Chapter 3 - SEVEN NUMBERSBy sunrise, Lena’s life no longer belonged to her.
Victor moved her and Noah into a guarded townhouse on East Seventy-Third Street owned through one of his companies.
Lena objected until Dominic showed her security footage from outside her Queens apartment.
Three masked men had entered less than four minutes after Noah called.
A fourth remained in a sedan.
They knew exactly where to search.
And they had ignored electronics, cash, and jewelry.
They wanted information.
Daniel Hart’s information.
Noah sat at the kitchen island eating cereal while men with shoulder holsters moved through the townhouse.
He looked strangely calm.
At twelve, Noah had developed the survival instinct of children who had grown up without much money: panic privately, adapt publicly.
He glanced at Victor.
“Are you actually in the mafia?”
Lena nearly dropped her coffee.
Victor, standing near the window, looked at him.
“No.”
Dominic coughed.
Noah squinted.
“That sounded extremely suspicious.”
Victor’s mouth twitched.
Lena said, “Noah.”
“What? Everybody online says he is.”
Victor sat opposite him.
“Everything online is true.”
Noah considered that.
“You’re making fun of me.”
“A little.”
Lena stared at Victor.
This terrifying man who could silence a ballroom somehow knew how to speak to a frightened twelve-year-old better than most adults Lena had met.
That bothered her.
It would have been easier if Victor were exactly what newspapers claimed.
Monsters were simple.
People weren’t.
Dominic entered carrying an old leather box.
“We got it.”
Victor stood.
“Where?”
“Storage facility in Brooklyn. Registered under Daniel Hart.”
Lena frowned.
“My father had a storage unit?”
“Apparently.”
“How did you find it?”
Dominic tapped the photograph.
“The numbers.”
They weren’t a combination.
They were coordinates of a sort.
Seven represented the borough storage company’s seventh facility.
One represented building one.
Four represented hallway four.
Nine-two-six-three was the locker number.
Victor had recognized the company because his father once used the same facilities.
Lena felt sick.
Even her father’s secret hiding place connected back to the Romanos.
The box was placed on the table.
Noah leaned forward.
“Is there treasure?”
Dominic said, “Hopefully paperwork.”
“That’s disappointing.”
Lena opened the box.
Inside lay a wristwatch, an old Yankees ticket, two cassette tapes, several photographs, and a red leather ledger.
Victor’s eyes fixed on the ledger.
Dominic whispered, “Jesus.”
Lena picked it up.
The first pages contained dates.
Amounts.
Initials.
Companies.
Victor flipped through carefully.
“This is my father’s original shadow ledger.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means someone stole millions from Antonio over fifteen years and blamed half the losses on rivals.”
Dominic pointed.
“SK.”
Silas Kane.
But farther down the page, Lena saw another set of initials repeated beside Silas’s.
DR.
She looked up.
Dominic Russo.
The room became still.
Noah stopped chewing.
Lena closed the ledger.
Victor looked at his closest friend.
Dominic’s face had gone white for the second time in twelve hours.
“Explain.”
Dominic stared at the initials.
“That isn’t me.”
“Your name is Dominic Russo.”
“I know my name, Victor.”
“You worked for my father.”
“So did thirty men.”
“How many had those initials?”
Dominic didn’t answer.
Victor’s voice lowered.
“How many?”
“One.”
Lena moved toward Noah.
Victor noticed and said, “Take him upstairs.”
“I’m staying.”
“Lena.”
“No. Every time someone tells me to leave the room, another piece of my father’s life disappears.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“I never stole from Antonio.”
Victor held up a hand.
“Nobody said you did.”
“You’re thinking it.”
“I’m thinking Daniel wrote your initials next to Silas Kane’s.”
Dominic stared at the ledger.
Then something occurred to him.
“What year?”
Victor checked.
“2007.”
Dominic gave a humorless laugh.
“I was in Afghanistan for most of that year.”
Victor looked up.
Dominic continued.
“You know that.”
Victor did.
Dominic had enlisted young and served overseas before working full-time for the Romano family.
“Then somebody wanted Daniel to think it was you.”
“Or wanted anyone reading the ledger to.”
Lena flipped farther.
The DR initials stopped abruptly in September.
Then another notation appeared.
“Raven.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“My father’s private designation.”
“For who?” Lena asked.
Victor stared at the page.
“He never told me.”
Noah called from beside her, “There’s writing on the back.”
They looked.
The last page contained a message pressed so lightly into the leather that it was almost invisible.
Lena tilted it toward the window.
Seven names.
One was Antonio Romano.
Another was Daniel Hart.
Five others meant nothing to her.
Beside every name except one was a date.
Death dates.
Antonio’s included.
Daniel’s included.
At the bottom was a sentence:
THE LAST MAN ISN’T DEAD.
Dominic frowned.
“Who is number seven?”
Victor read the name.
“Gabriel Mercer.”
Lena asked, “Who is he?”
Victor answered slowly.
“My father’s former attorney.”
“Where is he now?”
“Supposedly died sixteen years ago.”
Noah pointed at the page.
“There’s no date next to him.”
Exactly.
Victor immediately told Dominic to find everything on Gabriel Mercer.
While Dominic made calls, Lena picked up one of the cassette tapes.
A strip of masking tape was stuck across it.
For Lena.
Her hands trembled.
The townhouse had an old stereo cabinet.
Victor found a cassette player in a drawer.
Lena inserted the tape.
Static crackled.
Then her father’s voice filled the room.
Lena stopped breathing.
“Lena, if you’re hearing this, I failed.”
Her eyes burned.
Noah moved beside her.
Daniel continued.
“You’re probably older now. Maybe old enough to understand why I lied about my job.”
Lena covered her mouth.
“I worked for dangerous men. Some were cruel. Some were simply born into a world where cruelty became normal. Antonio Romano trusted me with numbers because numbers don’t lie.”
Victor stared at the machine.
“But people do.”
A pause.
“I discovered money moving through companies Antonio didn’t know existed. I thought Silas Kane was stealing from him.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“I was wrong.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“The person stealing from Antonio was someone Antonio trusted more than Silas.”
Static hissed.
Lena whispered, “Who?”
Daniel’s recorded voice continued.
“Silas discovered the theft too. He offered me a deal. Help him expose the thief, and he would protect my family.”
Dominic muttered, “Kane protecting somebody?”
“But Silas had his own plan. He didn’t want justice. He wanted control.”
The tape clicked.
Daniel inhaled.
“There were two enemies inside Antonio’s organization. They hated each other, and both needed me.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“One was Silas.”
Lena waited.
“The other called himself Raven.”
The recording suddenly distorted.
A loud scrape.
Then Daniel’s voice returned.
“If Raven learns I copied the ledger, he will kill me. If Silas learns where I hid it, he will kill me too.”
Lena felt Noah grip her hand.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I wanted to give you a better life.”
A long pause.
Then:
“Do not trust the man who comes carrying my funeral flowers.”
The tape ended.
Lena stared at the machine.
“What does that mean?”
Victor was no longer looking at her.
He was looking at Dominic.
Dominic’s expression was horrified.
“No.”
Victor said nothing.
Dominic shook his head.
“No, Victor.”
Lena looked between them.
“What?”
Victor finally spoke.
“Dominic attended your father’s funeral.”
Lena’s heart dropped.
“So did dozens of people,” Dominic said.
Victor’s eyes remained on him.
“But you brought flowers.”
Dominic stepped back.
“Your father ordered me to.”
“Why?”
“To show respect.”
Lena’s memories flashed.
Rain.
A coffin.
Her mother holding her hand.
A broad young man standing near the cemetery gate carrying white lilies.
She had forgotten his face.
Until now.
Dominic.
“You were there.”
He looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Did you kill my father?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
“Did you know he was going to die?”
Dominic’s silence was devastating.
Lena whispered, “Everybody knew except us.”
“No,” Dominic said. “We knew Daniel was in danger. That isn’t the same thing.”
“Tell that to my mother.”
“I can’t. She’s dead.”
Lena slapped him.
Dominic didn’t move.
Victor didn’t stop her.
Noah whispered, “Lena.”
She backed away.
Dominic rubbed his jaw.
“I deserved that.”
“You deserve worse.”
“Probably.”
Victor turned away.
Then Dominic’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Victor asked.
Dominic put the phone on speaker.
A researcher spoke rapidly.
“We found Gabriel Mercer.”
Victor stiffened.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“That’s the problem.”
A pause.
“He’s been living under another name for sixteen years.”
“Where?”
“Upstate New York.”
Victor grabbed his coat.
Lena said, “I’m coming.”
“No.”
“My father put his name in the ledger.”
“It could be dangerous.”
“So was cleaning your ballroom.”
Victor looked at her.
She didn’t blink.
Finally, he sighed.
“Stay close.”
They left Noah with four guards and headed north.
Two hours later they reached a small farmhouse outside Cold Spring.
The front door stood open.
Victor pulled Lena behind him.
Dominic drew his weapon.
Inside, furniture had been overturned.
Blood marked the kitchen floor.
Lena stopped.
Then an old man crawled from behind the dining table.
“Mercer?”
Victor rushed to him.
Gabriel Mercer was alive.
Barely.
Blood soaked his shirt.
He recognized Victor immediately.
“Antonio’s boy.”
“Who did this?”
Mercer coughed.
“Too late.”
“Silas?”
Mercer laughed weakly.
“No.”
Victor leaned closer.
“Then who?”
Mercer looked at Lena.
His eyes widened.
“Daniel’s daughter.”
She knelt.
“You knew my father?”
“He tried to save all of us.”
“From who?”
Mercer lifted a shaking hand and pointed at Dominic.
Lena recoiled.
Dominic froze.
But Mercer whispered:
“Not him.”
His finger moved beyond Dominic.
Toward the doorway.
Everyone turned.
A man stood there.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Black eagle ring.
May you like
Silas Kane smiled.
“Hello, Victor.”
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