The Price Of Secrecy (14 page)

She
glanced at the other two men in the room. Both of them looked as confident as
Dominic’s voice implied. Then she looked into Dominic’s eyes again, desperate
to believe he could truly pull this off.

Chapter
Eighteen

Dominic
called Merrick and then Trish, asking them to let the rest of the team know
that he and Angela would be working from his apartment for the entire week but
they could both be reached at any time.

Then
he took Angela to her apartment and asked her to pack up most of her things. “I
don’t want you to have to return here for anything until we settle this. I
can’t keep you safe unless you’re with me.”

She
hadn’t spent one night in the place for almost a month as it was, so she didn’t
protest, but she was too quiet as she worked. He was worried about her. The
last thing he’d wanted to do was give her more to be afraid of, and that’s
exactly what had happened.

He
watched her carefully all week as she worked from his apartment. She did what
she needed to do, but her mind wasn’t on the work as much as it normally was.
Not that he could blame her. They sat on the balcony outside his bedroom as
much as possible, and that seemed to help her focus better. She wasn’t as
visibly anxious when they took those short breaks.

This
particular balcony had no direct line of sight to another building as tall as
this one for a quarter of a mile, so he knew they wouldn’t be seen. The remaining
three sides of the apartment had balconies that faced other buildings, so he
didn’t want to take a chance on sitting outside any of them right now.

She
told him she felt claustrophobic being indoors even though his apartment was
over three thousand square feet. Dominic understood what she meant. He’d felt
that way for eighteen years. Looking over your shoulder while walking down a
street was still not as bad as feeling like you could never leave your own home
without danger lurking at every step. She’d been living this way since she was
eight years old, but it didn’t sound to him like she’d ever come face to face
with a situation like this before. Neither had he. This changed everything.

They
made love in the evenings, and he didn’t wear a condom now. She also didn’t ask
him to wear one, but they hadn’t really discussed marriage or children again.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to ask her, but he didn’t want to do it under
these circumstances. He wanted her to be free to live with him as his wife,
without a constant threat hanging over their heads.

There
was one more thing Dominic wanted to do to prove to Angela he was serious about
spending his life with her and starting a family of their own, but he had to
get out of the apartment to take care of it.

Viggo
called Friday morning and told Dominic he was close to having the information
he needed. Dominic took advantage of the situation and asked Viggo to come over
and work at his place. That way, he could stay with Angela for a short time
while Dominic ran an errand. Viggo didn’t even ask what errand. He was at
Dominic’s apartment in half an hour. Dominic knew Viggo would keep her safe for
the short time he’d be gone.

“Brian
has men at both entrances,” said Viggo, “and they almost didn’t let me
through.”

Dominic
smiled. “Glad to know they’re doing their job. I won’t be long.”

“Take
your time. I’ll enjoy being alone with Angela.”

He
winked, but Dominic gave him a dark glance. He and Viggo had been friends a
long time and he knew Viggo wouldn’t actually try anything, but he was short on
humor these days. He gave Angela the excuse that he needed to run over to the
office for a mess of a situation with another department that had to be dealt
with in person. She wouldn’t have any reason to think he was lying, but he
hoped his tiny fib would be forgiven once this mess was behind them forever.

****

Angela
was restless, even with
Viggo
right there, working on
his own laptop, next to her. They were in one of the rooms of the apartment
that Dominic barely used. It had originally been set up as a media room until
he decided to turn a different room into one instead.

As
a consequence, this room still boasted a great sound system and a big screen
TV. It also had a wall of windows that let in plenty of fake sunlight, and that
helped her feel less closed in. They didn’t have the TV on while they worked,
but they did have on music. It gave her mind something to concentrate on as
background noise instead of her own thoughts as she worked.

The
team was complete now, and they had plenty of work to do, searching for machine
IDs. They’d identified several dozen already between the teams that were in
place. Angela had her own to look for, but the majority of her time was still
occupied by tweaking the database and making sure everyone on the team was
doing what she and Dominic needed them to do.

She
glanced over at Viggo, frowning as he typed. He’d known Dominic since college
because he’d done his undergraduate work at Northwestern, where Dominic had
also done his. He’d helped the man create a new identity, and hide his money so
his family couldn’t get their hands on it. If anyone could find Dominic’s real family,
he could.

She
wondered if they’d be able to find her father and uncles as easily. Dominic had
told her they were in jail, but if they’d gone to the FBI about Dominic’s
family all those years ago, why hadn’t they gone into witness protection as
well? Did Viggo know why? She’d asked Dominic earlier this week, but he’d
averted his gaze and told her he wasn’t sure. She didn’t want him keeping
things from her any longer. They were in this together now.

Viggo
looked up, as if sensing her
watching him. “You okay? You need something?”

“I
have some questions.”

He
leaned back in his chair. “Okay.”

She
asked him what she’d been wondering about, and as expected, the look on his
face that told her he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say.

“
Viggo
, I don’t feel comfortable being kept in the dark
anymore. This is just as much my problem as it is Dominic’s.”

“I
agree with you that this affects you both.”

The
men were loyal to each other. She’d give them that much. “Why wouldn’t my
father
ad
uncles have gone into witness protection
when they ratted out Dominic’s family?”

Viggo
looked really uncomfortable now, but she didn’t care. This was ripping her
apart inside. “I don’t know. There could have been dozens of reasons, beginning
with the fact it might not have been offered to them.”

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.”