Chapter 8 - The Man Beneath the Wolfe EmpireVictor Hale had attended Dominic’s mother’s funeral.
Dominic remembered him standing beside the grave in a black coat while winter rain moved through the cemetery.
He remembered Victor placing one hand on his father’s shoulder.
He remembered the man leaning toward sixteen-year-old Dominic afterward and saying, “Your family will always have mine.”
Twelve years later, Victor supposedly died during surgery in Switzerland.
There had been a funeral.
A coffin.
Financial records.
Condolences.
Everything.
Now someone using his identity had attempted to access Leo’s deposit box.
The lake house sat beyond a private road approximately twenty minutes from the nearest town.
To Alora it looked peaceful.
To Dominic it looked defensible.
He hated that his mind still evaluated places that way.
Windows.
Entrances.
Sight lines.
Tree cover.
Distance from public roads.
He wanted to be the man who noticed autumn leaves and the reflection of clouds across water.
Instead, within thirty seconds of arriving, he identified five points from which a sniper could theoretically observe the property.
Some instincts never died.
Evelyn ran toward the lake before Maeve caught her coat.
“Absolutely not.”
“But Mom—”
“You remain where I can see you.”
Dominic looked at the child.
“We have horses.”
Evelyn froze.
“What?”
Alora smiled.
“You should not have said that.”
“Where?”
Evelyn became pure energy.
“Where are the horses?”
Dominic pointed toward a stable beyond the main house.
“We keep three.”
“You have three horses?”
“Technically Alora has three horses. I apparently finance them.”
“You bought two of them.”
Alora corrected him.
“And you spend more time with Apollo than I do.”
“That is irrelevant.”
Evelyn grabbed Maeve’s hand.
“Please?”
Maeve looked exhausted.
Dominic understood.
Seven months of running had hollowed her.
“You can see them,” she said. “With Aunt Alora.”
The title caused Alora’s expression to soften.
“I would love that.”
Evelyn took her hand.
As they walked toward the stable, Dominic watched.
Maeve stood beside him.
“She likes her.”
“Everyone likes Alora.”
“You sound offended by that.”
“I occasionally prefer exclusivity.”
Maeve looked at him.
Then she laughed.
“You really are exactly as Leo described.”
Dominic looked toward her.
“I need everything you remember.”
Her amusement disappeared.
“About what?”
“Leo’s final months.”
They entered the house with Jax while additional security arrived discreetly.
Ruby had remained in Boston to manage her café and, according to Jax, “prevent herself from becoming involved in another homicide investigation.”
No one believed she would remain uninvolved for long.
Maeve sat opposite Dominic inside the study.
“When did Leo begin behaving differently?”
“Approximately four months before he died.”
“How?”
“He became distracted. He stopped visiting as often.”
“Did he explain?”
“He said someone was watching financial transfers inside your organization.”
“Names?”
“No.”
Maeve thought.
“He mentioned something called Lazarus.”
Dominic’s eyes changed.
Jax stopped typing.
“What?”
“Lazarus.”
Maeve looked between them.
“Does it mean something?”
Dominic stood.
He walked toward the window.
“Lazarus was a contingency system.”
“For what?” Alora asked from the doorway.
She had returned unnoticed.
Dominic looked toward her.
“Survival.”
He explained.
His father had created Lazarus decades earlier.
It was not one account or organization.
It was an invisible network of companies, properties, identities, cash reserves, and political favors designed to protect the Wolfe family if law enforcement dismantled their public operations.
Very few people knew the entire structure.
“My father,” Dominic said. “Victor Hale. Leo eventually learned part of it. I knew enough to activate emergency resources, but not the complete system.”
Jax looked uncomfortable.
“And me.”
Dominic turned.
“You knew?”
“Only fragments.”
“Why did you never tell me?”
“Your father ordered me not to.”
“My father died.”
“And you were trying to leave the criminal world.”
Jax spread his hands.
“I believed Lazarus should remain buried.”
Maeve whispered, “Maybe Leo did too.”
Dominic looked at her.
She continued.
“He told me once that your family had money hidden behind money. He said something old was being used to finance new wars.”
Jax’s expression changed.
“Roman.”
Dominic understood.
“Someone accessed Lazarus and financed Cross without either of us knowing.”
“Who had full access?”
“Victor.”
Alora leaned against the desk.
“But Victor died.”
“Apparently not.”
Dominic called an attorney in Geneva who had managed several Wolfe family affairs.
The conversation lasted nineteen minutes.
When it ended, Dominic sat without speaking.
“What?” Alora asked.
“Victor Hale’s body was never independently identified.”
Jax cursed.
“The funeral?”
“Closed coffin. Death certificate issued through a private clinic that no longer exists.”
Maeve rubbed both arms.
“So Leo discovered Victor was alive?”
“Possibly.”
Dominic stared at Leo’s letter.
“Or discovered someone using the network Victor created.”
Jax began searching historical documents.
Two hours passed.
Evelyn colored at the dining table under Alora’s supervision while Maeve slept for the first time in what appeared to be days.
Dominic and Jax reconstructed the financial skeleton of an empire they thought they had dismantled.
Then Jax found the first connection.
A transfer from Lazarus to Roman Cross.
Nine years earlier.
Another six months later.
Another before Leo’s ambush.
Dominic stared at the screen.
“He financed the entire war.”
“Looks like it.”
“Why?”
Jax opened another file.
“I think I know.”
A corporation connected to Victor had purchased distressed Wolfe assets every time Roman weakened Dominic’s position.
Real estate.
Shipping interests.
Warehouses.
Technology companies.
Victor had been feeding both sides.
Encouraging conflict.
Profiting from destruction.
“He wanted us to eliminate each other,” Dominic said.
Jax nodded.
“And when you survived?”
“He disappeared.”
“Until Leo began investigating.”
Dominic looked toward the photograph.
“Leo found him.”
The implication was unbearable.
Roman had been responsible for the physical ambush.
Serena had betrayed Leo.
But Victor may have designed the circumstances that made both possible.
Alora entered.
“Dominic.”
Something in her voice made him stand.
“What happened?”
“Evelyn drew something.”
They returned to the dining room.
The child had produced several pictures.
Horses.
The lake.
Alora.
Dominic with exaggerated angry eyebrows.
He almost smiled.
Then he saw the final drawing.
A gray-haired man stood beside a black car.
Dominic crouched.
“Evelyn.”
She looked up.
“Who is this?”
“The man from Portland.”
Maeve awakened at the sound of her daughter’s voice and entered.
“What man?”
Evelyn pointed.
“He used to watch school.”
Maeve froze.
“You never told me.”
“You said not to talk to strangers.”
“Did he speak to you?”
“Once.”
Every adult in the room became still.
“What did he say?” Dominic asked.
“He said he knew Daddy.”
Maeve moved toward her daughter.
“When?”
“Before we left our house.”
Evelyn looked worried.
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
Maeve pulled her close.
“Never. Tell us everything.”
The child thought.
“He said Daddy left me a present.”
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
“What present?”
“He said Mommy had the key.”
Maeve stared at him.
“The deposit box.”
Evelyn nodded because adults appeared to understand.
“He told me if Mommy forgot where she put it, I should remember the song.”
“What song?”
Evelyn began humming.
Maeve covered her mouth.
Dominic recognized nothing.
But Maeve did.
“Leo used to sing that to her.”
“What is it?”
“An old Irish lullaby.”
“Did the man say anything else?”
Evelyn nodded.
“He said Daddy hid things inside stories.”
Maeve looked confused.
Dominic did not.
Leo had done that as a child.
Codes inside books.
Numbers concealed in song lyrics.
Information disguised as jokes.
“Did Leo leave Evelyn books?”
“Dozens.”
“Where?”
Maeve went pale.
“In storage.”
“Portland?”
“Yes.”
Jax immediately stood.
“We need them.”
“No.”
Dominic’s answer was instant.
“If Victor knows about the books, he may be watching the unit.”
Jax looked at him.
“I can send people.”
“And announce that we know?”
“We need whatever Leo hid.”
Alora spoke quietly.
“Maybe we already have part of it.”
Everyone looked toward her.
She pointed at the letter.
“Leo said the evidence was in a deposit box registered to Maeve.”
“Yes.”
“But Evelyn was told her mother had the key.”
Maeve frowned.
“I do not have a key.”
“Maybe not a physical one.”
Alora picked up Leo’s photograph.
“He said Evelyn should remember a song if Maeve forgot where she put it.”
Her librarian mind had begun doing what Dominic loved most—finding connections other people missed.
“Leo loved history, yes?”
Dominic nodded.
“Not like you, but yes.”
“Books?”
“Yes.”
Maeve suddenly inhaled.
“There was one.”
“What?”
“A book Leo gave me before Evelyn was born.”
She stood.
“I kept it because he wrote inside the cover.”
“Where is it?”
Maeve closed her eyes.
Then looked at the luggage near the stairs.
“I still have it.”
She ran.
A minute later she returned holding an old copy of The Count of Monte Cristo.
Dominic took it.
Inside the cover, Leo had written:
For Maeve — because every prison has a door if you know where to look. L.
Alora began turning pages carefully.
Nothing.
Dominic examined the binding.
Still nothing.
Then Evelyn approached.
“Daddy liked page 117.”
Maeve looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“The song.”
She began humming again and counted beats with her fingers.
“One-one-seven.”
Alora turned to page 117.
A sentence had been underlined faintly.
Beneath it were numbers.
42-18-7-31
Jax photographed them.
“Coordinates?”
“No,” Alora said.
“Bank box combination?”
“Possibly.”
Dominic studied the page.
Then he noticed a tiny mark beside the spine.
He pressed it.
The binding opened slightly.
Something thin fell onto the table.
A key card.
And a memory card.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
Jax looked at Dominic.
“Leo really was a paranoid bastard.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“He learned from me.”
They inserted the card into an isolated computer.
One video file appeared.
Date stamped three days before Leo’s death.
Dominic clicked.
Leo appeared on screen.
Alive.
His brother leaned toward the camera.
His face looked tired.
“Dom, if you are seeing this, things went badly.”
Dominic’s breath stopped.
“I discovered who is behind Cross.”
Leo looked away briefly.
“Victor Hale is alive.”
Maeve began crying silently.
Leo continued.
“He has been using Lazarus for years. He built a shadow version of our organization beneath us. Cross believes Victor is financing him because he wants the Wolfes gone.”
Leo smiled bitterly.
“He is only half right.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“Victor does not want the Wolfe organization.”
Leo looked directly into the camera.
“He wants the Wolfe name.”
A sound occurred somewhere off-screen.
Leo hurried.
“There is something Father never told you.”
Dominic’s entire body became still.
“Victor is family.”
The video ended.
Nothing followed.
Jax stared.
“What the hell does that mean?”
Dominic shook his head slowly.
“I do not know.”
Then every light inside the lake house went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Evelyn screamed.
Dominic immediately reached for Alora.
Jax drew his weapon.
Outside, the security alarm activated for less than one second before dying.
Dominic understood immediately.
This was not a power failure.
Someone had disabled the entire system.
A red laser appeared against the window.
Dominic threw Alora to the floor.
Glass exploded above them.
The shot struck the wall.
Maeve grabbed Evelyn.
Jax shouted toward the security team.
No response.
Another bullet entered.
Dominic crawled toward his wife.
“You stay behind me.”
“Dominic—”
“Not this time.”
He pressed a weapon into Alora’s hand.
She stared.
“You taught me to use this because you said—”
“I know what I said.”
His eyes met hers.
“If anyone comes through that door, aim for the center of the body and keep pulling until they stop.”
Outside, engines approached through the darkness.
Many engines.
Jax looked through a narrow opening.
His face hardened.
“How many?”
Dominic asked.
“Too many.”
Evelyn began crying.
Maeve held her on the floor.
Dominic looked at his niece.
Then at Leo frozen on the dark computer screen.
He had promised his dead brother.
Protect them.
Dominic checked his weapon.
“Jax.”
“Yes?”
“We are not retreating.”
Jax smiled without humor.
“I was hoping you would say that.”
Dominic turned toward Alora.
“Whatever happens, you get Evelyn out.”
Alora shook her head.
“We all get out.”
Outside, the first man reached the house.
May you like
Dominic heard the door downstairs splinter.
And for the first time since leaving the criminal world, Dominic Wolfe prepared to become exactly what his enemies had once feared.
