Chapter 6 - Two Lions Under One RoofBringing Marco Moretti into the estate was like carrying a lit match into a room filled with gasoline.
Nobody relaxed.
Not the guards.
Not the staff.
Certainly not Dominic.
Marco was given a guest suite on the west side of the mansion with two armed men outside his door and cameras covering every entrance.
He found the arrangement amusing.
“Do your guests usually get this much security?”
Dominic did not smile.
“My guests usually aren’t mysterious dead twins who stalk my child.”
“Fair.”
Sarah stood between them in the library.
“Can both of you stop measuring who has the larger criminal ego for five minutes?”
Marco looked delighted.
Dominic looked offended.
Sarah pointed toward the laptop.
“We have a kidnapped seven-year-old.”
That ended the contest.
Mateo inserted Marco’s flash drive into an isolated computer.
No network connection.
No external drives.
Within seconds, hundreds of files appeared.
Bank records.
Photographs.
Medical reports.
Birth certificates.
Surveillance transcripts.
Sarah sat down.
“Where did you get this?”
“I spent twenty years looking.”
Marco’s voice had changed.
The sarcasm disappeared whenever Gabriel was mentioned.
Sarah recognized the phenomenon.
Fear.
Not fear for himself.
The unique terror of a parent whose child was beyond reach.
“How long has Gabriel lived with you?” she asked.
“Since he was born.”
“His mother?”
“Dead.”
Sarah’s expression softened.
“I’m sorry.”
Marco looked away.
“She was a journalist.”
Dominic glanced at him.
“A journalist?”
“Yes.”
“You married a journalist?”
“I contain multitudes.”
“This explains why your life is terrible.”
Marco smiled faintly.
“Her name was Claire.”
“What happened?”
“She investigated Centurion Medical.”
Sarah understood immediately.
“The White Table.”
“She discovered pharmaceutical trials conducted through private clinics in Eastern Europe. Drugs that never passed regulatory approval. They used children.”
Sarah’s stomach turned.
“Claire was going to publish.”
“And they killed her,” Dominic said.
Marco nodded.
“Car accident.”
“The same method used for Isabella’s fake death.”
“Yes.”
“Gabriel saw it?”
“No. Thank God.”
Sarah looked through the files.
“What does the White Table want with the Moretti succession?”
Marco leaned over the desk.
“Control.”
“Explain.”
“The Moretti organization controls unions, shipping routes, construction, waste management, three private ports, logistics companies, and relationships inside half the city government.”
Dominic looked annoyed.
“You’ve done your homework.”
“I had time.”
Marco continued.
“The White Table never cared which Moretti sat at the head as long as he obeyed. Our grandfather obeyed. Our father started refusing.”
“That’s why he died?”
“I think so.”
Dominic’s father had officially died of a stroke at fifty-one.
Sarah could already see where this was going.
“Poison?”
Marco nodded.
“Digitalis. Small doses over months.”
Dominic remained still.
“And Isabella?”
“She worked for them.”
Sarah looked at the files.
“So she raised Dominic to become their puppet.”
“Yes.”
Dominic laughed softly.
“They chose badly.”
Marco smiled.
“For once, we agree.”
A sound came from the doorway.
“Dad?”
Every adult turned.
Leo stood holding a book.
Sarah closed the laptop immediately.
“What are you doing awake?”
“I can’t sleep.”
He noticed Marco.
Children had an uncanny ability to recognize resemblance.
Leo stared.
Then he looked at Dominic.
Then back at Marco.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“Why is there another you?”
Marco nearly choked.
Sarah pressed her lips together.
Dominic looked deeply tired.
“This is Marco.”
Leo walked closer.
“Is he your brother?”
Dominic stared at his son.
“How did you know?”
“You have the same eyebrows.”
Marco laughed.
Dominic gave him a look.
Leo held out his hand.
“Hi.”
Marco’s smile disappeared.
Something almost painful crossed his face.
He crouched.
“Hello, Leonardo.”
“Everyone calls me Leo.”
“Then Leo.”
They shook hands.
“You look like Dad.”
“I’m much better-looking.”
Dominic said, “Go to bed.”
Leo grinned.
Then he noticed the photograph on the corner of the desk.
Gabriel.
Sarah reached for it too late.
“Who’s that?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Leo looked at Sarah.
“Mom?”
Sarah refused to lie to him completely.
“His name is Gabriel.”
“Is he Marco’s son?”
Marco looked at Sarah in surprise.
Leo frowned at the photograph.
“He looks scared.”
Marco’s throat moved.
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“We’re trying to find him.”
Leo looked at Marco.
“Did bad people take him?”
Sarah’s heart tightened.
Children understood more than adults wanted them to.
Marco nodded.
Leo thought for a moment.
Then he placed his stuffed lion on the desk.
It was the same toy he had carried for years.
“You can give him this when you find him.”
Marco stared at it.
“It’s your favorite.”
“I have another one.”
Sarah knew that was a lie.
Leo had slept with that lion every night since he was two.
Marco picked up the toy carefully.
“Thank you.”
Leo nodded.
Then he hugged him.
Marco froze.
His arms remained at his sides for a second.
Then slowly, almost uncertainly, he hugged Leo back.
Dominic watched.
Sarah watched Dominic.
For the first time since Marco appeared, suspicion in Dominic’s face gave way to something else.
Recognition.
Not trust.
Not yet.
But blood.
Sarah took Leo upstairs.
When she returned twenty minutes later, the brothers were still staring at the files.
Mateo had found something.
“Centurion moved twelve refrigerated containers through Pier Thirty-One three nights ago.”
Dominic frowned.
“Medical supplies?”
“Declared as such.”
“Destination?”
“Private warehouse in South Chicago.”
Marco stood.
“That could be Gabriel.”
Sarah looked at the clock.
1:18 a.m.
“Then we go now.”
Dominic immediately said, “You stay.”
Sarah stared at him.
Marco murmured, “I’m beginning to understand your marriage.”
“Quiet,” Dominic said.
Sarah folded her arms.
“I’m a trauma nurse. If Gabriel has been held for six days, he may need medical treatment.”
“That’s why we have medics.”
“Do your medics recognize pediatric dehydration, stress-induced arrhythmias, benzodiazepine overdose, pressure injuries, or insulin shock on sight?”
Dominic paused.
Marco smiled.
“I vote for Sarah.”
“Nobody asked you.”
“You said she gets a vote.”
Dominic glared at him.
Sarah reached for her jacket.
“Democracy wins.”
Forty minutes later, four black SUVs moved south through sleeping Chicago.
The warehouse stood beside abandoned railway tracks.
No lights.
No visible guards.
Too quiet.
Dominic studied it through binoculars.
“This is wrong.”
Marco nodded.
“They want us here.”
Sarah sat in the command vehicle.
“Can we verify thermal?”
Mateo checked the screen.
“Three heat signatures.”
“One small?”
“Possibly.”
Marco opened the door.
Dominic caught his arm.
“You don’t move until we know.”
“That is my son.”
“And charging into an ambush gets him killed.”
Marco’s eyes flashed.
“You don’t get to lecture me about being a father.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Yes, I do.”
The brothers stared at each other.
Sarah spoke.
“Enough.”
Both looked at her.
“Marco, if Gabriel is inside, your fear is exactly what they’re using.”
Marco looked away.
Sarah continued.
“Dominic, stop talking to him like he’s one of your soldiers.”
Neither man apologized.
But neither argued.
Mateo sent in a drone.
The feed showed a cavernous warehouse.
Empty aisles.
Medical crates.
One chair in the center.
A child sat in it.
Marco stopped breathing.
“Gabriel.”
The boy’s head was down.
Sarah studied the screen.
“Zoom.”
The image enlarged.
She immediately saw something wrong.
“No.”
Marco turned.
“What?”
“Look at his chest.”
“What?”
“It isn’t moving.”
Marco went pale.
Dominic grabbed the radio.
“Team One, hold.”
Sarah leaned closer.
The boy’s hair.
Skin.
Hands.
Too smooth.
“It’s a mannequin.”
Mateo swore.
Then the drone feed went white.
“EMP!”
The vehicle electronics died.
From the warehouse roof, floodlights erupted.
Gunfire followed.
“AMBUSH!”
Dominic pulled Sarah down as bullets struck the armored window.
Marco fired through the opening.
Mateo’s men returned fire.
Sarah crawled toward the rear of the SUV.
Something rolled beneath the chassis.
“Grenade!”
Dominic kicked the door open.
“OUT!”
They ran.
The SUV exploded behind them.
Sarah hit the pavement.
Her ears rang.
Dominic dragged her behind a concrete barrier.
Marco appeared on the other side.
Blood covered his forehead.
“I’m fine,” he said before anyone asked.
A voice boomed through speakers mounted inside the warehouse.
“Dominic Moretti.”
Dominic looked up.
“Marco Moretti.”
The voice was female.
Older.
Elegant.
Familiar somehow.
Sarah saw Dominic’s expression change.
“Mother,” he whispered.
The voice continued.
“You were always difficult boys.”
Marco’s face hardened.
“ISABELLA!”
A laugh echoed across the yard.
“My beautiful mistake.”
Marco fired at the speakers.
The bullet shattered one.
The voice simply moved to another.
“Your fathers spent generations building what you are determined to destroy.”
Dominic shouted, “Where is Gabriel?”
“Alive.”
“Show him.”
“No.”
Marco raised his weapon.
“You touch my son—”
“Your son is useful.”
Isabella’s voice became cold.
“Leonardo is the problem.”
Sarah felt Dominic’s arm tighten around her.
“You will never touch him,” he said.
“Oh, Dominic.”
The woman laughed.
“I already have.”
Sarah froze.
Dominic did too.
The speakers went silent.
Then Sarah’s phone vibrated.
Impossible.
The signal jammer had gone down with the electrical attack.
One image arrived.
Sarah opened it.
Her heart stopped.
Leo was asleep in his bedroom.
Photographed from inside the room.
Timestamp:
11:52 p.m.
Tonight.
Sarah stared.
“No.”
Dominic saw it.
His face became something inhuman.
“Mateo.”
Mateo checked his watch.
“Estate team last reported at 1:05.”
“Call.”
No connection.
Sarah could barely breathe.
Sophia was at the house.
Leo was at the house.
Dominic stood.
“We’re leaving.”
Marco grabbed him.
“My son—”
“This was never about the warehouse.”
Sarah understood.
“They pulled our strongest security team away from the estate.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
“They used Gabriel to move us.”
Marco’s face went pale.
They ran toward the remaining vehicles.
Then Marco’s phone rang.
Unknown caller.
He answered.
A child’s voice came through.
“Dad?”
Marco stopped walking.
“Gabriel?”
“Dad?”
Marco’s entire body shook.
“Gabriel, where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m scared.”
Marco closed his eyes.
“I know. Listen to me. I’m coming.”
A woman took the phone.
Isabella.
“One boy for another.”
Marco’s face became stone.
“Never.”
“Then Gabriel dies at sunrise.”
The call ended.
Marco stared at Dominic.
Dominic stared back.
Two fathers.
Two sons.
One impossible choice.
Sarah stepped between them.
“No.”
Both men looked at her.
“We are not trading children.”
“Sarah—” Dominic began.
“No.”
Her voice hardened.
“We find another way.”
Marco looked broken.
“You don’t understand.”
Sarah walked directly toward him.
“I held Leo when his heart stopped. I watched someone point a gun at his head before he was a week old. I understand exactly what it means to believe your child might die.”
Marco looked away.
Sarah grabbed his face, forcing him to look at her.
“So listen carefully.”
Her eyes burned.
“We are getting both boys back.”
Dominic stared at his wife.
May you like
Sarah released Marco.
“And then we are ending the White Table.”
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