Chapter 11 - The Bullet Meant for the Groom
Camille stepped through.
Blood covered her sleeve.
Mateo caught her.
“You were supposed to stay at the estate.”
“They came for me.”
“Who?”
“Price.”
Daniel Price had never been an innocent attorney.
He had served Dominic for fifteen years.
He had manipulated the marriage proposal, the contracts and Vale.
Vale was not the architect.
He was the accountant who believed he could survive by serving whichever side appeared strongest.
Price had inherited Dominic’s operation.
And now he had Harrison.
Again.
Camille gave them Price’s destination.
Pier Nine.
Everything returned to Mercer Shipping.
Sienna’s company.
Her mother’s battlefield.
They reached the terminal before dawn.
Price had rigged one warehouse with explosives.
Harrison was tied to a chair.
Vale stood beside him, wounded.
Price held the detonator.
“You’ve caused an extraordinary amount of inconvenience,” he told Sienna.
“You forged my marriage contract.”
“I improved it.”
“You’re going to prison.”
Price smiled.
“You still believe institutions work.”
“No.”
She glanced at Adrian.
“I believe evidence works when enough people have copies.”
Price’s expression changed.
Sienna had uploaded Evelyn’s ledger.
Not publicly.
To twelve separate attorneys, investigators and journalists with timed release instructions.
Killing her would release everything.
Price’s smile vanished.
Mateo stepped forward.
“Let Harrison go.”
Price aimed a gun.
“Still playing hero?”
“No.”
Mateo looked at Sienna.
“Learning.”
Price fired.
Lorenzo moved first.
The bullet struck him.
He fell.
Mateo lunged at Price.
Adrian went for the detonator.
Sienna reached Harrison.
Chaos exploded around them.
Vale tried to escape.
Camille blocked him.
For the first time in two years, Vale looked directly at the woman he had helped erase.
“You should be dead.”
Camille answered quietly.
“You first.”
She stepped aside as federal agents stormed the warehouse.
Vale surrendered.
Price did not.
He grabbed Sienna.
A gun pressed against her ribs.
Mateo froze.
Price backed toward the harbor.
“Drop it.”
Mateo lowered his weapon.
Sienna remained strangely calm.
Price whispered, “Your father was right about one thing. You were always the most valuable asset.”
Sienna looked at him.
“That’s where all of you were wrong.”
She drove her heel down on his foot and twisted away.
Mateo tackled him.
The gun skidded across concrete.
Agents seized Price.
It was over.
Almost.
Sienna ran to Lorenzo.
The bullet had struck his side.
He was conscious.
Mateo knelt beside him.
“You idiot.”
Lorenzo grimaced.
“Family tradition.”
Mateo laughed and cried at the same time.
Then Harrison called Sienna.
He had found something inside Price’s briefcase.
A sealed document.
Addressed to Lucia.
Lucia opened it.
Her face drained.
“What is it?” Lorenzo asked.
She handed it to Sienna.
A death certificate.
Evelyn Mercer.
The date was wrong.
Sienna stared.
Her mother had officially died eleven years ago.
This document was dated only six years ago.
Five years later.
At the bottom was the name of the physician who certified the death.
Camille recognized it.
“That doctor ran the Vermont clinic.”
Sienna looked up.
Nobody spoke.
Then Adrian’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
And slowly looked at Sienna.
“The clinic just found another patient file.”
“Whose?”
Adrian turned the screen toward her.
May you like
The name read:
EVELYN MERCER.
