Chapter 6 - The Man Behind the Crown
Dante answered the phone without taking his eyes from Sebastian Crane’s face.
“Speak.”
A distorted voice answered.
“Mr. Vale.”
Not Adrian.
Different man.
“Who is this?”
“You already know.”
Dante’s gaze hardened.
“Sebastian.”
Silence.
Then the distortion vanished.
An older man’s voice came through.
Smooth.
Educated.
Familiar.
“You always were faster than your father.”
Dante looked as if someone had struck him.
Mara watched.
This was not an enemy Dante had prepared himself to hate.
This was family without the blood.
A man who had apparently helped raise him.
“You’re on my board.”
“I built half that board.”
“You stood beside my father’s coffin.”
“I paid for it.”
Dante’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Where is Henry?”
“Alive.”
“Evelyn?”
“Complicated.”
“Adrian?”
A quiet laugh.
“More complicated.”
Mara stepped closer.
“Ask him why.”
Dante glanced at her.
“Why what?”
“Why Adrian thinks your father betrayed him.”
Dante put the call on speaker.
Mara spoke.
“Sebastian.”
A pause.
“So that is Mara Voss.”
“You know who I am.”
“Since before you could walk.”
Her skin crawled.
“Why did Lorenzo Vale let people believe Adrian drowned?”
Sebastian laughed softly.
“You still think Lorenzo controlled anything.”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“Careful.”
“Your father was many things. Strong. Proud. Brilliant.”
A pause.
“But he was never ruthless enough.”
Dante’s face became cold.
“What did you do?”
“I saved the company.”
“By trafficking people?”
“By moving assets demanded by people far above your father.”
Mara felt sick.
“Human beings aren’t assets.”
“To idealists, no.”
“To anyone with a soul.”
Sebastian ignored her.
“Lorenzo discovered the routes. He wanted to shut them down.”
Dante looked at Mara.
Evelyn’s version.
True.
“He copied the manifests,” Sebastian continued. “Evelyn Voss helped him.”
Mara’s throat tightened.
“And Adrian?”
“Adrian found them.”
Dante’s breathing changed.
“He confronted you.”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“What was necessary.”
Dante stepped away.
Mara saw the nineteen-year-old inside him again.
“What did you do to my brother?”
“I gave him a choice.”
“What choice?”
“Disappear or watch his family die.”
Silence.
“And he disappeared,” Mara said.
“Yes.”
“Then why is he working with you?”
Sebastian laughed.
“Who told you he is?”
Mara froze.
Dante looked sharply at the phone.
Sebastian continued.
“Adrian wants me dead.”
“Then why attack Henry?”
“Because he believes Henry has the only evidence capable of destroying me.”
Mara thought back.
The men with the old Vale insignia.
The fake contract.
Adrian admitting he had sent men to retrieve property.
“So Adrian’s men attacked my father.”
“Yes.”
“Your men threatened me?”
“Among other people.”
Mara’s head spun.
Two enemies.
Same evidence.
Different goals.
Dante spoke.
“Where are they?”
“Ask your brother.”
The line went dead.
Mara stared at Dante.
He looked toward the open container.
“I believe him.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“I know.”
“But you do.”
Dante nodded.
“Some of it.”
Mara looked down at the photograph.
Sebastian stood behind Evelyn.
One hand on Adrian’s shoulder.
Something about the pose bothered her.
“Wait.”
She brought it under the light.
Adrian’s left sleeve.
A black mark.
A symbol.
Not a crown.
An anchor split vertically.
Dante noticed.
“What?”
“I’ve seen that.”
“Where?”
She searched her memory.
Boathouse invoices.
Her father’s old shipyard files.
Then it came.
“On Dad’s tool cabinet.”
Dante frowned.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning Henry knew Adrian after his disappearance.”
Dante stared.
Mara continued.
“There’s an old engraving on Dad’s cabinet. Split anchor. I thought it was a manufacturer logo.”
Luca called.
“Boss.”
He held up a tablet.
“We found where the video originated.”
Dante walked over.
“Where?”
Luca hesitated.
“Vale Maritime headquarters.”
Silence.
Mara looked at Dante.
“Inside your building?”
“Apparently.”
“Sebastian.”
“Maybe.”
They drove directly into the city.
Vale Tower rose sixty stories over the harbor.
Glass.
Steel.
Security.
Dante entered through the private garage.
Mara stayed with him.
Employees stiffened as he passed.
Some stared at her ring.
She noticed.
So did Dante.
In the elevator Mara asked, “What exactly does this thing mean?”
“Depends who sees it.”
“To your employees?”
“They’ll assume you’re under family protection.”
“To criminals?”
“They’ll assume touching you is a declaration of war.”
“To women you date?”
Dante glanced at her.
She regretted the question immediately.
“Curious?”
“No.”
“Disappointed.”
“I can still throw something.”
He almost smiled.
The elevator opened.
Executive floor.
Too quiet.
Dante stopped.
Luca touched his earpiece.
“No response from floor security.”
Dante looked at Roman.
“Lock elevators.”
They advanced.
Sebastian’s office doors stood open.
Empty.
On the desk sat a glass of whiskey.
Still cold.
Mara touched it.
“He was just here.”
Dante checked the adjoining conference room.
Nothing.
Mara noticed a framed ship blueprint on the wall.
Belladonna.
The burned yacht.
“Dante.”
He came over.
She lifted the frame.
Behind it sat a hidden safe.
Dante stared.
“You know the code?”
“No.”
Mara looked at the Belladonna blueprint.
Hull number.
She tried it.
The safe opened.
Dante looked at her.
“How?”
“Engineers are smarter than billionaires.”
“I’m reconsidering protecting you.”
Inside the safe were files.
Passports.
Cash.
A small pistol.
And an old VHS tape.
Label:
BELLADONNA — NIGHT 3.
Luca found a media room on the floor.
They played it.
Grainy footage appeared.
Yacht deck.
Date stamp from twenty-two years ago.
Mara moved closer.
Her mother appeared onscreen.
Young.
Terrified.
Holding three-year-old Mara.
Lorenzo Vale stood beside her.
Henry too.
Then Adrian walked into frame.
Seventeen.
Angry.
He held a folder.
A moment later Sebastian entered.
Audio crackled.
Adrian shouted:
“You knew.”
Sebastian grabbed him.
Lorenzo intervened.
Men appeared.
Chaos.
Evelyn handed child Mara to Henry.
Then she pulled something from her coat.
A ledger.
Mara covered her mouth.
Sebastian reached for it.
Evelyn ran.
Camera angle shifted.
Smoke filled the deck.
Then the footage jumped.
The next segment showed Henry carrying Mara down a gangway.
Lorenzo followed.
No Evelyn.
No Adrian.
Sebastian emerged last.
Alone.
Then flames swallowed the screen.
Dante stared.
His father had tried to save Adrian.
Sebastian had lied.
The tape ended.
A second file appeared automatically.
Digital overlay.
Recorded years later.
Adrian.
Older.
He spoke directly to the camera.
“If Dante ever sees this, Sebastian has already won.”
Dante leaned forward.
Adrian continued.
“I stayed dead because it kept you alive.”
Dante’s breathing stopped.
“I built a network outside Vale Maritime. I hunted everyone involved. Henry helped me.”
Mara stared.
Her father.
Working secretly with Adrian.
“For twenty-two years we gathered evidence.”
Adrian looked tired.
Haunted.
“Evelyn disappeared deeper than any of us. She infiltrated North Crown.”
Mara whispered, “She was undercover.”
Dante looked at her.
The video continued.
“If Mara has been pulled into this, then Henry failed to keep her out.”
Adrian looked into the camera.
“And if she’s wearing the Vale ring…”
He smiled faintly.
“…then my brother has already made the mistake I knew he would.”
Mara looked at Dante.
“What mistake?”
The video cut off.
Lights died.
Entire floor.
Dark.
Luca cursed.
Emergency lamps flickered red.
Dante reached for Mara.
A gunshot exploded from the hallway.
Roman fell.
Mara screamed.
Dante pulled her behind the desk.
Another shot.
Luca returned fire.
Glass shattered.
Then someone entered through Sebastian’s office door.
A familiar voice said:
“Mara.”
She looked up.
Henry stood in the doorway.
Untied.
May you like
Holding a gun.
And he was pointing it directly at Dante.
