Chapter 5 - Room 1515
The coordinates led to the Grand Hotel.
Fifteenth floor.
Room 1515.
It had been permanently closed since a renovation fifteen years earlier.
At 2:10 a.m., Camille stood outside it with Gabriel.
“No army?” she asked.
“Marco’s downstairs.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Six men.”
Camille sighed.
“Of course.”
Gabriel inserted the completed pendant into a decorative indentation beside the old door.
Click.
The lock released.
Inside was not a hotel room.
It was a vault.
Shelves held drives, documents and old servers.
Camille whispered, “My father built this.”
A monitor switched on.
Thomas appeared live.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
Camille couldn’t speak.
Neither could he.
Finally she whispered, “Dad.”
Thomas touched the screen.
“Millie.”
“Where are you?”
“Close.”
“No more games.”
“I agree.”
The vault’s inner door opened.
Thomas Carter stepped through.
Camille stared at him.
Then walked forward and slapped both hands against his chest.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You’re actually alive.”
“Yes.”
She hit his chest again.
“You absolute idiot.”
Thomas laughed through tears.
“That sounds fair.”
Then Camille hugged him.
Gabriel turned away, giving them privacy.
Thomas eventually looked over her shoulder.
“Gabriel Moretti.”
“Mr. Carter.”
“You got taller.”
Gabriel blinked.
Camille laughed.
“That’s your first observation?”
“I haven’t seen him since he was seventeen.”
Thomas approached Gabriel.
“You kept your promise.”
Gabriel glanced at Camille.
“Eventually.”
Thomas’s expression became serious.
“Then I need your help once more.”
He activated the main computer.
A list appeared.
Names.
Transactions.
Dates.
Thomas said, “The archive was originally Voss’s leverage. I spent fifteen years converting it into evidence.”
Camille stared at the screen.
“Evidence against whom?”
“A network that survived by hiding behind legitimate businesses.”
Gabriel scanned the records.
Then stopped.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Moretti Holdings.
Authorized representative:
SALVATORE MORETTI.
Gabriel’s uncle.
Marco’s voice came through the earpiece.
“Boss, we found your mother.”
Gabriel straightened.
“Alive?”
“Yes. She’s being held in the hotel’s old executive conference suite.”
“Who’s with her?”
Marco paused.
“Your uncle Salvatore.”
Gabriel closed his eyes briefly.
Camille touched his arm.
“Gabriel.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re angry.”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
He looked at her.
“You stay here.”
She gave him a look.
“Try again.”
“Camille.”
“Your uncle wants both pendants. I’m carrying one.”
“Which is precisely why—”
Thomas interrupted.
“She gets that from her mother.”
Camille looked at him.
“Not helping.”
They reached the executive suite minutes later.
Teresa sat inside, unharmed but furious.
Salvatore Moretti stood near the window.
“Gabriel.”
“Uncle.”
Salvatore looked at Camille.
“So Thomas’s daughter finally came back.”
Camille answered, “Apparently everybody in Boston knew my childhood except me.”
Salvatore smiled.
“You have spirit.”
“I’ve been told.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“Let my mother leave.”
Teresa stood.
Salvatore didn’t stop her.
Gabriel frowned.
“That easy?”
Salvatore laughed.
“Gabriel, this was never about Teresa.”
Thomas entered behind them.
Salvatore’s smile vanished.
“You.”
Thomas nodded.
“Disappointed?”
“You should have stayed dead.”
“No. I should have come back sooner.”
Salvatore’s gaze moved toward the pendant.
“Give me the key.”
Camille shook her head.
“It isn’t a key anymore.”
His expression changed.
Thomas lifted his phone.
“The archive was transmitted to federal investigators ten minutes ago.”
Salvatore stared at him.
“You’re bluffing.”
Thomas smiled.
“I’ve had fifteen years to prepare that sentence.”
Sirens began approaching outside.
Marco looked through the window.
“Not a bluff.”
Salvatore’s face hardened.
Gabriel stepped between him and Camille.
“It’s finished.”
Salvatore looked at his nephew.
“You’d destroy your own family for her?”
Gabriel answered calmly.
“No.”
He looked at Camille.
“I’m protecting what remains of it.”
Teresa came to stand beside her son.
“And so am I.”
For the first time, Salvatore realized nobody in the room was standing with him.
Camille looked at Gabriel.
His hand found hers.
Not possessively.
Not as an order.
Just there.
She squeezed it.
May you like
And for the first time in fifteen years, the silver pendant no longer felt like something left behind by the dead.
It felt like a door finally closing.
