Chapter 6 - The House Where He FellDiamond wanted to burn the lakeside house from three miles away.
Levi wanted to surround it with thirty armed men.
Caprice wanted information.
That made her the most dangerous person in the room.
By sunrise, they were back at the estate.
Maps covered the conference table.
Satellite photographs.
Property records.
Old police reports.
Security photographs from the night Diamond had been shot.
Caprice stood beside the table drinking coffee.
Diamond sat opposite her.
Levi paced.
“We don’t go,” Levi said.
Diamond looked at him.
“That is not an option.”
“It is absolutely an option.”
Levi slapped a photograph onto the table.
“This is bait.”
“Obviously.”
“Then stop acting like the hook is invisible.”
Diamond’s voice lowered.
“My mother is alive.”
“We have one photograph.”
“Samuel knew her name.”
“Samuel was tortured.”
“Exactly.”
Diamond leaned forward.
“Someone tortured an old dock worker to deliver information only three people alive should know.”
Levi stopped pacing.
Caprice looked between them.
“Who are the three?”
Diamond answered.
“Me. Levi. And the man who helped my father remove every record of Evelyn Kelly after she disappeared.”
“Who?”
Levi and Diamond exchanged a look.
Levi answered.
“Victor Sloane.”
Caprice waited.
Nothing else came.
“Should that name mean something to me?”
Diamond’s expression turned grim.
“He built my father’s empire.”
Levi added, “And disappeared six months before Dom was shot.”
Caprice slowly put down her coffee.
“Alive?”
“We assumed dead,” Diamond said.
“You assume a lot of people are dead.”
“In our business, statistically, it works.”
Caprice ignored the comment.
“Tell me about him.”
Diamond looked toward the windows.
“Victor was my father’s consigliere.”
“Meaning?”
“Advisor. Fixer. Strategist.”
Levi folded his arms.
“He knew everything. Accounts. Judges. Police. Warehouses. Political connections. Bodies.”
Caprice looked at Diamond.
“And your mother.”
“Yes.”
“Did you search for Victor when she disappeared?”
“I was seventeen.”
Diamond’s mouth hardened.
“My father controlled every dollar I touched and every man around me.”
“What about later?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“Nothing.”
Caprice stared at the map.
Then at the coordinates.
“What if Victor isn’t threatening us?”
Levi laughed once.
“A tortured corpse and grave desecration feel unfriendly.”
“I didn’t say friendly.”
Caprice pointed toward the photograph of Evelyn.
“What if he’s trying to force Diamond to uncover something?”
Diamond studied her.
“By threatening you?”
“Yes.”
“That makes him an enemy.”
“Maybe.”
“No maybe.”
Caprice sighed.
“You really only have two categories for people.”
“Three.”
“Enemy, employee, and?”
Diamond looked at her.
“You.”
Caprice paused.
Levi made a disgusted sound.
“I’m going to pretend that didn’t happen.”
For the first time that morning, Caprice smiled.
The moment passed quickly.
Diamond looked toward the map.
“We go tonight.”
Levi opened his mouth.
“With a team,” Diamond added.
Caprice shook her head.
“The note says bring the queen.”
“No.”
“Then why are we discussing this?”
“Because I am going.”
“And I’m coming.”
“No.”
Caprice leaned across the table.
“Diamond.”
“No.”
“You cannot physically stop me.”
Diamond’s eyes narrowed.
“I have approximately eighty people on this property who can physically stop you.”
“Then I’ll tell them why.”
Diamond looked toward Levi.
“Why does everyone in this house eventually betray me?”
Levi shrugged.
“She has a point.”
“You were threatening to remove her yourself two months ago.”
“I’ve evolved.”
Caprice smiled.
Diamond did not.
That evening, they went.
Not thirty men.
Eight.
Two vehicles.
Levi drove the lead SUV.
Diamond and Caprice rode in the second armored vehicle.
Snow covered the forest road.
The lakeside house appeared through bare trees.
Caprice felt Diamond change beside her.
His breathing slowed.
His hands became still.
Too still.
She looked at him.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
Lie.
Caprice put her hand over his.
Diamond did not look at her.
“I remember walking through that door.”
His voice was quiet.
Caprice waited.
“I remember being irritated because the floor was muddy.”
A bitter laugh.
“Imagine that.”
His fingers tightened around hers.
“The last thing I noticed while standing was mud on my shoes.”
Caprice looked toward the house.
“What happened?”
“Meeting with three men.”
“Who?”
“Dock representatives.”
“Samuel?”
“No.”
Diamond’s eyes remained on the building.
“They never arrived.”
“Then?”
“I walked inside.”
His voice became distant.
“Levi was outside taking a call.”
Levi’s voice came through the vehicle radio.
“I was ninety seconds away.”
Diamond closed his eyes.
“The shot came through the rear window.”
Caprice felt his hand tighten.
“I didn’t hear it.”
He swallowed.
“I remember falling.”
The vehicle stopped.
Diamond opened his eyes.
“And I remember trying to stand.”
Caprice said nothing.
“I kept ordering my legs to move.”
His voice cracked.
“They wouldn’t.”
Caprice leaned toward him.
Diamond looked at her.
The powerful man disappeared.
For one moment, she saw the thirty-two-year-old man lying on a dirty floor, not yet understanding that his life had changed forever.
“I’m here,” she whispered.
Diamond nodded.
Levi opened the door.
“Time.”
The team entered first.
No movement.
No traps detected.
Diamond’s chair crossed the threshold over a portable ramp.
He stopped inside.
The room was almost exactly as it had been two years earlier.
Dust.
Rotting furniture.
Broken glass.
And a dark stain in the wood floor.
Diamond stared at it.
Caprice knew.
His blood.
She moved beside him.
A speaker clicked.
Everyone raised weapons.
A woman’s voice filled the room.
“Diamond.”
He froze.
The voice trembled.
Older.
But familiar.
Diamond’s pistol lowered.
“Mother?”
Caprice’s heart stopped.
A door opened at the far end of the room.
An elderly woman stepped through.
The woman from the photograph.
Evelyn Kelly.
Diamond did not breathe.
Neither did she.
Then Evelyn covered her mouth.
“My boy.”
Diamond’s gun fell to the floor.
The sound echoed.
Caprice had never seen him cry.
Not during pain.
Not after the attack.
Not when he confessed his fear.
But tears appeared immediately.
Evelyn crossed the room.
Diamond remained frozen.
She dropped to her knees in front of his wheelchair.
Her hands touched his face.
“Oh, God.”
Diamond stared at her.
“You’re alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re alive.”
Evelyn pulled him against her.
Diamond broke.
His arms wrapped around his mother.
His shoulders shook.
Twenty years of rage collapsed in seconds.
Caprice turned away.
Even Levi lowered his eyes.
Then a gunshot exploded.
Evelyn jerked.
Diamond’s expression changed.
Blood appeared across her shoulder.
“DOWN!”
Levi fired toward the upper balcony.
Caprice dropped behind Diamond’s chair.
More shots.
Men moved.
Glass shattered.
Evelyn collapsed against Diamond.
He held her.
“Mother!”
Caprice pressed her hands against the wound.
“Through the shoulder.”
She looked at Diamond.
“She’s alive.”
Levi shouted from across the room.
“Shooter moving east!”
Diamond’s face became lethal.
“Take him alive.”
The house erupted.
Caprice stayed with Evelyn.
Diamond refused to release his mother’s hand.
Five minutes later, Levi returned.
Blood covered his sleeve.
“Shooter got away.”
Diamond looked at him.
“How?”
“Tunnel.”
Levi’s face was furious.
“This house has a tunnel we didn’t know about.”
Evelyn opened her eyes.
“Victor.”
Diamond looked down.
“What?”
“He built it.”
Her voice shook.
“Victor built everything.”
Diamond leaned closer.
“Where is he?”
Evelyn looked at Caprice.
Then Diamond.
“He’s been waiting for you.”
“Why?”
Tears filled Evelyn’s eyes.
“Because he’s your father.”
Silence.
Diamond stared at her.
The world seemed to tilt.
“No.”
Evelyn gripped his hand.
“Diamond—”
“No.”
He pulled backward.
“My father is buried in the Kelly crypt.”
“The man in that coffin raised you.”
Evelyn’s voice broke.
“But Victor Sloane is the man who gave you life.”
Diamond looked physically ill.
Caprice moved toward him.
He raised one hand.
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
Evelyn began crying.
“Your father found out.”
“Which father?”
The words were poison.
Evelyn flinched.
“Patrick.”
Diamond laughed.
It sounded broken.
“Patrick Kelly.”
He looked around the house.
“So the dead man who beat me was not my father.”
“He raised you.”
“He tortured you.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I tried to leave with Victor.”
Diamond stared.
“And Victor?”
“He escaped.”
“Without you?”
“He believed I was dead.”
Evelyn’s voice became faint.
“Patrick kept me alive because killing me would have started a war.”
Diamond looked toward Levi.
“Did you know?”
Levi looked horrified.
“No.”
Diamond returned his gaze to Evelyn.
“Why disappear for twenty years?”
“I was imprisoned for six.”
Caprice felt sick.
Evelyn continued.
“After Patrick died, I escaped.”
“Then why didn’t you come to me?”
“Because Victor had returned.”
Diamond’s face hardened.
“And?”
“And he had become worse than Patrick.”
A sound came from the basement.
A mechanical click.
Evelyn’s face changed.
“Run.”
Levi turned.
“What?”
“RUN!”
The explosion lifted the floor.
Caprice felt herself thrown sideways.
Heat.
Wood.
Smoke.
Then darkness.
She woke with Diamond screaming her name.
“CAPRICE!”
Her ears rang.
Something heavy pinned her leg.
Smoke filled the room.
She coughed.
“Here.”
Diamond appeared through the haze.
His wheelchair moved over debris with difficulty.
One wheel was damaged.
“Caprice!”
“I’m here.”
He reached her.
A beam lay across her ankle.
Diamond grabbed it.
He pulled.
Nothing.
His arms strained.
“Levi!”
No answer.
Evelyn lay unconscious nearby.
Flames moved across the rear wall.
“Diamond.”
He pulled harder.
The beam shifted slightly.
His chair rolled backward.
“Diamond, stop.”
“No.”
“Get your mother out.”
“No.”
“Diamond!”
He looked at her.
“I am not leaving you.”
The words mirrored hers from the night of the attack.
Caprice almost laughed.
Instead she coughed.
“You’re impossible.”
“So are you.”
He locked the chair.
Then pulled again.
The beam moved.
An inch.
Another.
Caprice dragged her leg free.
Diamond caught her around the waist.
She climbed partly across his lap.
“Evelyn.”
Diamond looked toward his mother.
Caprice stood on one good leg.
Together, they reached her.
Levi appeared through the smoke.
Blood covered his forehead.
“Move!”
He lifted Evelyn.
The four escaped seconds before fire swallowed the room.
Outside, Caprice collapsed in the snow.
Diamond sat beside her.
The house burned behind them.
Evelyn was loaded into an ambulance.
Levi shouted orders.
Caprice looked at Diamond.
He stared into the flames.
“Victor is my father.”
Caprice touched his hand.
“Apparently.”
“He shot his own son.”
“We don’t know that.”
Diamond turned toward her.
“Samuel said the man who shot me knew Evelyn. She says Victor built the tunnel. The shooter used the tunnel.”
Caprice said nothing.
Diamond looked back at the house.
“If Victor wanted me dead, why wait two years?”
That question remained unanswered.
Then Caprice noticed something.
A figure stood across the frozen lake.
Far away.
A man.
Watching.
“Diamond.”
He followed her gaze.
The figure raised one hand.
A wave.
Then turned and disappeared into the trees.
Diamond’s face became perfectly still.
He knew.
Without introduction.
Without proof.
He knew.
May you like
“Victor.”
And for the first time, Diamond Kelly saw the father who had given him life.
