The Price of Secrecy

by The Price of Secrecy [Evernight] (mobi)

  She nodded. “I thought of that, too. So are they also a danger to me or my mother?”

  “I wish I could give you a concrete answer on that one, Angela. We don’t know who is and who isn’t a danger to you two, outside of his family.”

  She pointed toward his laptop. “Is that what you’re working on?”

  “What makes you think that?”

  She smiled. “Why else would you be here on a random Friday morning?”

  He chuckled softly. “So Dominic could run an errand and you weren’t left alone in the apartment?”

  She threw up her hands in a gesture of frustration. “All right. I give up. You’re both as closed-mouthed as any human being could possibly be.”

  Viggo’s glance was tender and friendly. “He loves you. He’s only trying to keep you safe.”

  “I know that, and I love him, too. Thank you for—” She startled and yelped when two sounds like firecrackers split the air. She glanced toward the window and saw a mark with shattered glass radiating out from it, like a rock had struck it but nothing had gone through. “What the hell was that?”

  Viggo glanced toward the window, and then practically leaped over the table and shoved her out of her chair and onto the floor. “Stay here. Don’t move.”

  “Why not? What’s going on?” She yelped again as two more sounds like firecrackers popping reached her ears and two more marks appeared in the glass.

  Viggo scooted along the floor over to where he’d been sitting and grabbed his cell phone off the table. His movements were followed by more soft sounds and additional marks in the glass. This couldn’t be happening. Tears ran down her face. Where was Dominic? Was he safe? She’d die if anything happened to him.

  Viggo crawled over to the wall and pressed his body against it, and then he unlocked his phone and made a call.

  ****

  Dominic’s phone rang as he walked toward his building. At the same time, he spotted the two men who had been guarding the front of his building run toward him, and his heart dropped into his stomach.

  Angela.

  The call was from Viggo, but as he went to unlock the phone to answer it, the men approached him and he didn’t have time to do anything except run into the front entrance with them. They pushed him into the elevator, and he punched in the code for his penthouse. One of them was on his phone, talking to what sounded like the police.

  “What the fuck is going on?” asked Dominic.

  “There’s been a shooting, sir.”

  “What?”

  “No one is injured.”

  “Where is the shooter?”

  “On the roof of a building west of this one, sir. We have our units and the CentralWest police on the way.”

  He couldn’t breathe. “Who was shot?”

  “No one, sir.”

  “Okay, what was shot?”

  “Your windows.”

  Dominic shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around what these men had just told him. Someone had tried to shoot through into his apartment. Did that also mean the glass wasn’t as opaque as he’d been told, and whoever the shooter was could also see into it? “Oh fuck…” What if it Gene wasn’t the only one doing this? What if he and Angela both had a hit out on them?

  He ran into the apartment ahead of the men but was stopped by one of them before he reached the end of the foyer. “They’re on the west side, sir. You need to get down on the floor.”

  “Where is Angela?”

  “Sir, please. Get down on the floor.”

  “This is my home, dammit! Where is Angela?”

  The men pushed him to the floor, and if Dominic hadn’t known they were doing exactly what he was paying them to do, he would have punched them both. He heard voices from down the hall, and then running footsteps.

  He stood and held out his arms as Angela, her face tear-stained, ran toward him with a very worried-looking Viggo on her heels. Dominic pulled her close and then slid to the floor with her, where Viggo crouched next to him.

  “I’m sorry,” said Viggo. “I couldn’t stop her once she heard your voice.”

  Dominic bit back the smile. “Of course you couldn’t. She’s Sicilian, like me.” He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. “We do what we want, when we want.”

  “Who did this?” she whispered. “Why?”

  “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

  “I was so afraid. I thought something had happened to you.”

  He held her close again because he couldn’t speak right now. His body was actually shaking. All sorts of horrible scenarios had run through his mind in the space of a few seconds, but she was all right. She was here now, in his arms, and that’s where he would keep her for the rest of his life.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Angela paced Dominic’s apartment for the next two hours, vacillating between wanting to go to her mother’s house and being ready to pack up everything she owned and move to another city. She couldn’t do this. Every time she tried to picture starting over, she’d catch Dominic watching her. She also couldn’t imagine her life without him now, so leaving wasn’t an option.

  Finally, about two hours after she’d first heard what she now understood were bullets striking the windows in the room where she and Viggo had been working, two police officers came to the apartment. Her mother was with them, and Angela ran into her arms, crying all over again.

  Her mother wasn’t crying, but one look into her eyes and Angela knew she had been doing so, and hard. They both tried to talk at once, but Dominic’s voice was louder.

  “What’s happening with the shooter?”

  “We have him,” said one of the officers. “His name is Gene Trapani, but he was using a fake identity.” She glanced toward Angela. “Your DOJ rep and WITSEC inspector are interviewing him. They’ll be here once they’re finished.”

  “Shit,” whispered Angela.

  “It’s all right,” said her mother. “We’ll figure this out.”

  She glanced toward Dominic, who had been sitting next to Viggo. Both men had been working on the laptops since Dominic’s security team had cleared it with the police that they were in pursuit of the shooter. He smiled at her.

  “Listen to your mother. We’ll figure this out.”

  She wanted to believe them. She wanted to believe they’d figure this out somehow, but right now, she had no clue how the hell they would.

  ****

  Dominic still felt guilty for not mentioning to Angela that her father was out of jail, so before anything else happened, he knew he had to come clean. She and her mother had a right to know.

  After he told them, they both simply stared at him as if they weren’t sure how to process what he’d just said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Angela.

  “Because I wasn’t sure if he’d come looking for you and your mother. I didn’t want to give you anything else to worry about. Please forgive me.” She nodded, but said nothing. He knew at that moment he should have told her right away, but he couldn’t go back and change that now. “We don’t know where he is. Viggo and I are trying to find out.”

  Marilyn shook her head. “You won’t find him.”

  Angela frowned at her mother. “How do you know? What if he’s after us? What if he and Gene are in this together and he’s the second shooter?”

  “Why would he team up with a Trapani when they want him dead? My guess is that your father is far away from here, looking for old acquaintances.”

  Something in the way Marilyn said the word “acquaintances” had the hair on the back of Dominic’s neck prickling. “What you do mean?”

  Marilyn sighed. “Our marriage was over long before Frank, Mike, and Danny went to the FBI. Frank had a string of girlfriends. I can give you a list of names. I’d suggest you start with finding them if you really want to find Frank.”

  “Does your WITSEC inspector know all this?”

  “Yes, and so does the DOJ.”

  “
Shouldn’t we tell them he’s out of jail?” asked Angela.

  Dominic picked up his phone. “They might already know, but I’ll call them anyway.”

  “Why bother?” asked Marilyn. “He’s not the threat. Your family is. They always have been.”

  Dominic reached the police station, and although no one would let him speak with the WITSEC or DOJ reps, he did convince the desk sergeant to pass along a message. Then he addressed Marilyn. “I’m curious about something. Why didn’t Frank, Mike, or Danny go into WITSEC with you both all those years ago?”

  “They weren’t offered it. What they tried to do to your family was just the tip of the iceberg. You have no idea how much shit those three were into. I can’t believe they weren’t killed in prison by your family as it was.”

  Dominic and Angela both stared at Marilyn. He’d underestimated Angela’s mother. She’d been living with far more secrets than either he or her daughter had ever known about.

  “What fake identity was Gene using?” asked Marilyn. “Do you know?”

  “A man that Mario killed when I was about four. Nicholas Cordova. Do you know the name?”

  She shook her head. “That’s one I don’t know.”

  ****

  When Brian Anderson showed up a half hour later, he went to work with Dominic and Viggo. Angela watched them, amazed that any of them could be so damn calm and cool. She made her mother a sandwich, which the woman barely touched, not that she blamed her. Eating was the last thing on Angela’s mind.

  Finally, close to four hours after the shooting, Marie Shaphard, their WITSEC inspector, and a man named Karl Jaunt, who identified himself as working with the DOJ, showed up at the apartment. Marie made sure Angela and her mother were all right, and then the group sat down at the dining room table, laptops open and all talking at once.

  “Gene was the shooter,” said Marie. “A police drone followed him off the roof of the apartment building across the street, where he left his rifle and all the evidence they needed to identify him as the shooter. The police apprehended him not two blocks away inside an Internet café, less than half an hour after he fired six shots at the windows.”

  “The glass splinters but won’t break,” said Dominic. “Not from something as small as a bullet, even from a high-powered rifle. I had the same glass installed on all the windows in this apartment.”

  “He was using the identity of a man named Nicholas Cordova.” She glanced toward Dominic. “Your grandfather killed him when you were a toddler.”

  Dominic nodded, and then Viggo pushed his laptop over so Marie could see the screen. “We’ve been working hard since this happened. Here is the location of every living member of the Trapani family, as well as evidence of Frank Rossi’s parole release.”

  “We know all about that,” said Karl. “We caught up to Frank earlier this week.” He addressed Angela and her mother. “Frank has refused protection now that he’s out of jail. Also, he isn’t interested in finding you or your mother. We’ve determined that he’s not a threat to either of you.”

  Angela glanced toward her mother, who showed no reaction at all. “Are you absolutely sure he’s not a threat?” Karl and Marie exchanged a glance. “It’s all right,” said Angela. “She told me about my father’s girlfriends. Why was he offered protection now but wasn’t offered it all those years ago?”

  Karl shrugged. “Different set of circumstances. My current boss felt he should be offered it now that he’s served his time, but he isn’t interested in it.”

  Marie leaned forward. “He’s refused protection, but he has asked for help in moving to a city underneath Canada. He has … he has a particular contact there he’s anxious to find again.”

  Angela glanced toward her mother once more. Her jaw was set.

  “You mean he still has a girlfriend there.”

  Marie nodded.

  “Which means I think it’s time I ask for your help in getting a divorce.”

  “We can easily take care of that.”

  Karl cleared his throat gently. “As for the other two Rossi brothers, they aren’t due for parole anytime soon. We’ll have to assess the threat from them once they’re out, though.”

  Marilyn shook her head. “There will be no need for that. I’m done with this. If you can tell me the Trapani family is no longer a threat, I want that divorce, and I want out of the program.”

  “They’re no longer a threat,” said Marie. “From what Gene told us, the only two who are left alive and could have come after you were him and Leo. Gene, using the fake ID, visited Leo in prison.” She glanced toward Dominic. “I understand you discovered that recently?”

  He nodded.

  “Once he found you, he went to see Leo to let him know he was coming here to kill you.”

  “How did he find me?” asked Dominic quietly. Angela held her breath.

  “It was a fluke,” said Karl. “He spotted a picture of you online recently that someone had taken at a concert you and Angela attended. It’s on a rag mag site. You likely didn’t know anyone had taken it.”

  “What I can’t believe is that no one has found you until now,” said Marie.

  “I’ve tried hard to cover my tracks.”

  “The threat to you is over, Dominic,” said Marie. “It’s over for Angela and Marilyn, too. Leo is in prison for life, and we now have Gene in custody. He won’t be going anywhere but prison for the rest of his life, and he won’t be allowed any further contact with Leo. Marilyn and Angela can now opt out of the program if they want to.”

  “Where do I sign?” asked Angela.

  Marie smiled. “Just so you know, Gene wasn’t after you or your mother. He was after Dominic. He’d stayed in touch with several of his relatives before they each died, and it was always their intention to find him. They knew the Rossi brothers were in prison, and had assumed none of them would be paroled, so his family didn’t consider them threats any longer.”

  “They also knew you two had gone into protective custody,” said Karl, “but Gene swears it was never his intention to find you. He and his family assumed you both were long gone.”

  “Then who was he shooting at this morning?” asked Viggo. “It was me with Angela in that room, not Dominic.”

  “The windows aren’t only protective in terms of objects going through them,” said Dominic. “You can’t see into them from outside, even with infrared. The best you’d get is a distorted picture. He likely thought it was me sitting at the table.”

  Viggo grinned. “That’s six bullets I almost took for you. You owe me big time.”

  Angela didn’t know how Viggo could be so nonchalant about the events of this morning, but she was grateful he’d been here with her. Now she understood why Dominic hadn’t wanted to leave her alone. “So this is really over for all of us?”

  “Yes,” said Marie. “It’s really over.”

  Angela glanced toward Karl. “Is Dominic’s business all right?”

  “He’s done nothing illegal.”

  She reached over and hugged her mother. “I’m sorry for all of this, but so glad you’re all right.”

  She stroked her hair the way she used to when Angela was a little girl. “I’m fine. Honestly I am. You’re safe. Nothing else matters.”

  “I love you, Mom.”

  “I love you, too.”

  ****

  Angela and Dominic lay in bed after everyone had finally left, holding each other. They’d been that way for close to an hour before Dominic finally spoke. “It must be difficult for you to accept the fact that even after all these years, your father doesn’t want to know you.”

  “I should feel something, but I don’t. I barely remember him. He was never home, and when he was, he was with my uncles. My mother cried a lot, and I know they fought like crazy all the time. That’s what I remember about my early childhood. When we moved to San Francisco, she finally started smiling again.”

  “Can you forgive me for not telling you he was out of jail?”
/>
  She kissed his chest. “It’s already done. Can you forgive me for not telling you the truth about my past?”

  “Angela, I’m glad you didn’t. You did exactly what you’d been told to do, and that’s one of the things I love about you. You’re intelligent, and you have common sense.”

  She smiled in the dark. She’d never tire of hearing this man tell her that he loved her.

  “Can you forgive me for keeping my real identity a secret?”

  “Of course. You had to. How crazy is this? The same family was after both of us, and technically you’re part of it.” She lifted her face even though it was too dark to see the expression on his. “Did you know about me? All those years ago when your family did business with my father and uncles … did you know Frank Rossi had a wife and daughter?”

  “I knew he had a wife named Marilyn, but honestly, that was the extent of it. I didn’t want to know anything about my family’s so-called business associates. Even that tidbit of information didn’t come back to me until I found that old picture of him with who I now realize was your mother, pregnant with you.”

  “Thank you for showing that to me.” He had done so after everyone had left. “It’s the only picture I have of him.”

  She laid her head on Dominic’s chest again, and listened to his breathing. “Will the rest of your employees find out who you really are now?”

  “Not if I can help it. All the news stations know is that a member of the once notorious Trapani crime family went on a shooting spree today, and was apprehended before anyone was hurt. The police are keeping my name out of it, and Gene has been put in solitary confinement so he can’t tell his story to anyone.”

  “He still might one day.”

  “I’ll have to weather that storm if it comes, then.”

  Angela finally drifted off to sleep as the weight of eighteen years of having to hide and pretend slowly evaporated into the mist of her dreams.

  ****

  Saturday afternoon, Dominic surprised Angela with delivery of food and wine from Cibo Delizioso. “I thought you’d enjoy a quiet meal here today after yesterday’s events.”

  “The first place you took me to eat. Dominic, how romantic. Thank you.” He’d lit candles in the dining room, and the shades were down on the windows. Judy and Burt were in the apartment, but had made themselves scarce. “The food is so good. I swear I could eat it every day and not grow tired of it.”