Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER WHO WANTED ME DEAD
The federal safe house was ugly.
I approved.
No marble.
No staff.
No Vale security cameras.
No one on my payroll.
Just a government-owned house outside Charleston with beige walls, mismatched furniture, and two deputy marshals who did not care what anyone called me in Manhattan.
Eli loved it.
There was a PlayStation.
Apparently federal security became acceptable if accompanied by racing games.
Samuel received six stitches.
Goliath received half a roast chicken from one marshal and immediately betrayed us all.
Marcus remained furious.
“You gave federal agents your burner number.”
“Yes.”
“Your emergency accounts.”
“Some.”
“Your shipping aliases.”
“Necessary.”
“You have become clinically unwell.”
“Probably.”
He sat across from me.
“What do we do about Julian?”
“Nothing yet.”
His jaw tightened.
“Your brother tried to kill you.”
“I think.”
“You think?”
“Caleb definitely arranged the trip.”
“And Julian inherits.”
“Motive is not proof.”
Marcus stared.
“Who are you?”
“Pain medication.”
“Fair.”
The marshals allowed one secure call to New York under monitoring.
I called Julian.
He answered immediately.
“Roman.”
His voice broke convincingly.
“Jesus Christ.”
I said nothing.
“We thought you were dead.”
“Who is we?”
“Everyone.”
“Specific.”
“Board. Captains. Me.”
He breathed hard.
“Where are you?”
“Safe.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Who did this?”
I stared at the wall.
“Caleb.”
Silence.
Only one second.
But enough.
“You know?”
Julian recovered.
“Marcus told me Voss disappeared.”
“No.”
“How then?”
“Why did you assume Caleb?”
Another silence.
Good.
“Because he sent you to West Virginia.”
“Who told you?”
Julian’s voice tightened.
“You did.”
“No.”
I had told only Marcus I was traveling.
Caleb arranged the route.
Julian should not have known the destination.
He realized.
Too late.
“Roman.”
“Yes?”
“Come home.”
“No.”
“We need to handle this.”
“There it is.”
“What?”
“Handle.”
My family’s favorite verb when evidence became inconvenient.
Julian lowered his voice.
“You cannot trust outsiders.”
“Federal marshals seem surprisingly competent.”
He went silent.
Then:
“You called the government?”
“Yes.”
“Are you insane?”
“Frequently.”
“Roman, listen to me.”
“No.”
I smiled faintly.
“You listen.”
Silence.
“There is a nine-year-old boy involved.”
“What boy?”
Too quick.
He knew.
“Interesting.”
“Roman.”
“Why did you send Pike?”
His breathing changed.
“I didn’t.”
“Did Caleb?”
“No idea.”
“You should coordinate lies better.”
“Stop.”
Anger now.
Good.
The real Julian appearing.
“You are going to destroy everything over some mountain kid?”
There.
Not what boy.
Some mountain kid.
Proof he knew Eli existed.
I looked toward the kitchen where Eli was eating cereal at four in the afternoon.
“Maybe.”
Julian swore.
“Our father built Vale Shipping.”
“Our father built plenty of things.”
“You think police care about the difference between Caleb and us?”
“No.”
“You go down too.”
“Maybe.”
Julian went quiet.
Then:
“You won’t do it.”
“Why?”
“Because you love power.”
Old truth.
Maybe current too.
I looked at Samuel helping Eli with homework.
“I’m learning what it costs.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“You always were dramatic.”
“No.”
I ended the call.
Marcus stared.
“He confessed nothing.”
“He told us enough.”
Federal investigators agreed.
The call established Julian knew details not publicly released.
Not enough for arrest.
Enough for surveillance.
Then we turned to Elena.
The marshals ran facial records.
Samuel reluctantly provided old photographs.
Elena Cross had no driver’s-license activity for three years.
No tax filings.
No medical employment.
But a passport under her name crossed into Canada nineteen months earlier.
Never returned.
That might have been fake.
Then Marcus found something.
“Uncle Jules.”
“What?”
He had searched old Vale phone archives.
Eight years earlier, Julian used an encrypted number to call Charleston repeatedly.
One number matched a prepaid phone registered near Elena’s old apartment.
Dozens of calls.
Julian knew her.
“How?”
Samuel looked furious.
“I never knew.”
Eli stared at the floor.
He had already heard enough to understand adults lied around him.
I hated that.
I asked:
“Do you remember Julian visiting?”
Eli shook his head.
“Mom had pictures on her phone.”
“What pictures?”
“A city.”
“New York?”
“Maybe.”
“Was Julian in them?”
“I don't know.”
Samuel suddenly stood.
“Wait.”
He went to his bag.
Pulled out an old tablet.
Elena’s.
Left behind when she vanished.
He had never unlocked it.
Marcus looked at him.
“You kept this?”
“She said if she disappeared, destroy it.”
“And you didn’t.”
“I’m sentimental.”
Good.
Federal technicians opened it within hours.
Photos.
Messages.
Encrypted folders.
One video changed everything.
Elena sat inside a parked car.
Date:
Three years earlier.
She looked terrified.
“If Dad sees this, I am sorry.”
Samuel covered his mouth.
Eli stared at his mother on screen.
I almost stopped the video.
Then looked at Samuel.
His decision.
He nodded.
Elena continued.
“Julian Vale found me.”
My chest tightened.
“He says Caleb knows I kept my father’s papers.”
Victor Cross.
“He wants them.”
She swallowed.
“I told him they burned.”
“They didn’t.”
Marcus leaned forward.
Elena continued:
“My father discovered what Vale Shipping was moving through Appalachian routes before Roman took control.”
Interesting.
“He thought Roman’s father was stealing from the organization.”
“But he was wrong.”
I stared.
“Caleb Voss was.”
Marcus swore.
Elena:
“Caleb used shell companies to skim freight profits and move illegal weapons through Vale trucks.”
“Victor found it.”
“He threatened to tell Roman’s father.”
“Caleb framed him for embezzlement.”
My pulse slowed.
Victor Cross had not stolen.
Caleb had.
Then:
“After Victor fled New York, Caleb followed him to West Virginia.”
Samuel whispered:
“He killed him.”
Elena’s eyes filled on screen.
“I believe Caleb killed my father.”
Then:
“Julian knows.”
I stopped breathing.
“He told me Caleb works for him now.”
There.
Not adviser.
Partner.
Elena continued:
“Julian says Roman has become too powerful and too cautious.”
Cautious?
Interesting.
“He says Roman refuses to expand weapons trafficking.”
True.
I had banned firearms moving through Vale ports after a child was killed in crossfire six years earlier.
I still ran other crimes.
But not guns.
Julian had called me sentimental.
“He wants Roman gone.”
A pause.
“Caleb says if Roman dies without heirs, Julian gets controlling authority.”
Silence.
Then the part that made Samuel grip the table.
“Elena, why are you involved?” he whispered.
The video answered.
“I made a mistake.”
She cried.
“I trusted Julian.”
Eli looked up.
“Mom?”
Elena continued.
“We were together.”
My body froze.
Julian and Elena.
“When I left private nursing in New York, Julian followed me to Charleston.”
“He said he loved me.”
Then:
“Eli is his son.”
The room stopped.
No one moved.
Eli stared at the screen.
Then at me.
Samuel’s face went completely white.
“What?”
I could barely breathe.
Elena cried on video.
“I never told Julian.”
“He thinks I miscarried.”
“I lied because I discovered what he and Caleb did to my father.”
She covered her face.
“I came home.”
“Eli was born here.”
“He has never known.”
The video ended.
No one spoke.
Eli looked at Samuel.
“Grandpa?”
Samuel knelt.
His hands shook.
“I didn’t know.”
“My dad…”
Eli’s voice cracked.
Samuel pulled him close.
I looked away.
Julian Vale.
My brother.
The man trying to kill me.
Was Eli’s biological father.
That changed the contract.
Pike had not been hired to eliminate a random witness.
He had been hired to eliminate Julian’s own son.
Why?
Because if the truth surfaced, Eli became a legal Vale heir.
And under my father’s succession trust, a biological child of either brother could inherit protected shares.
Julian did not merely want me dead.
He needed Eli dead too.
One brother.
One child.
One empire.
May you like
The plan was cleaner than I had imagined.
And uglier.
