Chapter 6 - Midnight at the River Terminal
Nicholas tore the paper in half.
Claire stared at him.
“That doesn’t make the meeting disappear.”
“You’re not going.”
“We’ve established how well that argument works.”
“This is different.”
“Because my name is on the threat?”
“Yes.”
“It was on the envelope at the hotel too.”
Nicholas turned away.
Claire followed.
“Nicholas.”
“No.”
“He wants me because he thinks I have the audit.”
“He wants you because he knows I care whether you live.”
The room went silent.
Claire stopped.
Nicholas seemed to realize what he had admitted.
He looked at her.
No smirk.
No deflection.
No control.
Only truth.
Claire’s voice softened.
“You care?”
“That surprises you?”
“You’ve spent six months acting like I annoy you.”
“You do annoy me.”
She stared.
Nicholas stepped closer.
“You also walk into every room like nobody can intimidate you even when you’re terrified. You argue with men twice your size. You defend waiters when people are rude to them. You drink terrible hotel coffee because you refuse to pay nine dollars for room service.”
Claire blinked.
“You noticed the coffee?”
“I told you.”
“Everything.”
“Everything.”
The air changed again.
Claire reached for him first.
She touched his hand.
Nicholas looked down.
Then up.
“I care too,” she said.
He closed his eyes briefly.
“That makes this worse.”
“No.”
“For me, it does.”
“Why?”
“Because now I have something to lose.”
Claire squeezed his hand.
“Then stop treating me like something you own and start treating me like someone standing beside you.”
His eyes opened.
There it was.
The lesson he had been resisting.
Not protection through control.
Protection through trust.
Nicholas nodded.
“Okay.”
Claire almost didn’t believe him.
“Okay?”
“You come.”
Marco muttered, “That was easier than expected.”
Nicholas looked over.
“Would you like to stay here?”
“No, boss.”
The plan formed quickly.
Daniel would attend as instructed.
Nicholas would bring a decoy evidence case.
Claire would remain concealed in an observation vehicle until federal agents moved in.
That was the compromise.
Claire accepted it.
Mostly.
The federal prosecutor reviewing Antonio’s documents had contacted a task force.
Nathan Bellmore was now under active investigation.
They needed one thing.
A direct connection between Nathan and the current operation.
The meeting could provide it.
At 11:52 p.m., rain began falling over the Cumberland River.
The terminal stood dark beside rusting tracks.
Claire sat in a van two hundred yards away wearing headphones.
Nicholas and Daniel entered the building.
Martin remained with the federal team.
Marco coordinated Romano security outside.
Claire hated every second.
Through Nicholas’s microphone she heard footsteps.
Then Nathan.
“Daniel.”
“Where’s Luca?”
“You always ask the wrong question.”
Claire leaned forward.
Nathan’s voice was calm.
Older than she expected.
“You brought Nicholas.”
“I brought what you asked for.”
Nicholas spoke.
“You asked for Claire too.”
“I did.”
“She’s not here.”
Nathan laughed.
“That might be the first lie you’ve ever told badly.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
Martin looked at her.
“Stay calm.”
Inside, Nathan continued.
“You think I don’t know she’s sitting in a surveillance van beside the southern fence?”
Claire went cold.
Martin stood.
“How does he know?”
The van door opened.
A federal agent turned.
No one was there.
Then the lights died.
Claire heard shouting through Nicholas’s microphone.
Martin grabbed her arm.
“Move.”
They exited the rear.
A vehicle engine roared nearby.
Gunshots cracked in the distance—not at them, but enough to create chaos.
Agents scattered.
Claire and Martin ran behind concrete barriers.
“Nicholas!” she shouted into her microphone.
Static.
Then his voice.
“Claire, get out!”
A man appeared ahead.
Eric Harlan.
He grabbed Martin.
Claire swung her bag into Eric’s face.
He cursed.
Martin broke free.
Another man came from behind.
Claire was seized around the waist.
She kicked.
Fought.
Bit his hand.
Then headlights blinded everyone.
Marco’s SUV slammed to a stop.
The attacker released Claire and ran.
Marco chased him.
Claire grabbed Martin.
“We go inside.”
“No.”
“Nathan already knows I’m here.”
“Claire—”
“If Nicholas thinks I’m captured, Nathan controls him.”
Martin knew she was right.
They entered through the side.
Inside the terminal, Nicholas stood facing Nathan Bellmore.
Daniel was beside him.
Four armed men surrounded them.
Nathan looked toward the doorway.
Then smiled when Claire entered.
Nicholas’s face transformed.
Not relief.
Fury.
“Claire.”
“I know.”
“I specifically—”
“Later.”
Nathan laughed.
“I like her.”
Nicholas’s voice became cold.
“Don’t.”
Claire looked at Nathan.
“Your accounts are exposed.”
“No.”
“The uploads reached federal servers.”
“Partial records.”
“Enough.”
“Not enough for me.”
Claire smiled.
Nathan’s expression changed.
“You’re bluffing.”
“I’m an auditor. Bluffing is not our strongest professional skill.”
Nicholas almost smiled.
Nathan stepped toward her.
“Where is Antonio’s evidence?”
“Somewhere you can’t reach.”
“You think Nicholas protects you?”
Claire looked at Nicholas.
“No.”
Nathan frowned.
“I think we protect each other.”
Nicholas’s eyes met hers.
That mattered.
Nathan’s confidence slipped.
Sirens sounded outside.
One of his men moved toward the door.
Nathan raised a hand.
“Relax.”
Daniel whispered, “It’s over.”
Nathan turned.
“For you, perhaps.”
Then another voice came from the shadows.
“No. For him.”
A younger man stepped into the light.
Nicholas stared.
Daniel stopped breathing.
“Luca?”
Daniel’s son.
Alive.
Older.
Thin.
Hard-eyed.
Luca Romano walked toward them holding a phone.
Nathan smiled.
“You wanted proof, Daniel?”
Daniel looked ready to collapse.
Luca ignored him.
He looked at Nicholas.
“I have eight years of Nathan’s records.”
Nathan’s smile vanished.
“What did you say?”
Luca held up the phone.
“Everything.”
Nathan moved.
Federal agents entered from two doors.
Marco came through another.
Weapons lowered only after commands echoed across the building.
Nathan was arrested.
Eric was captured outside.
Two Bellmore employees surrendered.
Daniel stood frozen in front of his son.
“Luca.”
Luca looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“Why?”
“I thought I could make money. Then I got trapped.”
“Why didn’t you come home?”
“Because after what I helped them do, I didn’t think I deserved to.”
Daniel embraced him.
For a second Luca resisted.
Then collapsed against his father.
Nicholas looked away.
Claire saw tears in his eyes.
She stepped beside him.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
He laughed softly.
Then he touched her cheek.
“You came inside.”
“Yes.”
“I told you not to.”
“Yes.”
“You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“You’re forty-two. Get checked.”
He stared at her.
Claire smiled.
Nicholas leaned closer.
Stopped.
“May I?”
She smiled wider.
“Yes.”
He kissed her.
Not urgently.
Not possessively.
Slowly.
A question answered carefully.
When they separated, Marco cleared his throat.
“Federal agents are staring.”
Nicholas kept his eyes on Claire.
“They’ll recover.”
Hours later, Nathan Bellmore was in custody.
The evidence was overwhelming.
Antonio’s recording.
Claire’s audit.
Luca’s digital archive.
Martin’s testimony.
Daniel’s cooperation.
For the first time in twenty years, Nicholas had what his father had wanted.
Truth.
At dawn, Claire and Nicholas returned to the Ashford Grand.
Their belongings were still in room 417.
Claire entered first.
The same king-size bed waited.
The same lamp.
The same skyline.
She looked at Nicholas.
“Well.”
“Well.”
“One bed.”
He nodded.
“One night.”
“Technically morning.”
He smiled.
Claire sat on the right side.
Nicholas sat on the left.
Exactly where they had started.
Except everything was different.
Claire touched his hand.
“What happens now?”
Nicholas looked at her.
“Now I clean my company.”
“And Daniel?”
“He answers for what he did.”
“You’re going to turn evidence over?”
“Yes.”
Even against family.
Claire respected that.
“And you?”
He looked confused.
“What about me?”
“What kind of Romano are you going to be?”
He remembered his father’s letter.
His eyes softened.
“The one I choose.”
Claire leaned against his shoulder.
For several minutes they watched sunrise creep across Nashville.
Then Nicholas’s second phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
Claire sighed.
“Your life is exhausting.”
“You can leave.”
She looked at him.
“Do you want me to?”
“No.”
“Then answer it.”
Nicholas picked up.
The voice on the other end spoke only four words.
Nicholas’s expression changed.
“What?”
Claire sat upright.
He listened.
Then stood slowly.
“Nicholas?”
He looked at her.
The color had drained from his face.
“What did they say?”
He lowered the phone.
“My father’s crash.”
Claire waited.
May you like
Nicholas stared toward the window.
“The driver didn’t die.”
