CHAP 6 — DONOVAN’S EMPTY CHAIR
Donovan called Vincent the next morning.
“You found the ledger.”
Vincent stood at the windows of his penthouse.
Mave listened on speaker.
“You’ve gotten careless,” Vincent said.
“No. I’ve gotten tired.”
“Where is Carmine?”
“Close.”
“Where is Elena Vale?”
Silence.
Mave stepped toward the phone.
“Where is my mother?”
Donovan exhaled.
“Mave.”
“Don’t say my name like you know me.”
“I knew you before Vincent did.”
That silenced everyone.
Donovan continued.
“I was assigned to your family before Pier Seventeen.”
“Assigned by who?”
“Carmine.”
“To kill us?”
“To watch.”
“And when he ordered my father killed?”
“I warned Marcus.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m the reason you escaped the fire, Gabriel.”
Gabriel stepped toward the phone.
“You left Marcus inside.”
“I went back.”
“You left him!”
“I went back!”
Donovan’s shout filled the room.
Then silence.
He lowered his voice.
“I was too late.”
Mave closed her eyes.
This story had no clean loyalties.
Only people standing in dirty rooms claiming they had tried.
“Where is Elena?” she asked again.
Donovan answered:
“Carmine has her.”
Mave stopped breathing.
Vincent’s face turned lethal.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I’ve spent six years trying to find out.”
Mave stared.
“Six years?”
“The woman you buried was not Elena.”
Mave’s knees weakened.
Vincent reached for her.
She caught the table instead.
Donovan continued.
“Your mother discovered Carmine was still alive. She contacted Alessandro. Two weeks later she disappeared.”
Vincent whispered:
“My father knew?”
“Yes.”
“Did he help Carmine?”
“No.”
Donovan laughed without humor.
“Your father spent his last years trying to undo everything his family had done.”
“Then why were you spying on him?”
“Because Carmine had my daughter.”
Vincent went silent.
Donovan had a daughter?
Leo frowned.
“I never knew.”
“Nobody did.”
Donovan’s voice cracked.
“She was sixteen when he took her. She’d be thirty-one now.”
Mave understood.
Leverage.
The currency everyone in this world used.
“You betrayed Vincent to protect her.”
“Yes.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“You could have told me.”
“And risk her life?”
“You knew me.”
“I knew your father better.”
That hurt.
Donovan gave them one address.
A country house in Connecticut.
“I think Carmine moved Elena there last year.”
“Think?”
“I can’t verify.”
Vincent said:
“You’re coming with us.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
Donovan laughed.
“You sound exactly like Alessandro.”
The line ended.
At the Connecticut property, they found no Elena.
Only an empty medical room.
A bed.
Medication.
Women’s clothing.
And photographs of Mave.
Hundreds.
Graduation.
First apartment.
Her first day at Costa.
The charity dinner.
Her mother had been watching her.
Or someone had made sure she could.
On the wall above the bed was a sentence scratched into the plaster.
MAVE, IF YOU FIND THIS, TRUST THE NUMBERS. NOT THE MEN.
Mave stared.
Leo muttered:
“I’m trying not to take that personally.”
Mave almost laughed.
Vincent did not.
Because beneath the sentence was a sequence.
4 — 17 — 9 — 31 — 2.
Mave recognized it immediately.
Ledger coordinates.
She opened the red notebook.
Page four.
Line seventeen.
Entry nine.
Account thirty-one.
Column two.
One location.
A private island company registered in Nova Scotia.
Owner:
CARMINE COSTA.
Mave looked at Vincent.
“He didn’t keep my mother in New York.”
“No.”
“Where?”
Vincent read the registration.
Then his expression changed.
“Maine.”
Mave grabbed her coat.
Vincent blocked the door.
“No.”
She stared.
“Move.”
“We plan first.”
“My mother has been missing for six years.”
“And if Carmine wants you running toward her without thinking?”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“You don’t get to decide.”
Vincent held her gaze.
Then stepped aside.
“You’re right.”
Mave stopped.
He continued.
“But I’m coming.”
“Why?”
His answer was immediate.
“Because I’ve spent three years lying to protect you.”
May you like
He took his coat.
“I’d like to try telling the truth while doing it instead.”
