Chapter 8 - The Secret My Father Took to His Grave
Hazel refused to let Luca go alone.
“You’re the target.”
“So are you.”
“That isn’t an argument.”
“It is in my world.”
“I hate your world.”
“So do I.”
That surprised her.
They prepared a trap.
Antonio remained hospitalized.
Hazel’s mother stayed with him.
Luca and Hazel drove to the warehouse where Thomas Brooks had died.
Inside, Sofia and Daniel were tied together.
Evelyn stood above them.
Victor Salerno waited beside her.
Hazel saw herself in Evelyn’s face.
It made her sick.
“You look like your mother,” Evelyn said.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Evelyn smiled.
“You have Thomas’s mouth.”
“Good. He seemed to use it for telling the truth.”
Luca glanced at Hazel.
Even now, she could make him almost smile.
Salerno demanded access to Halcyon.
Hazel refused.
He raised his gun toward Sofia.
Luca stepped forward.
“Touch her and you die.”
Salerno laughed.
Then Daniel spoke.
“I know where the real ledger is.”
Everyone turned.
Daniel looked at Hazel.
“Your father gave it to me.”
Hazel’s stomach dropped.
“What?”
Years before meeting Hazel, Daniel had been Thomas’s junior accountant.
Thomas discovered Daniel was secretly working for Salerno.
Instead of exposing him immediately, Thomas used him to feed false information.
Daniel had known Hazel’s father long before he pretended to meet Hazel at a coffee shop.
Hazel felt physically ill.
“Our first meeting?”
“Planned.”
“The spilled coffee?”
“Planned.”
“The apartment across from mine?”
“Planned.”
“The proposal?”
Daniel started crying.
“That wasn’t.”
Hazel stared.
“That was the only thing that wasn’t.”
Evelyn struck Daniel.
Chaos followed.
Luca’s men breached the warehouse.
Gunfire erupted.
Hazel freed Sofia.
Daniel tackled Salerno.
Luca went after Evelyn.
Hazel found the ledger hidden beneath Daniel’s chair.
Then she saw the final page.
Her father’s handwriting.
DANIEL MERCER — INFORMANT.
STATUS: TURNED.
Hazel stared.
Daniel had changed sides.
Before Thomas died.
Daniel had been helping him.
Then why frame her?
Daniel grabbed Hazel.
“We have to go.”
She shoved the page at him.
“What is this?”
His face changed.
“Hazel—”
“You were working for my father?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you betray me?”
Daniel looked toward Evelyn.
“Because she has my son.”
Hazel froze.
“Your what?”
A child’s scream came from behind a locked steel door.
May you like
Daniel went white.
“My son.”
