Chapter 3 - THE MAN BEHIND THE LIES
“Get in the car,” Adrian said.
Mateo shook his head.
“I’m not getting in your car.”
“Mateo, please. Those people are coming for you.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
The SUV was closer now. Dust rose behind it in a long, angry cloud. Adrian could make out two men in the front seats.
Mateo looked toward the empty fields on either side of the road, calculating whether he could run.
He could not.
Not fast enough.
Adrian opened the passenger door of the Mustang.
“You don’t have to trust me,” he said. “But you need to survive long enough to decide whether you ever want to.”
Mateo’s eyes flicked from Adrian to the SUV.
Then he climbed into the car.
Adrian slammed the door shut, jumped behind the wheel, and hit the accelerator.
The Mustang surged forward, tires spitting gravel. The black SUV swerved behind them.
“Seat belt,” Adrian said.
Mateo stared at him.
“Now.”
Mateo pulled the belt across his chest with shaking hands.
Adrian drove faster.
The road stretched ahead in a shimmering blur. On the right, dry brush and abandoned fences rushed past. On the left, the desert rolled toward distant mountains.
The SUV stayed behind them.
“Who are they?” Adrian asked.
Mateo didn’t answer.
“Mateo.”
“You don’t get to say my name like you know me.”
The words cut deep, but Adrian kept his eyes on the road.
“Fair enough,” he said. “But if Victor sent them, I need to know why.”
Mateo held the photograph tightly in his fist.
“My mom kept a storage unit,” he finally said. “She told me about it before she died. She said if anything happened to her, I was supposed to find you and give you the key.”
“Give me the key to what?”
“To proof.”
“What proof?”
“That Victor stole everything from us.”
The SUV accelerated, moving closer.
Adrian took a sharp turn onto a narrow service road. The Mustang bounced hard over uneven ground. Mateo grabbed the dashboard.
“My mom used to work for Victor,” Mateo continued. “Years ago. She did bookkeeping. She found accounts that didn’t make sense.”
Adrian’s grip tightened around the steering wheel.
Victor Vale had built the Vale Development Group into a massive real estate empire. Luxury towers. Resorts. Commercial centers. His name was on buildings from Texas to Nevada.
But Adrian had always suspected Victor’s success had dark corners.
“What accounts?” Adrian asked.
“Fake companies. Missing money. Properties bought under different names.” Mateo swallowed. “She said Victor was stealing from investors and using people who couldn’t fight back.”
“And he knew she found out?”
“She said he found out after you left.”
Adrian felt sick.
All these years, he had blamed himself for leaving Elena.
He should have blamed Victor for making sure he never found his way back.
“He sent people to scare her,” Mateo said. “Then letters. Then lawyers. She lost jobs because people called her employers and said she was a thief.”
Adrian’s vision blurred with rage.
“Elena was never a thief.”
“I know that,” Mateo snapped. “But nobody else did.”
The SUV slammed into the rear of the Mustang.
Mateo cried out as the car jolted forward.
Adrian fought the wheel.
“Hold on!”
He accelerated again, but the service road narrowed ahead. A broken gate appeared in the distance.
“Can you get through?” Mateo asked.
“I don’t know.”
The SUV hit them again.
Adrian looked at Mateo.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“For every day I wasn’t there.”
Then he turned the wheel hard.
The Mustang crashed through the old gate, metal shrieking against the sides of the car. Behind them, the SUV braked too late and slammed into the gatepost.
Adrian did not stop.
He drove until the black SUV disappeared behind the dust.
Only then did he pull into the shadow of an abandoned gas station.
For a long time, neither of them spoke.
Mateo’s breathing was fast and shallow.
Adrian looked at him.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Mateo nodded.
Adrian reached for his phone.
“I’m calling someone.”
“Not the police.”
“Why not?”
“Because Victor owns cops.”
Adrian stared at him.
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“Everything I said is serious.”
Adrian lowered the phone.
His son was right.
If Victor had spent twenty years hiding a criminal empire, local law enforcement might not be safe. Adrian needed someone outside Victor’s reach.
He thought of one person.
Claire Bennett.
A federal prosecutor who had once investigated Vale Development Group before the case mysteriously disappeared.
Adrian had stayed silent then.
He would not stay silent now.
He dialed her number.
When she answered, her voice was cautious.
“Adrian Vale? This is unexpected.”
“Claire,” Adrian said, watching Mateo through the rearview mirror. “I need your help.”
“What happened?”
Adrian looked at the boy who had found him in the middle of nowhere carrying nothing but anger, grief, and a photograph.
“My past came back,” he said.
May you like
Then he added the words that changed everything.
“And I think my brother has been trying to kill my son.”
