Chapter 3 - THE MONEY WASN'T DEREK'S BIGGEST SECRET
Roman wanted the file.
Harper refused to hand it over.
“This belongs to my firm.”
“Then make a copy.”
“No.”
Roman’s eyebrow lifted.
“No?”
Harper’s hands trembled, but she kept her voice steady.
“You intimidated Derek last night. Today I find out his name is inside accounts connected to your company. That means I don’t know which of you is dangerous for which reason.”
Martin looked horrified.
Roman looked almost amused.
“Smart.”
He sat across from her.
“Ask.”
Harper did.
For two hours.
Roman answered more questions than she expected.
Falco Hospitality owned legitimate restaurants, hotels, and commercial properties.
His late father and older brother Marcus had once been connected to criminal operations.
Roman claimed he had spent the last seven years pulling the remaining businesses clean.
Someone inside the organization had been redirecting money through development companies.
Approximately $12 million.
Derek’s consulting company had received nearly $900,000.
“I didn’t recognize him in the restaurant,” Roman said.
“But when your valet gave me his name afterward, I remembered seeing it in preliminary reports.”
Harper leaned back.
“So you helped me before knowing who he was.”
“Yes.”
She hated that the answer mattered.
Then she traced another transfer.
The money had gone from Derek’s company to a private medical account.
Natalie Price.
Harper froze.
Roman noticed.
“Who is that?”
Harper told him.
Within an hour, Roman’s investigator found the account.
It had been opened after Natalie disappeared.
Someone was still depositing money into it.
The recipient address was a long-term rehabilitation facility outside Albany, New York.
Natalie was alive.
Harper called the detective handling the old missing-person case.
By evening, confirmation came back.
Natalie Price had been admitted under an alias three years earlier after suffering severe neurological injuries.
The person paying the bills?
Derek.
Harper’s skin went cold.
They drove to Albany the next morning with police coordination.
Natalie was thirty-two.
Thin.
Quiet.
One side of her body moved more slowly than the other.
When Harper entered, Natalie stared at her for several seconds.
Then at the bruise on Harper’s wrist.
Her expression changed.
“You’re with him.”
“Not anymore.”
Natalie began crying.
She told them what happened.
Derek had pushed her down a staircase during an argument.
She survived.
But Derek convinced her frightened parents that he would pay for lifelong treatment if they kept quiet.
He threatened to destroy their family financially if they reported him.
Natalie had been trapped for years.
Harper held her hand.
“I’m going to help you.”
Natalie squeezed weakly.
Then she whispered,
“There’s something else.”
Harper leaned closer.
Natalie’s eyes moved toward Roman.
“Derek wasn’t working alone.”
Roman’s face changed.
Natalie spoke one name.
“Marcus Falco.”
May you like
Roman’s older brother.
The man Roman believed had left organized crime years ago.
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