Chapter 7 - The Girl With Leo’s EyesThey found the abandoned car before they found Maeve.
It sat beside a wooded road approximately twelve miles outside Camden.
The driver’s door remained open.
One rear tire was flat.
Dominic stopped their vehicle fifty yards away.
“Stay inside.”
Alora did not argue.
That frightened him more than resistance would have.
Jax emerged from the second car and approached with Dominic.
The afternoon had darkened beneath heavy clouds. Wind moved through pine trees and carried the smell of rain.
Dominic studied the ground.
The instincts he had promised to leave behind returned without invitation.
He noticed everything.
Fresh tire marks.
Mud displaced beside the road.
A child’s pink backpack lying near the ditch.
No blood.
He picked up the backpack.
A small plastic horse was attached to the zipper.
Inside were coloring pencils, a paperback about ocean animals, two granola bars, and a notebook.
The front page contained a child’s handwriting.
EVELYN CALLAHAN
Beneath the name was a drawing of a woman and a little girl holding hands.
A third figure stood farther away.
Tall.
Dark hair.
A question mark covered the face.
Dominic stared at it.
Jax noticed.
“She knows?”
“I do not know.”
A sound came from the forest.
Both men turned.
Dominic immediately moved toward it.
“Wait,” Jax said.
Another sound.
A branch breaking.
Someone running.
Dominic disappeared among the trees.
Jax cursed and followed.
Approximately eighty yards inside the woods, they found Maeve.
She held a broken tree branch like a weapon.
A little girl stood behind her.
“Stay away!”
Dominic stopped.
Maeve’s red hair was tangled. Mud covered her jeans. A cut marked her temple.
The child behind her wore a yellow coat.
Seven years old.
Small.
Dark hair.
And Leo’s eyes.
Dominic forgot how to breathe.
They were the same unusual hazel-gray color Dominic had seen across breakfast tables, hospital rooms, childhood bedrooms, and eventually inside a coffin.
Leo’s eyes.
The girl stared at him.
Maeve tightened her grip on the branch.
“Who are you?”
Dominic could not answer immediately.
Alora arrived behind them despite being told to remain inside the car.
He turned sharply.
“I told you—”
“You ran into a forest.”
“That does not cancel instructions.”
Maeve’s eyes moved among them.
“Please.”
Her voice broke.
“If you are with them, just leave my daughter alone.”
Alora immediately understood what Dominic’s appearance was doing.
She approached slowly with empty hands.
“We are not here to hurt you.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Alora.”
She indicated Dominic.
“This is my husband.”
Maeve looked at him.
Something changed.
Recognition.
Fear.
“Dominic Wolfe.”
Evelyn looked up at her mother.
“Mom?”
Maeve pulled the child closer.
“How did you find us?”
Dominic reached inside his coat.
Maeve lifted the branch.
“Do not.”
He stopped.
“I have a photograph.”
“What photograph?”
“Leo.”
Her face collapsed.
Dominic removed it slowly and placed it on the ground between them.
Maeve stared.
For several seconds, the forest contained only wind.
Then she lowered the branch.
“Where did you get that?”
“A letter arrived this morning.”
Dominic’s voice was quieter now.
“My brother wrote it before he died.”
Maeve’s eyes filled.
“He finally told you.”
“No.”
Dominic swallowed.
“He intended to.”
He looked at Evelyn.
“You knew I existed?”
Maeve laughed once without humor.
“Leo spoke about you constantly.”
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
“He told me you were impossible, arrogant, violent, overprotective, and the only person on earth he trusted completely.”
“That sounds accurate.”
“He wanted to tell you about Evelyn.”
“Why did he not?”
“Because someone followed him once.”
Maeve looked toward her daughter.
“He became terrified that anyone connected to him would discover us.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“He was right.”
Maeve nodded.
“Yes.”
Rain began falling softly.
Jax removed his jacket and handed it toward Evelyn.
She did not take it.
Alora did.
She crouched to the girl’s height.
“May I put this around you?”
Evelyn studied her.
“Are you his wife?”
“Yes.”
“Does that make you my aunt?”
Alora’s throat tightened.
“I suppose it does.”
Evelyn considered this.
Then she allowed Alora to place the jacket around her shoulders.
Dominic watched.
Something unfamiliar moved through his chest.
Family.
Not chosen only through marriage or loyalty.
Blood.
His brother continued inside this child.
Evelyn looked at him.
“Are you Uncle Dominic?”
The question nearly destroyed him.
“Yes.”
“Daddy said you were scary.”
Jax coughed to hide laughter.
Dominic looked toward him.
Jax immediately became serious.
Evelyn continued.
“He said you frightened everyone except Grandma.”
Dominic smiled before he could stop himself.
“That is also accurate.”
“Are you going to frighten me?”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
“Never.”
The child examined him another moment, then stepped from behind her mother.
Maeve caught her shoulder.
“Evie.”
“It is okay.”
Evelyn approached Dominic.
He remained completely still.
She looked up.
“You look like Daddy.”
Dominic’s eyes burned.
“So do you.”
“You have different eyes.”
“Yes.”
“Daddy said yours looked angry even when you were happy.”
Alora pressed her lips together.
Dominic turned toward her.
“Do not.”
“I said nothing.”
“You are thinking loudly.”
Evelyn smiled.
The expression belonged to Leo.
Dominic had not seen it in years.
He crouched.
“Your father was the best man I ever knew.”
“Mom says that too.”
“She is correct.”
Evelyn touched his sleeve cautiously.
“Did you love him?”
Dominic’s voice failed.
He nodded.
“Very much.”
She surprised everyone by wrapping both arms around his neck.
Dominic froze.
The former head of the Wolfe organization had faced gunfire without hesitation.
A seven-year-old child hugging him left him defenseless.
His hands lifted slowly.
He held her.
Not tightly.
Not possessively.
Carefully.
As though Leo had somehow returned something priceless and breakable to his arms.
His tears disappeared into Evelyn’s hair.
Maeve looked away.
Alora cried openly.
Even Jax abandoned any attempt at dignity.
Eventually Evelyn pulled back.
“Why are you crying?”
“I missed your father.”
“I miss him too, even though I barely remember him.”
Dominic touched her cheek.
“Then I will tell you everything.”
Maeve suddenly looked toward the road.
“We cannot stay here.”
Dominic stood.
“What happened?”
“Someone found us this morning.”
“Who?”
“I do not know.”
Maeve explained while they returned toward the vehicles.
For six years after Leo’s death, she had remained in Maine.
No one came.
No one asked questions.
She believed the danger had died with him.
Then, seven months earlier, a man entered the bookstore where she worked and asked whether she knew Leo Wolfe.
Maeve denied it.
Three nights later, someone searched her home.
Nothing valuable disappeared.
But Leo’s old letters had been moved.
She took Evelyn and left Portland.
Since then, they had moved through short-term rentals, motels, and friends’ houses.
“Why did you not contact me?” Dominic asked.
Maeve stopped.
“Because you were Dominic Wolfe.”
The answer contained no apology.
“I had a child. Everything I knew about you involved violence.”
Dominic accepted the judgment.
“That was fair.”
Maeve appeared surprised.
“I learned you left the organization. I considered contacting you.”
“What stopped you?”
“I received a photograph.”
She took out her phone.
The image showed Evelyn leaving school months earlier.
A message beneath it read:
THE WOLFE BLOODLINE OWES A DEBT.
Dominic’s face changed.
“Do you still have the number?”
“Disconnected.”
“Send everything to Jax.”
They reached the abandoned car.
Maeve pointed toward the damaged tire.
“A black SUV forced us toward the shoulder. I managed to get away before they reached the car.”
“Did you see them?”
“Two men. Maybe three.”
“Weapons?”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked toward Jax.
“We move now.”
Jax nodded.
“Closest secure location is the lake property.”
Alora looked at Dominic.
The lake house.
The place near the chapel where they had married.
Dominic purchased it months after their wedding.
It was isolated, private, and connected to security systems he had never admitted installing.
Maeve hesitated.
“I am not going into one of your compounds.”
“It is a house.”
“With armed guards?”
“Potentially.”
“Dominic.”
He softened his voice.
“I understand why you do not trust me.”
“I do not know you.”
“But Leo did.”
The words stopped her.
“He trusted me with you.”
Dominic looked toward Evelyn.
“I will not fail him twice.”
“You did not fail him.”
Maeve’s tone changed.
“He told me that constantly.”
Dominic stared at her.
“What?”
“Leo knew you blamed yourself for everything, even before the ambush.”
Maeve stepped closer.
“He said you had been doing it since childhood.”
Dominic could not respond.
“He told me about the winter you were thirteen and fell through the ice.”
Alora looked at Dominic.
He had never mentioned it.
Maeve continued.
“Leo pulled you out. Afterward you spent years saying you owed him your life.”
Dominic looked away.
“He hated that.”
“I know.”
“He said brothers do not keep accounts.”
The same phrase Leo used when they were young.
Dominic’s jaw trembled.
Maeve touched his arm.
“He did not die thinking you failed him.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“He died loving you.”
The words struck deeper than any weapon could have.
Alora moved beside him.
Their hands found each other.
“We should go,” Jax said quietly.
They divided between the vehicles.
Maeve and Evelyn traveled with Alora and Dominic.
During the first twenty minutes, Evelyn asked approximately forty questions.
“Did Daddy like pizza?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“Pepperoni.”
“Mom says vegetables.”
“Your mother is protecting his reputation.”
Maeve laughed from the back seat.
“Leo ate vegetables.”
“Only under threat.”
“Daddy liked horses,” Evelyn announced.
Dominic glanced in the mirror.
“He loved them.”
“I love them too.”
“He would like that.”
“Did he really punch a police officer?”
Maeve covered her face.
“Leo.”
Dominic smiled.
“He told you that?”
“Mom said it was not a good story.”
“It is an excellent story.”
“Dominic,” both women said simultaneously.
Evelyn laughed.
For a brief moment, no one was running from anything.
They were simply family inside a car.
Then Jax called.
Dominic answered through the vehicle system.
“I identified the SUV.”
“Who?”
“Registered through a shell company.”
“Connected to?”
A pause.
Dominic knew the pause.
“Say it.”
“Wolfe Holdings.”
Maeve looked up.
“That is your company.”
“Not anymore.”
Jax continued.
“The shell was created nine years ago.”
“When Leo was alive.”
“Yes.”
“Who authorized it?”
“I am pulling records.”
Dominic’s hands tightened around the steering wheel.
Someone had operated inside the Wolfe structure before Leo died.
Someone with enough authority to establish companies without Dominic noticing.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
Jax’s voice became more serious.
“I checked the deposit box.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“What about it?”
“Someone attempted access yesterday.”
Maeve went pale.
“Who?”
“The bank refused because they lacked identification.”
“Description?”
“Male. Sixties. Gray hair.”
Dominic waited.
Jax inhaled.
“He gave a name.”
“What name?”
“Victor Hale.”
The vehicle drifted slightly before Dominic corrected it.
Alora looked toward him.
“Who is Victor Hale?”
Dominic’s face had gone white.
Maeve noticed.
“Dominic?”
He stared through the windshield.
“Victor Hale was my father’s closest friend.”
“And?”
Dominic’s voice became almost inaudible.
“He died twelve years ago.”
Silence filled the vehicle.
Evelyn looked between the adults.
Dominic reached for the photograph of Leo still resting inside his coat.
A dead brother had sent a letter.
A dead man had attempted to open a bank account.
And somewhere inside the history Dominic thought he had escaped, someone had been waiting for the Wolfe family to become comfortable.
Alora touched his hand.
“What are you thinking?”
Dominic looked at the road.
“That Leo uncovered something much larger than Roman Cross.”
May you like
His expression hardened.
“And I think whoever killed my brother has just realized we found his daughter.”
