Chapter 6 - ROMAN HAYES
Roman disappeared for eleven hours.
In the Valente organization, that was almost impressive.
Dominic locked down every property, account, warehouse, and office Roman might use.
Naomi watched him do it from a conference room borrowed from Varga.
That arrangement alone would have seemed impossible twenty-four hours earlier.
Varga sat at the far end of the table drinking espresso like hosting rival criminals during a betrayal crisis was a normal professional courtesy.
Leo sat beside Naomi with an ice pack against his face.
He had ignored her order to stay home.
Again.
“You can’t keep hitting everyone who doesn’t listen to you,” he told her.
“I haven’t hit everyone.”
“You hit me twice.”
“Data set too small.”
Dominic paced.
Naomi had never seen him pace.
He was built for stillness.
Movement meant something inside him had exceeded containment.
“Roman knows safe houses,” Dominic said.
Varga replied, “Then stop looking at safe houses.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“I don’t need strategic advice from you.”
“You need something. Your best friend just shot your attorney.”
Naomi said, “Stop.”
Both men looked at her.
“Roman is not running from Dominic.”
She turned to Leo.
“He is running toward something.”
Leo frowned.
“The drive?”
“He could have taken it already.”
Dominic stopped.
“What do you mean?”
Naomi looked at him.
“The floorboard was untouched.”
“You checked?”
“Before we left.”
Roman had known enough to tell Celeste.
Enough to threaten the drive.
But he had not taken it.
“He wants me to bring it.”
Varga smiled without humor.
“Like a key.”
Naomi nodded.
“To what?”
Nobody answered.
Priya Shah would have been useful.
Different story.
Instead Dominic had a cybersecurity specialist named Malik Brooks, who entered carrying three phones.
“Got something.”
He projected a map.
“Roman’s personal device is dead. But one of his backup numbers pinged near Red Hook.”
Dominic frowned.
“Pier Fourteen.”
Naomi’s pulse jumped.
Her mother’s letter.
Do not open it unless someone comes asking about Pier 14.
“There.”
Everyone looked at her.
“That’s where he’s going.”
Dominic understood.
“The old waste terminal.”
Varga’s face changed.
“My father used that pier.”
“So did mine,” Dominic said.
Naomi stood.
“Then Daniel investigated it.”
Leo caught her arm.
“No.”
She stared.
He released her.
“Sorry.”
Growth.
“I mean, are you seriously going?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because my brother died for whatever happened there.”
Leo’s face tightened.
“Your other brother.”
She softened.
“My first brother.”
That hurt him.
She put a hand on his face.
“You are not being replaced.”
“Good. I’m difficult to replicate.”
“Unfortunately.”
Dominic approached.
“I’m coming.”
Naomi looked at him.
“Not because you own the answer.”
“No.”
“Not because you think I need permission.”
“No.”
“Why?”
His gaze held hers.
“Because Roman was my responsibility.”
That answer was good enough.
Pier Fourteen had been abandoned after a corruption scandal twelve years earlier.
Rusting cranes stood against the gray morning.
The river slapped black water against concrete pilings.
Dominic brought six men.
Varga brought none.
He stayed behind with Leo because, according to him, “One Valente making emotional decisions near industrial equipment is sufficient.”
Naomi almost liked him.
Almost.
The terminal offices were empty.
Dust.
Broken glass.
Old municipal logos painted on walls.
Dominic found the first camera.
New.
Hidden near a beam.
“Roman knows we’re here.”
Naomi’s phone buzzed.
COME TO THE SCALE HOUSE.
She showed Dominic.
He nodded.
No argument.
They walked together.
The scale house sat at the edge of the pier, a narrow concrete building once used to weigh waste trucks.
Roman waited inside.
Alone.
No gun visible.
Naomi knew better.
Dominic entered first.
Roman looked at him.
“You hit hard for an old man.”
Dominic’s face remained flat.
“You shot Celeste.”
“She lived.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
Naomi stepped inside.
“What do you want?”
Roman looked at her.
“The drive.”
“Why?”
“Because it contains records from the Greco accounts.”
“Among others.”
“I need one transaction.”
“Which?”
He did not answer.
Dominic said, “Tell her.”
Roman laughed softly.
“Still giving orders.”
“You followed them for eleven years.”
“Exactly.”
Pain surfaced.
Naomi saw it.
This was not simple betrayal.
Roman looked at Dominic.
“My father worked for yours.”
“I know.”
“No. You know he was a dock foreman.”
Dominic said nothing.
“He was Daniel Ross’s confidential source.”
Naomi froze.
Roman looked at her.
“My father gave your brother the first ledgers.”
“What happened to him?”
“Disappeared.”
The word landed quietly.
“When?”
“Three weeks before Daniel died.”
Naomi’s throat tightened.
Roman continued.
“I spent twenty years believing Varga killed him. Then I learned Greco did.”
Dominic said, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Roman laughed.
“Because by then I’d also learned your father ordered Ross’s crash.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
That surprised everyone.
Roman looked tired.
“That’s the worst part. I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because you inherited everything built on top of it.”
“So did you.”
Roman flinched.
Dominic continued.
“You took money. Rank. Protection.”
“Yes.”
“You could have left.”
“Could I?”
The question hung.
Naomi understood too well.
Roman turned to her.
“The drive has a transaction from 2008. Greco paid a logistics contractor forty thousand dollars the morning Daniel died.”
“For the crash?”
“I think so.”
“You need proof.”
“Yes.”
“Why not ask me?”
Roman looked at Dominic.
“Because five years ago he asked me to extend Leo’s debt.”
Naomi went still.
Roman’s voice hardened.
“I realized he was becoming his father.”
Dominic absorbed that without defense.
“I was.”
Roman blinked.
Dominic stepped closer.
“I was becoming him.”
No one spoke.
“And Naomi stopped me.”
Naomi stared.
Dominic continued.
“Not because she changed my nature. Because she made me see it.”
Roman’s face tightened.
“You think admitting it erases anything?”
“No.”
“That’s convenient.”
“No.”
Dominic looked at him.
“I think consequences are supposed to be inconvenient.”
Naomi had never heard him speak like that.
Roman looked away.
Then his phone rang.
He glanced down.
His face changed.
Naomi saw fear.
“Who?”
Roman did not answer.
Dominic moved.
Roman pulled a gun.
Everything froze.
“Don’t.”
Dominic stopped.
Roman answered on speaker.
Leo’s voice came through.
“Naomi?”
Her blood turned to ice.
“Leo?”
A man spoke behind him.
The fake Daniel Ross.
“Bring the drive.”
Naomi looked at Dominic.
Roman whispered, “No.”
The voice continued.
“Pier Fourteen. Warehouse B. Twenty minutes.”
The line ended.
Naomi stared at Roman.
“You left him with Varga.”
Roman’s face had gone white.
“Yes.”
“Then where is Varga?”
Roman shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Dominic’s eyes became cold.
“Who knew Leo was there?”
“Three people.”
“Names.”
“Me. Varga.”
Roman swallowed.
“And Salvatore Greco’s son.”
Naomi frowned.
“Greco had a son?”
Roman looked at her.
“Not publicly.”
Dominic understood first.
His face emptied.
“Adrian Vale.”
Naomi’s stomach dropped.
Celeste’s younger brother.
The handsome mergers attorney who had worked in Varga’s legitimate investment company for seven years.
The man Naomi had met twice at charity events.
The man who had joked that Dominic’s accountant was too smart for him.
The fake Daniel Ross now had a face.
Roman said, “Adrian blamed both families.”
Naomi thought of Celeste.
Her grief.
Her plan to expose the truth.
“Did Celeste know?”
“No.”
“Then Adrian used her.”
Roman nodded.
“He used everyone.”
Dominic looked toward the warehouse district.
Naomi’s phone buzzed.
A photograph of Leo tied to a chair.
Beside him sat Jinaro Varga.
Also restrained.
His expensive suit was torn.
Under the image:
BRING DANIEL’S EVIDENCE.
Naomi looked at Dominic.
He looked back.
No command.
No ownership.
Only the question.
“What do you want to do?”
Naomi looked at Roman.
“You expected this call.”
“No.”
“You expected something.”
His face tightened.
“I knew Adrian had been watching Leo.”
Dominic’s voice turned lethal.
“And you said nothing.”
“I was trying to find him.”
“You used Leo as bait.”
Roman flinched.
The accusation landed because it was true enough.
Naomi stepped closer.
“You did exactly what Dominic did to me.”
Roman stared.
“What?”
“You made a decision with someone else’s risk because you thought your objective justified it.”
Silence.
Dominic looked down.
He understood the comparison immediately.
Roman did too.
“I thought I could control it,” Roman said.
Naomi laughed without humor.
“There’s the family motto.”
“No.”
His voice broke slightly.
“I thought if Adrian moved, I could follow him to the records.”
“My brother got hit.”
“I know.”
“He was kidnapped.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to say I know like it is penance.”
Roman looked away.
For the first time since Naomi had met him, the enforcer looked old.
Not physically.
Morally.
Like a man who had finally reached the bill for choices he had kept calling loyalty.
Dominic said, “When this is over, you answer for it.”
Roman nodded.
“Yes.”
No argument.
That mattered.
Naomi checked the message again.
Warehouse B.
Twenty minutes.
Adrian wanted the drive because he believed Daniel’s original evidence was hidden somewhere inside her archive.
He was partly right.
Naomi’s secret copy included records she had gathered over five years, but she had never known which old transactions belonged to Daniel until her mother’s letter gave her the dates.
Now she did.
She had spent the previous hour indexing them.
Not deleting.
Not altering.
Identifying.
If Adrian wanted a key, she could give him a door.
The question was whether he understood what waited on the other side.
Naomi reached into her coat.
Dominic watched but did not ask.
She had put the drive there before leaving Varga’s office.
Her choice.
Her evidence.
Her risk.
Naomi pulled the encrypted drive from inside her coat.
Roman stared.
“You had it?”
“All morning.”
Dominic almost smiled despite everything.
May you like
Naomi closed her fist around it.
“We end this.”
