“Thank you,” Annie said.
“Run.”
Annie ran. The steel door opened onto the pier, where cold harbor air struck her face. She slipped into the maze of shipping containers and pressed herself between two rusted walls. Heavy footsteps approached.
Annie opened her mouth to scream.
“Little one.”
Marco Bellini stepped into the gap, rain dripping from his coat. He dropped to one knee and opened his arms. Annie ran into them.
“You’re safe,” Marco whispered. “You’re safe.”
She clutched the wrong bear to her chest. “Where’s Mr. Moretti?”
Marco lifted his radio. “Boss, the little one is safe. Repeat, the little one is safe.”
At that exact moment, Gabriel entered the old smuggler’s tunnel beneath Pier 19. He had come through the front with six men, just as Kane expected. Ray and twelve others had entered from the storm drain beneath the warehouse. Lucia had called Father Antonio, who had quietly called two police captains who owed him their lives.
The raid was already moving. But Kane was running.
Gabriel found him at a private launch dock below the pier, one foot already near a waiting boat. Kane turned with a pistol in his hand.
“Fifteen years,” Kane said. “I waited fifteen years to end your father’s house.”
Gabriel raised his own gun. “My father died standing,” he said. “That matters.”
Kane smiled. “Your father died because he trusted the wrong men. You nearly died because you trusted the wrong woman. You Morettis are sentimental. That has always been your weakness.”
“Maybe.”
Sirens rose above them. Kane’s eyes flicked toward the sound. Gabriel saw the twitch in his hand, the desperate lift of the pistol. He fired once—not to kill, but to stop. The bullet struck Kane’s shoulder. Kane’s gun fell into the water. He dropped hard against the dock, cursing.
Gabriel crossed to him and kicked the pistol farther into the harbor. Kane laughed through clenched teeth. “You need me dead.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “My father would have. I don’t.”
Police lights washed blue and red across the wet boards. “You’re going to live,” Gabriel said. “You’re going to talk. And every man who bought you, sold for you, hid for you, or killed for you is going to hear you say their names in a room with a federal recorder running.”
Kane looked up at him with hatred. Gabriel leaned closer. “That is how I end your house.”
By dawn, Victor Kane was in federal custody. Adrienne Vale, found tied to a chair in the warehouse after Kane had taken her as bait, told the FBI everything before breakfast. She named her brother, Daniel Cross, the shell companies, the stolen ledger, and the accounts meant to drain the Moretti Foundation.
Sebastian Vale was arrested before boarding a flight to Frankfurt. Daniel Cross tried to run and failed.
Camille Kane arrived at the Moretti estate at noon with a leather notebook, two bank keys, and thirty years of Victor Kane’s secrets. Lucia received her in the chapel, not the study.
“I want to disappear,” Camille said.
Lucia placed one hand over the notebook. “You helped the child?”