Chapter 9
The white pin was labeled:
L.M.
Lorenzo Moretti.
Gabriel’s father.
Dead three years.
Buried in the mausoleum.
Gabriel stared at the map.
“No.”
Arthur smiled faintly.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“Emotion.”
Gabriel turned.
Arthur continued:
“Your great weakness.”
“My father is dead.”
“Is he?”
Olivia froze.
Caleb looked at Arthur.
Even he seemed surprised.
Gabriel saw that too.
“Caleb didn’t know.”
Arthur said nothing.
“Why mark my father’s grave?”
Arthur smiled.
“Open it.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Careful.”
Arthur’s smile sharpened.
“Now who sounds frightened?”
Gabriel wanted to hit him.
Didn’t.
That disappointed Arthur.
Good.
Gabriel turned to Olivia.
“Keep the cards here.”
Arthur laughed.
“You trust the maid alone?”
Gabriel looked at him.
“I trust her more than you.”
That finally cut.
Arthur’s face hardened.
Gabriel took Nero and four guards to the mausoleum.
Caleb came under guard.
Arthur stayed downstairs.
Separated.
Different rooms.
Different lies.
At the family crypt, Nero went directly toward Lorenzo’s stone niche.
Then stopped.
No growl.
No bark.
He sniffed lower.
At the base.
One guard removed the decorative stone panel beneath the niche.
Inside was no body.
A small safe.
Gabriel stared.
Caleb whispered:
“What the hell…”
He truly hadn’t known.
The combination?
Gabriel tried his father’s birthday.
Nothing.
His mother’s.
Nothing.
Then Nero pawed once at the family crest.
Gabriel looked at his signet ring.
Numbers engraved inside.
He entered them.
The safe opened.
Inside:
A watch.
A letter.
One memory card.
And an old photograph of Arthur standing beside Lorenzo.
On the back, Lorenzo had written:
ARTHUR WILL BUILD A SECOND HOUSE IF I LET HIM.
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
Then he opened the letter.
First line:
Son, if you are reading this, Arthur finally made you doubt whether I died naturally.
Gabriel stopped breathing.
Caleb whispered:
“Did he?”
Gabriel kept reading.
The next sentence answered:
I did.
But I allowed Arthur to believe I feared otherwise, because I needed to learn who he was recruiting before I died.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
His father had known.
May you like
Not enough to stop Arthur.
Enough to leave a map through the betrayal.
