Chapter 5 - Her Brother's Greatest BetrayalRain hammered the warehouse roof.
Sienna could hear every drop.
Every breath.
Every tiny movement Leo made against the ropes.
But all she could see was the photograph in Matteo Russo's hand.
Senator Charles Whitmore.
The man whose face appeared on Sunday political programs.
The man who had built a national reputation around integrity.
The man who spoke endlessly about organized crime and institutional corruption.
He had known Robert Hayes.
More than known him.
He had apparently stood beside him and Vincenzo Russo years before everything collapsed.
"Where did you get that?" Sienna asked.
Matteo smiled.
"Your brother."
Her gaze snapped toward Leo.
He looked destroyed.
"Sienna, listen to me."
"You had that?"
"I found it after Dad died."
"And you didn't tell me?"
"I didn't know what it meant."
"So you sold it?"
"No."
His voice broke.
"Not at first."
Not at first.
Those words hurt more than if he had simply admitted it.
Matteo walked around them slowly.
"Leo had financial problems."
Sienna laughed bitterly.
"That's one way to describe abandoning your sister to a loan shark."
"I didn't know Mickey would come after you."
Leo struggled against the ropes.
"I swear."
"You borrowed from criminals."
"I thought I could pay them."
"With what?"
Leo's silence answered.
Sienna felt anger replacing fear.
For years she had protected him.
Covered rent.
Paid phone bills.
Lied to landlords.
Defended him to their father.
And when Robert died, Sienna had handled the funeral while Leo disappeared for three days because grief made him "unable to cope."
She understood something now.
She had confused rescuing someone with loving them.
The realization was brutal.
Matteo stopped beside her.
"Your father discovered Whitmore's connection to Vincenzo."
"What connection?"
"You should ask Damian."
Sienna's eyes narrowed.
Matteo smiled.
"He knows more than he told you."
Outside, listening through the transmitter, Damian's jaw tightened.
Silas glanced toward him.
"Boss?"
Damian remained silent.
Inside, Matteo continued.
"Senator Whitmore wasn't a senator in 2013. He was deputy mayor."
Sienna remembered.
Whitmore had built his national career from New York politics.
"He controlled contracts," Matteo said. "Construction. Ports. Public pensions. Vincenzo supplied muscle. D'Agostino supplied money."
"And Ror?"
"Police protection."
Sienna looked at the photograph.
"Why did my father have this?"
"Because Robert wasn't investigating them from the outside."
Matteo paused.
"He was working with Vincenzo."
Sienna slapped him.
Hard.
The sound cracked across the warehouse.
Leo froze.
Matteo slowly turned his face back.
A red mark appeared across his cheek.
Then he laughed.
"Definitely Robert's daughter."
"You're lying."
"Am I?"
"My father hated Vincenzo Russo."
"Eventually."
Matteo stepped closer.
"But before that?"
His voice lowered.
"Your father was Vincenzo's confidential police contact."
Sienna's stomach turned.
"No."
"He warned us about raids."
"No."
"He redirected investigations."
"Stop."
"He accepted money."
"Shut up."
"And when he tried to leave, Vincenzo destroyed him before Robert could expose everyone."
Sienna felt something crack inside her.
Her father had been many things.
Drunk.
Angry.
Broken.
But corrupt?
She refused to believe it.
Matteo held out the photograph.
"Look at their faces."
Sienna did.
Her father wasn't arresting Vincenzo.
They were standing together.
Comfortably.
Familiar.
Her certainty weakened.
Then another voice entered the warehouse.
"He's telling you half the truth."
Everyone turned.
Damian stepped from the darkness.
Alone.
At least apparently.
Matteo smiled.
"Nephew."
Damian ignored him.
His eyes went to Sienna.
"You okay?"
She nodded.
"Tell me."
"Sienna—"
"Tell me about my father."
Damian looked toward Matteo.
Then back at her.
"Robert was recruited as an informant handler."
She frowned.
"What?"
"He wasn't Vincenzo's employee."
Damian walked closer.
"He was running him."
Matteo's smile disappeared.
Damian continued.
"Federal investigators wanted access to D'Agostino operations. Robert convinced my father that certain NYPD information could be bought."
Sienna stared.
"Vincenzo believed he owned Robert."
"He didn't?"
"No."
Damian's voice softened.
"Robert was building a case."
Relief came too quickly.
Then Damian added:
"But Matteo is right about one thing."
Sienna waited.
"Your father took money."
The relief vanished.
"Why?"
"Because undercover corruption investigations require credibility."
"Was it authorized?"
Damian hesitated.
That hesitation told her everything.
"Damian."
"Initially."
"Initially?"
"Robert crossed lines."
Sienna looked away.
She suddenly remembered her father's bitterness.
The drinking.
The gambling.
The envelopes of cash that sometimes appeared when she was a child.
Her mother screaming.
Questions nobody answered.
Human beings were rarely heroes or villains.
That truth hurt.
Robert Hayes had tried to expose monsters.
Maybe he had become partially corrupted while doing it.
Maybe that was why destroying him had been so easy.
Matteo clapped slowly.
"Beautiful family therapy."
Then his gun appeared.
He pointed it at Damian.
"Now give me the evidence."
Damian looked bored.
"No."
Matteo's expression hardened.
"I have the girl."
"No."
Damian looked toward Sienna.
"She isn't mine."
Sienna's chest tightened.
"That's the problem with you, Matteo."
Damian continued.
"You still think possession creates loyalty."
A tiny smile appeared.
"It doesn't."
Then the warehouse lights died.
Darkness.
Someone shouted.
Gunfire erupted.
Sienna dropped immediately.
Damian had trained her for exactly one thing before she entered.
If lights disappear, floor.
She crawled toward Leo.
A bullet struck metal overhead.
Men screamed.
Silas's team entered through two side doors.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Sienna reached Leo.
She found the small ceramic blade hidden inside her belt seam.
She cut his restraints.
"Move."
Leo grabbed her wrist.
"I'm sorry."
"Not now."
They ran.
Matteo appeared from behind a column.
His pistol rose.
Toward Sienna.
Damian saw him.
He fired first.
The bullet struck Matteo's shoulder.
Matteo spun.
Damian crossed the distance and slammed him against a steel beam.
The gun fell.
Matteo laughed despite the blood.
"You won't kill me."
Damian pressed the barrel against his forehead.
"Why?"
"Because she asked you to be different."
Damian's finger rested on the trigger.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Sienna watched him.
This was the moment.
Not when he promised.
Not when he kissed her.
Now.
When violence was easy.
When revenge was justified.
When nobody in Damian's world would question the body.
Damian slowly lowered the weapon.
"Silas."
Silas stepped forward.
"Call the federal task force."
Matteo's smile disappeared.
Damian looked at him.
"You're going to live."
His voice was colder than death.
"Long enough to testify against Whitmore."
Two hours later, Sienna sat inside an FBI field office wrapped in a gray blanket.
Leo sat across the room.
They had not spoken.
Damian was giving a statement through an attorney.
Matteo was in surgery under federal guard.
Silas had vanished into whatever machinery kept the Russo organization functioning.
Sienna looked at her brother.
"Why?"
Leo raised his head.
She repeated the question.
"Why did you leave me?"
Tears appeared in his eyes.
"I was scared."
"So was I."
"I know."
"No, you don't."
Sienna stood.
"Mickey put his hands around my throat because of you."
Leo looked down.
"He told me what he was going to do to me."
Her voice trembled.
"And the security guard walked away."
"Sienna—"
"I thought I was going to disappear."
Leo cried silently.
"And you were hiding."
"I know."
She swallowed.
"I love you."
Leo looked up.
"But I'm done saving you."
The words surprised both of them.
"If you want a relationship with me, you fix your life."
"How?"
"That's your job."
Sienna walked away.
Damian waited outside.
He had removed his tie.
There was blood on one cuff.
Not his.
"How did it go?"
"Terrible."
"Family usually does."
Sienna looked at him.
"You didn't kill Matteo."
"No."
"Because I asked?"
Damian considered the question.
"Partly."
"What was the other part?"
He looked through the glass toward Leo.
"Because you were right."
Sienna waited.
"Killing people is easy."
Damian's expression darkened.
"Living differently is harder."
She reached for his hand.
He looked down at their fingers.
Then held hers.
Not tightly.
Not possessively.
Just enough.
A federal agent approached.
"Miss Hayes?"
Sienna turned.
"There's something you need to see."
He handed her an evidence bag.
Inside was an envelope recovered from Leo's belongings.
Robert Hayes's handwriting covered the front.
SIENNA — ONLY IF THEY FIND WHITMORE.
Her heart stopped.
She opened it.
Inside was a key.
And one handwritten sentence.
The truth isn't in New York. It's where your mother ran.
Sienna stared at the words.
Her mother.
The woman who had abandoned them fourteen years earlier.
Damian read over her shoulder.
"Where did she go?"
May you like
Sienna looked up.
"Vermont."
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