Chapter 6 - The Last Name in the Ledger
Dominic’s hand moved toward his jacket.
Luca raised the gun.
“Don’t.”
Claire stared at him.
“Luca.”
His face looked different.
Not cruel.
Terrified.
“Everybody stay where you are.”
Dominic’s voice became deadly calm.
“Put it down.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“No, Dominic. I really can’t.”
Edward sat rigidly in the chair.
Claire could barely look away from him.
Nineteen years.
Her father’s face had changed.
His voice had not.
“Claire.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks.
“You’re alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
Her expression broke.
“That is not enough.”
“I know.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“You let me stand beside Mom while she cried over an empty coffin.”
Edward closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Luca whispered, “I hate to interrupt this.”
Dominic turned.
“You’re not leaving this room with that weapon.”
Luca laughed weakly.
“You think I’m doing this because I want to?”
“Then explain.”
“I got a call six months ago.”
“From whom?”
“I don’t know.”
“They knew things.”
“What things?”
“Things about the company. About me. About debts.”
Dominic’s expression sharpened.
“What debts?”
Luca looked away.
Gambling.
Dominic understood instantly.
“How much?”
“Four million.”
Serena swore.
Dominic said, “You could have come to me.”
“I know.”
“Instead?”
“They offered to clear it.”
Claire looked at the gun.
“In exchange for what?”
“Information.”
“What information?”
“Schedules. Meetings. Properties.”
Dominic stepped forward.
Luca raised the weapon.
“I said don’t.”
“You gave them tonight’s dinner.”
Luca swallowed.
“Yes.”
“You gave them Claire.”
“I didn’t know what they wanted with her.”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“You never asked.”
Luca looked ashamed.
“No.”
Edward spoke.
“The crown doesn’t care whether you understand what you’re doing.”
Claire turned to him.
“You know who they are.”
“I know one.”
“Who?”
Edward looked toward Vivian.
She had gone pale.
“No,” she said.
Edward nodded.
“Yes.”
Dominic looked between them.
“Who?”
Edward’s eyes settled on the blue ledger Claire still carried.
“The last name.”
Claire opened it.
The final pages appeared blank.
Edward said, “Heat.”
Vivian grabbed a desk lamp.
Claire held the paper above it.
Slowly, invisible ink darkened.
Letters appeared.
One name.
Samuel Hawthorne.
Vivian’s father.
She staggered backward.
“No.”
Edward nodded.
“He built the legal network.”
Vivian stared.
“My father retired twenty years ago.”
“He retired publicly.”
“He died ten years ago.”
Edward’s expression hardened.
“So did I.”
Nobody spoke.
Vivian sat heavily.
“My father?”
“He recruited bankers, lawyers, corporate officers. He used Victor’s empire because it was convenient.”
Dominic asked, “Victor knew?”
“Eventually.”
“And?”
“We tried to expose him.”
Edward looked at Claire.
“That’s why I disappeared.”
Claire’s anger returned.
“You disappeared because a lawyer threatened you?”
“He threatened you.”
Her face changed.
Edward’s eyes filled.
“You were nine. He sent me a photograph of you walking home from school.”
Claire said nothing.
“He included your schedule.”
Her hands began trembling.
“Your mother wanted to run. Victor arranged everything.”
“Then why didn’t you come back after Samuel died?”
“Because he wasn’t the crown. He was only its architect.”
Edward gestured toward Luca.
“It continued.”
Dominic looked at his cousin.
Luca whispered, “They told me to bring him here.”
“Why?”
“To exchange him.”
“For what?”
Luca looked at Claire.
“The ledger.”
Claire gripped it.
Dominic understood.
“The dinner was bait.”
Luca nodded.
“They knew Claire would come because I told them.”
“You planned the joke.”
“I suggested it.”
“And they knew she would be humiliated.”
Luca looked sick.
“I thought that was all it was.”
Claire’s voice was quiet.
“That’s what made me easy to predict.”
Luca looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
She did not answer.
Dominic asked, “Who gives the instructions?”
“Messages. Voice altered. Numbers disappear.”
“Where is the exchange?”
“Red Hook.”
“Sunday?”
Luca nodded.
Edward said, “No.”
Everyone turned.
“They moved it.”
“When?” Dominic asked.
Edward looked toward the clock.
“Tonight.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“What time?”
“Midnight.”
It was eleven twenty-three.
Dominic called Marco.
No signal.
Vivian tried her phone.
Nothing.
Luca lowered the gun slightly.
“They jammed the building.”
Dominic moved.
Fast.
He struck Luca’s wrist.
The gun hit the floor.
Serena kicked it away.
Luca did not resist.
He sank against the wall.
Dominic grabbed his collar.
“You put all of us in this room.”
“I know.”
“I should kill you.”
Claire said, “Dominic.”
He looked at her.
She shook her head.
Not because Luca deserved forgiveness.
Because Dominic deserved not to become the man his enemies expected.
He released him.
“We go to Red Hook.”
Edward stood.
“No.”
Claire stared.
“You do not get to disappear for nineteen years and then tell me to stay home.”
Edward almost smiled.
“You sound like your mother.”
“That is not going to save you.”
“No.”
He looked at her with unbearable tenderness.
“But it’s good to hear.”
They left through the service stairs.
Outside, Marco waited in the alley.
He had received a security warning and moved the cars.
Dominic briefed him quickly.
Luca offered the only leverage they had.
The crown believed he was still cooperating.
They would use that.
At eleven fifty-five, three black vehicles stopped two blocks from the Red Hook warehouse.
Rain had begun.
Claire sat beside Dominic.
He looked at her.
“You can still stay in the car.”
She stared ahead.
“Say that again and I’ll fire myself.”
“You can’t.”
“Why?”
“I’m firing you first.”
Claire turned.
“What?”
“You’re terrible at taking instructions.”
“I learned from you.”
He smiled.
Then his face softened.
“If this goes wrong—”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“No speeches before dangerous buildings.”
“That a rule?”
“It is now.”
He reached for her hand.
She looked down.
Then intertwined her fingers with his.
For one quiet second, they sat there.
Not boss and secretary.
Not Vale and Bennett.
Just two people who had begun the night on opposite sides of a joke and somehow arrived together at the edge of something deadly.
Dominic whispered, “After this, I owe you a real dinner.”
Claire looked at him.
“One where I’m not entertainment?”
“One where everyone else is banned.”
“That sounds expensive.”
“I can afford it.”
She smiled.
“Maybe.”
Marco signaled.
Time.
They entered through the loading bay.
Luca walked first.
Claire and Edward followed.
Dominic stayed in shadow with Marco.
The warehouse looked empty.
One table stood beneath a hanging light.
On it sat a laptop.
A speaker activated.
“Place the ledger on the table.”
Luca looked around.
“Where are you?”
“Place the ledger.”
Claire stepped forward.
“No.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Of course she said no.
The speaker crackled.
“Claire Bennett.”
She froze.
The voice continued.
“You look like Margaret.”
Edward stepped in front of her.
“Leave her out of this.”
A laugh.
“You spent nineteen years trying that.”
Claire held the ledger.
“What do you want?”
“To survive.”
“You’ve been surviving.”
“No. We have been waiting.”
“For what?”
“For Dominic Vale to finish cleaning his father’s empire.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Claire understood.
The crown had hidden inside Vale Holdings.
Dominic’s reforms were destroying their infrastructure.
They needed the ledger gone.
And Dominic removed.
The speaker said, “The secretary was supposed to be leverage.”
Claire looked toward the darkness.
“And now?”
“Now she’s a problem.”
Lights exploded on across the warehouse.
Men appeared along the upper catwalk.
Marco moved.
Dominic stepped from cover.
“Then talk to me.”
The speaker went silent.
A door opened at the far end.
An old man entered.
He walked with a cane.
Vivian, who had arrived behind Marco, made a strangled sound.
“Dad?”
May you like
Samuel Hawthorne smiled.
“Hello, Vivian.”
