Chapter 4 - The Man Callum Trusted Most
Frank’s gun stayed on me.
Callum’s stayed on Finn.
For three seconds, nobody breathed.
Then Finn said,
“Frank, lower it.”
Frank laughed.
“Still giving orders?”
That mattered.
I saw it in Callum’s eyes.
Frank was not acting like Finn’s equal.
He was acting like an employee who had stopped respecting his boss.
Finn closed his eyes.
Callum whispered,
“You.”
Finn looked at him.
“Callum—”
“You ran Raven.”
“No.”
“Frank takes orders from you.”
“He did.”
“Did?”
Frank rolled his eyes.
“Jesus Christ. You two want to cry about betrayal later?”
His gun shifted.
Callum fired first.
Not at Frank.
At the ceiling light above him.
Darkness exploded.
I dropped.
Gunfire.
Someone shouted.
I crawled behind the container.
A body struck concrete.
Then Callum’s hand found my shoulder.
“Maeve.”
“I’m here.”
“You hit?”
“No.”
Emergency lights flickered on.
Frank was gone.
Finn sat against the wall, bleeding from his thigh.
Callum stood over him.
“Start talking.”
Finn pressed his hand against the wound.
“I didn’t create Raven.”
“Who did?”
“Dominic.”
Callum’s face went still.
That contradicted Brendan’s letter.
Finn continued.
“Dominic started with stolen cargo. Electronics. Pharmaceuticals. People came later.”
“Who added them?”
“Frank.”
“Bullshit.”
“Frank found outside buyers.”
“Then why did Brendan name you?”
“Because I covered it up.”
That answer landed harder because it sounded plausible.
Finn had discovered Raven after joining Dominic’s operations.
He did not stop it.
He redirected profits.
Paid people.
Silenced witnesses.
When Dominic attempted to shut down the trafficking side, Frank threatened to expose everyone.
Finn chose to preserve the Moretti organization instead of going to Salvatore immediately.
“Why?” Callum demanded.
“Because your father would have gone to war.”
“He should have.”
“Yes.”
Finn’s voice broke.
“I know that now.”
Dominic was killed before Finn could reverse course.
Frank framed the death as natural.
Brendan witnessed enough to become dangerous.
“Did you kill Brendan?” I asked.
Finn looked at me.
“No.”
“Did you pay him?”
“Yes.”
I stepped toward him.
“Six hundred thousand?”
“To disappear.”
“Why not protect him?”
“I was trying to contain the damage.”
I laughed bitterly.
“My brother was damage?”
“No.”
“You paid him to shut up about children being sold.”
“Yes.”
At least he did not insult me by denying it.
“What happened to the money?”
“He gave most of it away.”
“I know.”
Finn stared at me.
“Then you found the drive.”
“Yes.”
He looked toward Callum.
“That means Frank knows too.”
Callum lowered his gun slightly.
“Who killed my father?”
Finn went quiet.
Callum raised it again.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You covered Raven for years.”
“I know.”
“Who killed him?”
“Callum, I swear—”
“Do not swear to me.”
Finn flinched.
Salvatore learned about Raven two years before his death.
Not from Finn.
From Lucia.
Callum’s mother.
She found Brendan hiding documents inside an old chapel property and confronted him.
Brendan confessed.
Lucia went to Salvatore.
Salvatore ordered Raven shut down.
He demanded Frank arrested internally.
He also ordered Finn stripped of rank.
Before any of it happened, Salvatore suffered the stroke.
“Who knew he was moving against you?”
“Lucia. Me. Frank. Dominic was already dead.”
“And?”
Finn hesitated.
“Your uncle Enzo.”
Callum frowned.
Enzo Moretti.
Salvatore’s younger brother.
He lived in Florida.
Retired.
Or supposedly retired.
“He had no operational authority.”
“He had access to your father’s medication.”
Silence.
Callum’s face changed.
Family.
Always worse.
We returned to the estate with Finn under guard.
Not prisoner exactly.
Not trusted either.
Callum did not know which category hurt more.
I found Teresa waiting in the kitchen.
She saw my face.
“What happened?”
“Too much.”
“Normal day, then.”
I should have laughed.
Instead, I sat down.
My hands began shaking.
Delayed fear.
Teresa made tea.
“Frank pointed a gun at me.”
She paused.
“That is less normal.”
Callum entered five minutes later.
He looked at my hands.
“Doctor.”
“No.”
“You’re shaking.”
“Adrenaline.”
“Doctor.”
“Tea.”
Teresa nodded approvingly.
“Listen to the maid.”
Callum gave her a look.
She ignored it.
His phone rang.
He stepped into the pantry.
I heard only part of the conversation.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“When?”
Then silence.
He emerged.
“My mother is missing.”
My stomach tightened.
“From Providence?”
“Yes.”
Security found her house empty.
No struggle.
Her personal phone remained.
Car gone.
Then a message arrived on Callum’s encrypted device.
A photograph.
Lucia sitting in a chair.
Alive.
Beside her stood Frank.
Beneath it:
BRING THE LEDGER AND THE GIRL.
I read it.
“No.”
Callum looked at me.
“You’re not going.”
“That is exactly what I meant.”
“Good.”
“You’re not trading anything.”
“My mother—”
“Frank wants me because of Brendan.”
“Yes.”
“So I’m part of this whether you like it.”
“No.”
I stared.
Callum corrected himself.
“I would prefer you not be.”
“Better.”
He exhaled through his nose.
I continued.
“We give him the ledger, he destroys proof. We give him me, I disappear. We go in without knowing what he really wants, your mother dies anyway.”
Callum looked toward the hallway where Finn sat under guard.
“You think Finn knows.”
“I think everybody knows a piece.”
We interrogated him again.
This time, I asked questions.
Not Callum.
“Why does Frank want me?”
Finn looked at my bruised wrist.
“Because Brendan hid something under your name.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Account?”
“No.”
“Property?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Finn rubbed his face.
“A witness.”
My heart stopped.
“What witness?”
“One of the Raven children escaped.”
The room became silent.
“Brendan found her.”
“When?”
“Months before he died.”
“What happened?”
“He hid her.”
“Where?”
Finn looked at me.
“Under Maeve Keane.”
I felt cold.
“How do you hide a person under a name?”
“Identity documents. School registration. Medical records.”
Callum understood first.
“Brendan created a dependent under Maeve’s identity.”
Finn nodded.
I stared.
“I don’t have a child.”
“No.”
“But legally…”
“You might.”
My legs weakened.
Brendan had hidden a rescued trafficking victim using my identity as guardian.
Without telling me.
Frank wanted the girl.
Not because she was a victim.
Because she had seen the men involved.
Including the man who ordered Salvatore Moretti killed.
Callum asked,
“Name?”
Finn whispered,
“Ruby.”
My brother’s final secret was not money.
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It was a child.
And somewhere, possibly alive, she had been legally tied to me for years.
