Chapter 5 - The Price of Saving Him
Vincent read the message twice.
Then he became frighteningly calm.
“No police.”
Pike looked at him.
“Absolutely not.”
“Voss asked for Mara.”
“And Mara isn't bait.”
Mara said, “Stop talking about me like I'm not here.”
Both men looked at her.
She held the phone.
“Why would he want me?”
Vincent answered.
“Because your mother kept the evidence.”
“My mother is dead.”
“Maybe he thinks she told you something.”
“She didn't.”
“Maybe he doesn't believe that.”
Pike asked for the phone.
Mara handed it over.
The metadata gave them nothing.
Burner device.
No location.
Five minutes later another text came.
MIDNIGHT.
PIER 14.
COME ALONE.
Vincent laughed once.
“Nobody ever means come alone.”
Pike began coordinating tactical units.
Vincent objected to every suggestion.
Mara watched them argue.
Then Teresa entered the mausoleum.
She had been waiting outside.
When she learned about Dominic, her face seemed to age ten years.
“I did this.”
Vincent turned.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Mother—”
“I spent seventeen years keeping secrets because I thought silence protected this family.”
She looked at Carlo's crypt.
“It only taught the guilty people that we were willing to look away.”
Mara understood her.
Silence had destroyed her career too.
The hospital had expected nurses to stay quiet about staffing.
Her mother had stayed quiet about Carlo.
Different worlds.
Same weapon.
Fear.
Mara said, “Then we stop being quiet.”
At 11:42 p.m., Pier 14 appeared deserted.
Shipping containers lined the waterfront.
Vincent drove.
Mara sat beside him.
Pike's team remained hidden several blocks away despite Vincent's objections.
Mara wore a small transmitter under her sweater.
Vincent had three armed men positioned beyond sight.
Nobody trusted anyone.
Rain began again.
“You don't have to do this,” Vincent said.
Mara looked out the window.
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
“You jumped into a river once?”
He glanced at her.
“No.”
“Then maybe stop telling me when I'm allowed to be afraid.”
Vincent almost smiled.
“I'm not telling you not to be afraid.”
“What are you telling me?”
“To survive.”
Mara looked at him.
For the first time since the crash, there was no command in his voice.
Only concern.
“Same to you.”
They reached the warehouse.
The door stood open.
Inside, a single light burned.
Dominic sat tied to a chair.
Blood marked one side of his face.
Samuel Voss stood behind him.
Gold glasses.
Gray suit.
Calm.
Mara recognized him from the funeral.
Voss smiled.
“Miss Ellis.”
Vincent's hands curled.
“Let him go.”
Voss sighed.
“You Carusos always begin with demands.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“Actually, Vincent, I tried to make you disappear.”
“Difference?”
“A corpse creates investigation. A missing body creates mythology.”
Vincent stepped forward.
Voss raised a gun.
Mara's breath caught.
“Stay there.”
Vincent stopped.
Voss looked at Mara.
“Your mother was troublesome.”
Mara felt rage.
“Don't say her name.”
“She had principles.”
“You threatened her.”
“I gave her a choice.”
“You threatened her child.”
“That was the choice.”
Mara took one step.
Vincent whispered, “Mara.”
She stopped.
Voss smiled.
“Just like Janet.”
“What do you want?”
“The records.”
Pike was listening.
Mara hoped.
Voss continued.
“Your mother copied documents she did not understand.”
“She understood enough to scare you for seventeen years.”
His smile disappeared.
“She cost me seventeen years.”
Vincent said, “You killed my father.”
Voss looked at him almost kindly.
“Your father killed himself.”
Vincent's expression hardened.
“He confronted a man more patient than he was.”
Dominic strained against the ropes.
“You've been paying me.”
Vincent looked at him.
Dominic shook his head.
“I didn't know it was Voss.”
Voss chuckled.
“Of course you knew.”
“No.”
“You took money.”
“For gambling debts.”
“And what did you think I wanted in return?”
Dominic went still.
Vincent stared at his brother.
Voss explained.
Dominic had provided schedules.
Meeting locations.
Security changes.
Nothing violent, he claimed.
He thought the information was being used for corporate leverage.
“But then Vincent changed his route Tuesday night,” Voss said. “So I needed someone else nearby.”
He looked at Mara.
Mara understood.
“The security guard.”
“Paid to eject you at exactly eleven.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew your history.”
“My nursing history.”
“Emergency trauma training.”
Vincent stared.
“You wanted her to save me.”
Voss smiled.
“Yes.”
Mara felt suddenly sick.
The crash was supposed to fail.
Vincent was supposed to survive.
But why?
Voss answered before anyone asked.
“A dead Vincent would have made Dominic the obvious successor. That was messy. A surviving Vincent who believed Dominic had tried to kill him was useful.”
The stolen watch.
The ring.
The payments.
All evidence pointing toward Dominic.
“You wanted them to kill each other,” Mara said.
Voss nodded.
“Or destroy each other politically. Violence wasn't necessary.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“You don't know our family.”
“Oh, I know it very well.”
Voss's gun shifted.
He looked at Vincent.
“Your father had the same weakness.”
“What?”
“He believed betrayal could only come from blood.”
Vincent stared.
Voss smiled.
“He never noticed the lawyer.”
Pike's voice suddenly came through Mara's hidden earpiece.
Move left.
Mara obeyed.
One step.
Voss noticed.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
“Take off your jacket.”
Mara froze.
Vincent said, “Samuel.”
“Quiet.”
“She's cold.”
“I don't care.”
Mara removed the jacket.
The transmitter wire showed.
Voss's face changed.
He fired.
Vincent lunged.
Mara dropped.
The warehouse erupted.
Police entered from two sides.
Dominic threw himself sideways in the chair.
Voss ran.
Vincent pursued him.
“Vincent!” Pike shouted.
Mara crawled toward Dominic.
“You hit?”
“No.”
She worked at the ropes.
Outside, another gunshot cracked.
Then silence.
Mara freed Dominic.
They ran toward the loading dock.
Vincent stood near the water.
Voss had disappeared.
Pike arrived seconds later.
“Where?”
Vincent pointed toward the pier.
A small motorboat sped into the darkness.
Pike swore.
Mara looked at Vincent.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
Dominic stumbled out.
Vincent turned.
The brothers looked at each other.
Years of resentment seemed to stand between them.
Dominic said, “I didn't know.”
Vincent answered quietly.
“You sold my movements.”
“I didn't know.”
“Someone tried to kill me because of information you sold.”
Dominic's face collapsed.
“I know.”
Teresa arrived with officers.
She embraced Dominic.
Vincent stepped away.
Mara followed.
“You believe him?”
Vincent stared at the river.
“I don't know.”
Mara thought of what Voss had said.
Betrayal could come from anyone.
“Then don't decide tonight.”
Vincent looked at her.
“You give orders too.”
“Only good ones.”
This time he smiled.
Briefly.
Then Pike approached.
“We've got a problem.”
Vincent's smile vanished.
“What?”
“Voss wasn't working alone.”
“How do you know?”
Pike showed him a document recovered from the warehouse.
A corporate authorization.
Caruso Holdings.
Signed by someone inside the company.
Vincent read the name.
His face went blank.
Mara leaned closer.
The signature belonged to Teresa Caruso.
Vincent looked toward his mother.
Teresa was standing across the warehouse.
A police officer approached her.
She turned.
May you like
Saw the paper in Vincent's hand.
And ran.
