Chapter 6 - ROMAN'S FATHER HAD FAKED HIS DEATH
Roman went completely still.
Harper had never seen fear on his face before.
Not in the alley.
Not when Natalie named Marcus.
Not when Derek broke into her apartment.
Now she saw something worse than fear.
A child’s old wound opening inside a grown man.
Salvatore Falco walked forward.
Seventy years old.
Gray hair.
Expensive coat.
The same cold eyes Roman had inherited but never seemed proud of.
“Where is Maya?” Harper demanded.
Salvatore ignored her.
Roman stepped between them.
“She asked you a question.”
Salvatore smiled faintly.
“You always did choose damaged things.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
Harper hated the way the sentence hit him.
“Where is her sister?”
“Safe.”
A side door opened.
Maya stumbled out.
Hands tied.
Terrified but unharmed.
Harper moved toward her.
Two men blocked the path.
Salvatore lifted one finger.
“First, we talk.”
He explained everything with terrifying casualness.
His death had been staged because federal pressure was increasing.
Marcus helped him disappear.
Roman inherited the public businesses and unknowingly turned them legitimate, creating perfect financial cover.
Meanwhile Salvatore continued moving illegal money through companies Roman believed were clean.
Derek had been recruited to monitor Harper after her audit became dangerous.
Then Salvatore said something worse.
“Derek was instructed to charm you.”
Harper already suspected it.
“He was never instructed to hurt you.”
For some reason, that made Harper angrier.
As if Salvatore expected moral credit.
“You used me.”
“You were an obstacle.”
Roman stepped closer.
“You touched her family.”
Salvatore’s men moved.
Roman did not.
His father smiled.
“You still don’t understand. I built everything you wear. Every restaurant. Every building.”
“No.”
Roman’s voice was quiet.
“You built fear. I built everything that survived it.”
Salvatore’s smile disappeared.
Police sirens erupted.
His men looked toward the doors.
Salvatore turned sharply.
Harper smiled for the first time.
“You really thought an accountant would come to a hostage exchange without creating a paper trail?”
Before leaving, Harper had scheduled messages to investigators containing their location, account files, and an automatic trigger if she did not cancel by midnight.
Salvatore cursed.
Chaos followed.
Maya ran toward Harper.
Roman pulled both women behind a concrete support as officers entered.
Salvatore escaped through a service tunnel.
But three of his men were arrested.
Maya was safe.
Outside, Roman stood alone near the river.
Harper approached slowly.
“You okay?”
“No.”
She appreciated the answer.
Then one of Roman’s investigators called.
Marcus Falco had finally been located.
Alive.
Living under protection in Philadelphia.
Roman frowned.
“Protection from who?”
The answer stunned them.
Marcus had become a confidential federal witness six years earlier.
Against Salvatore.
Roman’s brother had not been running the operation.
He had been trying to destroy it.
And according to the investigator, Marcus had one condition before speaking to Roman:
“Tell Harper to come too.”
May you like
Because Marcus knew what really happened to Natalie.
And Derek had not been the one who pushed her down those stairs.
