-voltage electrical box above Marcus's head.
Sparks showered down like a waterfall, directly onto Marcus.
Marcus screamed, dropping his gun to cover his eyes.
In that split second, Gabriel sprinted forward and tackled his uncle to the concrete.
Anthony’s men rushed in, pinning Marcus down.
It was over.
Gabriel knelt beside his father, pulling him into a tight embrace. Vincent buried his face in Gabriel's shoulder, weeping silently.
I ran to my mother. "Are you crazy?!" I yelled, hugging her so hard my ribs ached.
She smiled, brushing my hair back. "I was a single mother in Queens, Claire. You learn a few tricks."
Gabriel stood up. He walked over to my mother and picked up the black notebook.
He opened it.
It was completely blank.
Reversal.
Gabriel looked at my mother in shock. "Where is the real ledger?"
My mother looked at Vincent.
Vincent wiped his tears, reached into his own pocket, and pulled out a small, intricately carved wooden cross. A rosary box.
He handed it to my mother.
She opened it.
Inside was a tiny, rolled-up piece of microfilm.
May you like
"It was never a book," my mother said softly. "It was this. And Vincent has kept it safe around his neck for eighteen years."
But as Gabriel reached for the microfilm, a cold laugh echoed from the corner of the room. Isabella was holding Marcus’s dropped gun, pointing it directly at Elijah. "Nobody is leaving," she whispered.
