Chapter 6 - Blood Is Not LoyaltyEli survived.
Barely.
The estate’s underground doctor pumped his stomach within minutes and administered treatment before the poison could stop his heart.
By evening, he remained unconscious in a guarded bedroom.
Daisy sat beside him.
She studied the face of the younger brother she had learned existed less than twenty-four hours earlier.
Family.
The word had always frightened Daisy.
Family had meant disappearance.
Foster homes.
Promises broken by adults.
Then Dominic had taught her another definition.
Protection.
Maria.
Vincent.
Dante.
Even Leo with his permanently irritated expression.
And now Eli.
Daisy touched his hand.
“I’m not losing you before I even get to know you.”
The bedroom door opened.
Dominic entered.
He had not slept.
She could tell.
“Any change?”
“No.”
He sat beside her.
For several seconds they watched Eli breathe.
Then Daisy asked the question that had been tearing at her.
“Why didn’t you tell me your mother was supposedly dead?”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“I told you she died.”
“You told me once, vaguely, that you didn’t have parents.”
“I believed she was dead.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He looked at her.
Daisy knew him well now.
Knew when he was angry.
Knew when he was calculating.
Knew when he was afraid.
At that moment Dominic was afraid.
Not of guns.
Of her judgment.
“She hated me,” he said.
Daisy’s expression softened despite herself.
“When I was young, Isabella treated me like an investment.”
He leaned back.
“If I won a fencing competition, she introduced me to senators. If I lost, she ignored me for days.”
“Dominic…”
“My father was violent. My mother was colder.”
Daisy took his hand.
“When they told me she died, I felt relief.”
There it was.
The shame.
“I didn’t want you to know that.”
“Why?”
“Because you lost a mother and spent your life wishing she would return.”
His jaw tightened.
“And I had one and was glad when I thought she was buried.”
Daisy leaned against him.
“Those aren’t the same story.”
Dominic kissed her hair.
“No.”
“But both can hurt.”
He held her tighter.
A knock came.
Vincent entered.
“We found the poisoner.”
Dominic stood instantly.
“Who?”
“Kitchen assistant. Paolo.”
Daisy frowned.
She knew him.
Quiet.
Twenty-five.
Worked breakfast shifts.
“He admitted it?”
“He bit through a cyanide capsule before we could question him.”
Dominic swore.
“Anything in his room?”
Vincent held up a photograph.
A young Paolo standing beside an elegant older woman.
Daisy recognized Isabella from Salvatore’s photographs.
“His mother?”
“No.”
Vincent looked at Dominic.
“His godmother.”
Dominic’s face darkened.
“She planted him here.”
“Six years ago.”
Daisy looked toward Eli.
“She has been preparing for this for six years?”
Salvatore’s voice came from the doorway.
“Longer.”
Dominic turned.
“You were told to stay downstairs.”
“And yet here I am.”
Leo followed behind Salvatore with a pistol aimed at his back.
Salvatore ignored him.
“Isabella does not improvise. She plans in decades.”
Daisy stood.
“Then tell us how to stop her.”
Dominic looked sharply at her.
Salvatore nodded.
“We retrieve Angela’s box.”
“Already working on it,” Vincent said.
“How?”
“Four-man team.”
“Cancel it.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother will slaughter them.”
Dominic’s patience vanished.
“You’ve warned us about everything except how you know any of it.”
Salvatore looked toward Daisy.
“Because I spent fourteen years inside Meridian.”
Silence.
“You said you disappeared.”
“I did.”
“To Meridian?”
“To destroy it.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“You expect applause?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Time.”
Salvatore approached the table.
“Isabella believes I’m dead.”
“She saw you at the gate.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
“The Cadillac image was twenty years old.”
Vincent grabbed his phone.
“That camera timestamp—”
“Manipulated.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“You staged the attack.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To force you to open Lazarus.”
Dominic drew his weapon.
Daisy moved between them again.
“Would both of you stop trying to kill each other for five minutes?”
Dominic stared at Salvatore over Daisy’s shoulder.
“My men were injured.”
“I needed your security focused outward while I entered.”
“And poisoned Eli?”
Salvatore’s face hardened.
“No.”
“So Isabella knew.”
“Yes.”
Dominic lowered the gun.
Barely.
Salvatore continued.
“She has someone else inside.”
Vincent looked furious.
“We searched everyone.”
“Then search people you don’t consider staff.”
Daisy understood first.
“Guests.”
Salvatore nodded.
“Doctors. Lawyers. Family friends. Contractors.”
Dominic suddenly turned.
“The doctor.”
Daisy’s blood froze.
The underground physician treating Eli had worked for the Calabras for eleven years.
Dominic sprinted toward the bedroom.
The bed was empty.
“ELI!”
Daisy ran inside.
An IV tube hung severed.
The exterior window stood open.
But the room was on the second floor.
Dominic looked down.
A rope descended to the snowy lawn.
By the time security reached the perimeter, a black SUV was already speeding away.
Daisy felt something inside her break.
“No.”
Dominic grabbed his radio.
“Close every road.”
Vincent shouted coordinates.
Daisy ran downstairs.
“Where are you going?”
Dominic caught her.
“With you.”
“No.”
“She took my brother.”
“Exactly why you are staying.”
Daisy stared into his eyes.
“Dominic, listen to yourself.”
His jaw tightened.
“You promised I wouldn’t run anymore because I had you.”
“You do.”
“Then understand something.”
She pressed a hand against his chest.
“You have me too.”
He stared at her.
“You don’t get to fight every battle alone anymore.”
For several seconds the entire foyer seemed to wait.
Then Dominic took a holster from Leo.
He secured it around Daisy’s waist himself.
“If I tell you to get down…”
“I get down.”
“If I tell you to run…”
“I run.”
“If I tell you—”
“I know.”
Daisy touched his face.
“I’m not trying to prove I’m fearless.”
Dominic closed his eyes against her palm.
“I’m trying to bring my brother home.”
They left in three armored vehicles.
The tracking signal from Eli’s medical monitor led them toward an abandoned pharmaceutical warehouse near Cicero.
Too easy.
Daisy noticed.
“Dominic.”
“I know.”
“It’s a trap.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are we driving into it?”
“Because they have Eli.”
The answer was terrifyingly simple.
They reached the warehouse at midnight.
Dominic’s team entered through three points.
Daisy remained behind him.
Inside, fluorescent lights flickered.
Eli sat tied to a chair in the center of the warehouse.
Alive.
“Daisy!”
She moved.
Dominic caught her.
“Wait.”
A woman stepped from the shadows.
Sixty.
Elegant black coat.
Diamond earrings.
Silver threaded through dark hair.
Dominic stopped.
Daisy knew before he spoke.
“Mother.”
Isabella Calabra smiled.
“My beautiful boy.”
Dominic raised his gun.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
“And yet you don’t look happy to see me.”
“Release him.”
Isabella looked at Eli.
“The Hutchkins family has always caused unnecessary drama.”
Daisy raised her weapon.
Isabella laughed.
“So you’re Daisy.”
“You killed my mother.”
“No.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“Because everyone is telling you the truth.”
Daisy faltered.
“Who killed her?”
Isabella’s smile disappeared.
“Salvatore.”
Dominic looked sharply at his uncle.
Salvatore had entered behind them.
Isabella’s eyes widened.
For the first time, genuine shock crossed her face.
“You.”
Salvatore aimed his pistol.
“Hello, Isabella.”
Her expression twisted.
“You should have stayed dead.”
“You first.”
Daisy looked between them.
“Which one of you killed Angela?”
Neither answered.
Eli suddenly shouted.
“Daisy!”
Behind him, red numbers appeared on a digital timer.
04:59.
04:58.
04:57.
Dominic stared.
Isabella smiled.
“The warehouse contains enough industrial solvent to turn this entire block into a crater.”
Dominic’s men began searching.
“No radio detonator,” Isabella said. “Hardwired.”
Vincent swore.
Daisy looked at Eli.
“What do you want?”
Isabella looked directly at her.
“The location of Angela’s box.”
“I don’t know.”
“Eli does.”
Daisy looked at him.
“Don’t tell her!”
Isabella sighed.
A guard struck Eli.
Daisy raised her gun.
“Touch him again and I swear—”
Dominic’s voice dropped into something terrifying.
“Your guard dies first.”
Isabella studied her son.
“You’ve become sentimental.”
“I became something you never managed.”
“What?”
“Human.”
For a fraction of a second, Isabella looked wounded.
Then it vanished.
The timer reached three minutes.
Daisy whispered to Dominic.
“She won’t kill herself.”
His eyes flicked toward Isabella.
Exactly.
Dominic scanned the warehouse.
Then saw it.
A reinforced office behind bulletproof glass.
Isabella was standing near its door.
Escape shelter.
“Vincent.”
Vincent followed his gaze.
Understood.
At two minutes twenty seconds, Dominic fired.
Not at Isabella.
At the overhead sprinkler pipe.
Water exploded across the electrical system.
Lights blew out.
Darkness.
Gunfire erupted.
Daisy dropped exactly as Dominic had taught her.
She crawled toward Eli.
A bullet struck concrete beside her hand.
She fired blindly toward the muzzle flash.
Someone screamed.
“Daisy!”
“I’m here!”
She reached Eli.
The timer flashed red through the darkness.
01:16.
Dominic appeared.
He cut the restraints.
“Move!”
They ran.
Salvatore and Vincent covered them.
The Calabra team reached the loading dock.
Thirty seconds.
Twenty.
Ten.
Dominic shoved Daisy and Eli behind a concrete barrier.
The world exploded.
Flame tore through the warehouse.
Glass and metal rained across the parking lot.
Daisy screamed.
Dominic covered her body with his own.
When the shockwave passed, she lifted her head.
The building burned.
“Isabella?”
Dominic stared into the flames.
Vincent approached.
“No body.”
Salvatore gave a humorless laugh.
“She had another exit.”
Daisy looked at Eli.
Alive.
That was enough for the moment.
Then Eli grabbed her sleeve.
“The box.”
“What?”
“I lied to her.”
Daisy blinked.
“I never put it in Milwaukee.”
“Where is it?”
Eli looked at her.
“Mom mailed it before she died.”
“To whom?”
His eyes shifted toward Dominic.
“To Daisy Hutchkins.”
Daisy stared.
“I don’t have an address.”
Eli nodded.
“She mailed it to the only address she knew you would eventually receive it.”
Dominic understood.
His expression changed.
“The estate.”
Eli nodded.
Daisy turned toward the burning warehouse.
May you like
Somewhere inside the Calabra mansion…
Angela’s final secret was already waiting.
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