Heritage

Heritage (Chapter 56)

Chapter 56: Dante

"So, you're sure it has everything?"

"I'm positive girly. Is this a secure terminal?"

"Should be. I wrote up my own set of firewalls and separated it from their servers,"

I sit down at Elena's private terminal and set the storage device on a small pad next to it. This one is thinner and flusher against the desk than the one I downloaded the data from. The rim of it starts pulsing yellow as an icon pops up on the desktop to access the drive.

I tap on the icon. A slew of information pops up on the screen.

Thankfully, it's everything that I had seen on the terminal that I took it from.

"Looks like it's all here," I say as Elena bends down, looking over my shoulder.

Elena gives off a smile.

"This is all the information we need to put them in a grave,"

Elena stands upright and begins to walk out of the room.

"Hey. Where you goin'?" I ask.

Elena stops and looks at me over her shoulder.

"I need to take a leave of absence," She says, pressing a button on a wall panel, the door gliding open.

I remove the drive from the pad and the window closes. Before leaving, I pull a TAPs device from my pocket and open the display. I sift through a few menus before clicking on a name.

A call begins.

"Hello? Oh, Dante, I wasn't expecting a call from you, how it going, dear?"

"Well, looks like things are going to get a whole lot heavier around here. Elena has something big on her mind and you know she gets once she's set on a decision,"

"She gets exactly like her husband. Whatever she does next is understandable given everything that's happened, Dante. You do what you need to help her. I have to tell you, watching everything I have about Ethan's case; it's going to take a miracle to get him off clean. But then again, there is..." Anika trails off.

"What? There's what, Anika?"

"Well...I didn't want to say anything, but I figured you'd find out soon anyway. It's Peter, he's the one representing Ethan," She explains.

I furrow my brow, wondering why Ethan would ever allow my brother to represent him in anything, let alone a murder case that points at him being the guilty party.

I sigh at Anika "If Ethan is using Pete, then he must have a good reason why. We don't have the whole story on this one Anika. All I have is my role to play, and I plan to do just that. I want you to do something for me though, okay?"

"What's that, dear?"

"I want you to relocate. Get out of that house. Go to your parents or the vacation house. I just want you out of there in case they decide to come for you,"

Anika smiles at me.

"I appreciate your concern, Dante. I really do. But I don't need it. I may have been MIA for a while, albeit, right under their noses, but I'm still an officer in the military. An officer of the same rank as Elena and one that is much less of a wave maker right now than her. My peers think I'm just an upstanding individual. So, there's nothing to worry about, really,"

I give Anika an unsure look, and then nod in acceptance.

"Alright babe, I have to go now, errands and all that. I'll touch base later. I love you,"