Chapter 13 - The Night Edmund Chose Her
Emergency lights turned the corridor red.
Edmund pushed Vivian behind the nurses’ station.
“Stay.”
She grabbed his jacket.
“Where are you going?”
“To find whoever locked us in.”
“No.”
“Vivian.”
“You’re not disappearing into a dark hospital while someone has orders to kill me.”
“This is precisely when you should let me.”
“No.”
Gabriel appeared from the stairwell.
“Security system was overridden.”
“By whom?”
“Administrator credentials.”
Evelyn looked toward Victor’s operating room.
“Mercer had people everywhere.”
A gunshot sounded downstairs.
Then another.
Federal agents exchanged fire.
Vivian looked toward the operating theater.
“My father.”
“He has guards,” Edmund said.
“So do we, and someone still got inside.”
They moved together.
That was the difference now.
Edmund no longer wasted time ordering her away.
He gave her a spare radio.
“Stay between me and Gabriel.”
“Romantic.”
“I’m adapting.”
They reached the surgical floor.
A nurse ran toward them.
“Mrs. Costa?”
“Yes?”
“Your father is stable.”
Vivian nearly cried.
“Thank you.”
“But someone tried to enter surgery using a false badge.”
Edmund’s face hardened.
“Where?”
“Security detained him.”
A crash sounded.
The detained man had escaped.
Gabriel pursued.
Vivian and Edmund reached Victor.
He was unconscious but alive.
Evelyn sat beside him.
For a moment Vivian allowed herself relief.
Then Edmund’s radio crackled.
Gabriel.
“I found him.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Silence.
“Gabriel?”
His answer came slowly.
“Marco.”
Vivian stared.
Marco had been arrested on the ship.
“He escaped federal custody?”
“No.”
“What do you mean?”
“The man we arrested wasn’t Marco.”
Edmund went still.
Plastic surgery.
A double.
The real Marco had been inside the hospital.
They found him on the roof.
Gabriel held him at gunpoint.
Marco smiled when Vivian arrived.
“You really cannot follow instructions.”
“I hear that often.”
Edmund approached.
“Mercer?”
“Finished.”
“Salvatore?”
“Finished.”
“Then why continue?”
Marco looked at Vivian.
“Because Protocol Red predates all of them.”
Evelyn froze.
“What?”
Marco smiled.
“Your network didn’t begin with Salvatore.”
“Who?”
“You still want a single monster. Makes things simple.”
He looked toward the city.
“There isn’t one.”
The trafficking network had survived because it was decentralized.
Salvatore, Pike and Mercer were leaders.
But not gods.
Remove one and another took over.
The files Vivian released had done more damage than any bullet.
Hundreds of investigations had begun.
The machine was collapsing.
And Marco wanted revenge.
“You could run,” Edmund said.
“I could.”
“Then why come here?”
Marco looked at Vivian.
“Because she made everything public.”
“Yes,” Vivian said.
“I did.”
“You destroyed people who never touched you.”
“They touched somebody.”
Marco’s smile vanished.
Edmund watched Vivian.
Something like pride appeared in his eyes.
Sirens approached.
Marco looked at the edge of the roof.
Then at Edmund.
“You became weak.”
Edmund shook his head.
“No.”
“You put a woman before the family.”
“No.”
He reached for Vivian’s hand.
“She became my family.”
Vivian looked at him.
Marco raised his gun.
Gabriel fired.
Marco dropped.
The gun slid across the roof.
He was alive.
Agents rushed forward.
Protocol Red ended not with an execution but handcuffs.
Vivian preferred it that way.
The truth would have witnesses.
Trials.
Records.
Names.
No legends.
Back downstairs, Victor survived surgery.
Evelyn stayed beside him.
Gabriel sat outside the room.
Vivian found Edmund alone near a window.
Dawn was beginning.
“Are we married tomorrow?” she asked.
He looked at her.
“What?”
“When the danger is over.”
He understood.
“Our marriage began as a contract.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t choose it.”
“No.”
His face remained controlled, but she saw the hurt.
“So when this is finished, I’ll have the marriage annulled.”
Vivian stared.
“You will?”
“Yes.”
“You’re letting me go?”
“I should have given you the choice before.”
He looked away.
“I won’t make that mistake again.”
Vivian’s throat tightened.
“And if I don’t want to go?”
His eyes returned to hers.
“Then you’ll have to tell me.”
She stepped closer.
“I’m considering it.”
“Considering?”
“Don’t become arrogant.”
“Too late.”
For the first time since the wedding, she laughed.
A real laugh.
Edmund touched her face.
Then his phone vibrated.
One message.
Unknown number.
A photograph.
Their wedding ballroom.
Taken from the eastern sniper position.
The timestamp was current.
Someone was inside the abandoned ballroom right now.
May you like
Beneath it were four words:
COME FINISH THE DANCE.
