Sleep never came that night.
Inside Dante Russo’s heavily guarded mansion, Ellie sat alone in a guest room staring at the photograph.
Her father.
Young.
Smiling.
Standing beside Dante.
Nothing made sense anymore.
A soft knock interrupted her thoughts.
Dante entered.
“I found something.”
He handed her a worn leather journal.
Ellie froze.
The initials on the cover were unmistakable.
T.G.
Thomas Gray.
Her father.
“My father’s journal?”
Dante nodded.
“We recovered it from a storage unit he rented under a false name.”
Her hands shook as she opened it.
Most pages contained coded notes.
Dates.
Names.
Locations.
Evidence.
Then she reached the final entry.
Her breath caught.
“If you’re reading this, Ellie, then everything has gone wrong.”
Tears blurred her vision.
“The Black Circle discovered who I was.”
“Someone inside the task force betrayed us.”
“I can no longer trust anyone.”
Ellie continued reading.
Then her heart stopped.
“Even Dante.”
The room spun.
She slowly looked up.
Dante’s face had gone pale.
“What does it say?” he asked.
Ellie read the next line aloud.
“If Dante Russo ever finds this journal… run.”
Silence exploded between them.
Neither moved.
Neither spoke.
Then a gunshot shattered a nearby window.
Glass sprayed across the room.
Dante immediately pulled Ellie to the floor.
More gunshots followed.
Alarms erupted throughout the mansion.
Men shouted in the hallways.
Someone was attacking the estate.
Dante grabbed a pistol.
“We have to move.”
But Ellie pulled away.
The words from her father’s journal echoed in her mind.
Run.
Was Dante protecting her?
Or had he been lying from the beginning?
Another explosion shook the house.
The lights went dark.
Emergency red lighting flooded the room.
Dante extended his hand.
“Hurry!”
Ellie stared at him.
Trust him?
Or trust her father?
Then a new voice echoed through the darkness.
A familiar voice.
A voice that should have been impossible.
“Ellie…”
Her entire body froze.
The voice came again.
Closer this time.
“Ellie, don’t go with him.”
Tears instantly filled her eyes.
Because she knew that voice.
It was her father.
And somehow…
Thomas Gray was still alive.
