Chapter 8 - THE BROTHER WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
Roman didn't cry when he saw Gabriel.
Not immediately.
He simply stopped walking.
His older brother stood inside a secure hospital room, thinner than in the old photographs.
His dark hair was streaked with gray.
A scar ran through his left eyebrow.
But his eyes were unmistakably Costa eyes.
Gabriel looked up.
"Roman."
For several seconds, neither man moved.
Then Roman crossed the room.
They embraced.
And the most feared mafia boss in Chicago began crying.
I stepped outside.
Some moments belonged only to family.
Ten minutes later, Gabriel asked to speak with me.
I entered carefully.
He looked at my face.
Then smiled sadly.
"Henry's daughter."
I nodded.
"Sloan."
He reached toward me.
"Your father talked about you constantly."
My throat tightened.
"Where is he?"
Gabriel's expression darkened.
"Preston moved him yesterday."
I felt sick.
"Do you know where?"
"Not yet."
Roman stepped closer.
"Gabriel, tell us what happened."
Gabriel explained that twelve years earlier, he and my father discovered the Black Crown's financial network.
They gathered evidence.
But someone betrayed them.
Gabriel was attacked.
His disappearance was staged as a death.
For years, he was kept isolated and used to access old accounts and records.
When the network began collapsing, they moved him into the underground chamber to recover documents only he could identify.
"Who kept you there?" Roman demanded.
Gabriel hesitated.
"Charles Hayes."
I stared.
"Preston's father?"
Gabriel nodded.
"He didn't die when the newspapers said he did."
Roman's jaw tightened.
"Where is he now?"
Gabriel looked away.
"That's what you need to understand."
He reached beneath his hospital blanket.
An investigator had already examined and cleared the small object he handed over.
A silver key.
Engraved with the Black Crown symbol.
"The second key," I whispered.
Gabriel nodded.
"Your father kept the first."
Roman looked toward me.
"The blueprint."
Gabriel continued.
"Together, they open the archive that contains the original ownership records."
I swallowed.
"And those records prove Preston stole my father's company?"
"Yes."
Then Gabriel looked directly at me.
"But that's only part of it."
My stomach tightened.
"What else?"
He hesitated.
"Your father discovered that the Black Crown wasn't merely stealing construction companies."
Roman stepped forward.
"What were they doing?"
Gabriel's face grew pale.
"Using those companies to build hidden medical facilities."
I stared.
Medical facilities?
My father.
His stroke.
The suspicious transfers.
May you like
Then Gabriel whispered:
"Sloan, your father's stroke may not have happened naturally."
