“He knows something.”
Dr. Petrov raised both hands.
“Gabriel Shaw was not a dockworker.”
“Who was he?”
The doctor swallowed.
“He was your father’s illegitimate son.”
The silence that followed felt endless.
Damian’s face did not change, but the gun lowered slightly.
“My father had no other son.”
“He did. Gabriel’s mother was a nurse at this house. Your father paid her to leave Baltimore.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she was my sister.”
Damian stared at him.
Dr. Petrov’s voice shook.
“Gabriel believed Grayhaven belonged to him. He believed your father stole his childhood, his name, and his inheritance. Years ago, he began building alliances among your enemies.”
“The trafficking routes.”
“Yes.”
“You helped him.”
“No.”
The denial came too quickly.
Damian raised the gun again.
Dr. Petrov’s eyes filled with panic.
“I treated him once. That is all. He came to me after the warehouse fire with severe burns. I did not know what he had done until later.”
“You kept him alive.”
“He was my nephew.”
“And now he is poisoning me.”
The doctor shook his head.
“I swear I did not know.”
Lila suddenly pulled away from me.
She walked toward Dr. Petrov.
“Lila, stop.”
She ignored me and looked at the doctor’s shoes.
Then she pointed.
A faint trail of dust marked the leather.
The same gray dust from the hidden corridor.
Damian saw it.
“So,” he said softly, “you did know about the passage.”
Dr. Petrov looked down.
His face collapsed.
“I had no choice.”
The door burst open.
Viktor entered with two guards.
“Drop the weapon, Doctor.”
Dr. Petrov moved faster than anyone expected.
He seized Lila and pulled a small blade from his sleeve.
My scream tore through the room.
Lila struggled in his arms, terrified but silent.
“Let her go!” I shouted.
Dr. Petrov pressed the blade near her shoulder.
“Put the gun down, Damian.”
Damian’s face became terrifyingly calm.
“You will not leave this room alive.”
“I don’t need to leave. I only need time.”
“For Gabriel?”
The doctor smiled bitterly.
“You still think Gabriel is outside the mansion.”
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
A deep explosion shook the east wing.
Glass shattered.
The lights went out.
For one second, darkness swallowed everything.
Then gunfire thundered through the hallway.
I heard guards shouting.
Dr. Petrov dragged Lila toward the hidden passage.
I threw myself at him.
The blade sliced my sleeve, but I caught his wrist and bit down with all my strength. He cried out. Lila slipped free.
Damian fired once.
The muzzle flash lit the room.
Dr. Petrov fell against the wall.
I grabbed Lila and pulled her beneath the bed as bullets struck the door.
Viktor and the guards returned fire.
Smoke filled the room.
Damian tried to stand, but his weakened legs failed. He collapsed beside the bed, one hand clutching his chest.
I crawled toward him.
“You need to stay down.”
“Take Lila through the passage.”
“It may be where they entered.”
“It leads to the chapel. Viktor will go with you.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
His eyes met mine.
“Emma, Gabriel burned your husband alive. He erased your life. If he finds you, he will finish what he started.”
The hidden door opened wider.
Viktor motioned urgently.
“Now!”
I lifted Lila.
Before entering the passage, she reached toward Damian.
He caught her hand.
For the first time, the ruthless mafia boss looked openly afraid.
Not for himself.
For her.
“I will find you,” he promised.
Lila pressed Bunny into his hands once more.
Then Viktor led us into darkness.
The passage was narrow and cold. Dust floated through the beam of his flashlight. Behind us, gunfire continued. Ahead, something moved.
Viktor raised his weapon.
“Who’s there?”
A man stepped into the light.
He wore a black suit and a silver ring.
My heart stopped.
He was older than I remembered, his face scarred along one side, but I recognized the smile from Noah’s funeral.
Gabriel Shaw.
He looked at Lila.
Then at me.
“I have waited three years for you to bring me that rabbit.”
Viktor aimed at him.
Gabriel laughed.
“You still don’t understand.”
He opened his jacket.
Strapped beneath it was not a bomb.
It was a police badge.
Behind him, half a dozen armed federal agents filled the corridor.
Viktor’s face changed.
Gabriel looked past us toward Damian’s room.
“Damian Volkov was never the target of the investigation,” he said calmly. “He was the bait.”
Then he pointed directly at me.
“And Emma Bennett is the only person alive who knows which man inside Grayhaven ordered her husband’s murder.”
Before I could speak, the mansion’s emergency lights flickered on.
Viktor slowly lowered his gun.
On his hand, hidden beneath his glove, was a silver ring identical to Gabriel’s.
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