Chapter 7 - The Brother They Buried Twice
Clara did not open the door.
Instead she activated the camera.
Arthur stood outside with Victor’s pistol pressed against his ribs.
Victor smiled at the lens.
“Smart girl.”
Clara grabbed the intercom.
“Let him go.”
“Bring me Evelyn.”
“No.”
Victor fired into Arthur’s side.
Clara screamed.
Arthur dropped to one knee.
Evelyn grabbed the microphone.
“I’ll come.”
Clara stopped her.
“No.”
“He’ll kill Arthur.”
“He’ll kill you too.”
Evelyn looked at her daughter.
“I already lost twenty years.”
“And I’m not losing another twenty minutes.”
Daniel found another route.
An emergency hatch connected the safe room to the service corridor.
They made a plan.
Evelyn would speak through the intercom.
Clara and Daniel would circle behind Victor.
It nearly worked.
Then Ryan appeared.
Bloodied nose.
Broken loyalty.
Still alive.
He attacked Daniel.
Clara fought him.
Years of anger came out in seconds.
Ryan laughed even while she hit him.
“You were always too much woman for me.”
Clara stopped.
Once those words would have hurt.
Now they sounded pathetic.
“No,” she said. “You were never enough man for me.”
She slammed the safe-room door into him.
Daniel restrained Ryan.
Clara reached Arthur.
Victor had vanished.
Arthur was bleeding heavily but conscious.
“Your bedside manner is terrible,” he murmured.
“Save your energy.”
“You hit your ex with a door?”
“Yes.”
“I may be in love.”
Clara stared at him.
Arthur blinked.
“Blood loss.”
“Obviously.”
They got him upstairs.
A private physician removed the bullet.
No major organs damaged.
Arthur needed rest.
He refused.
Clara stood over him.
“Sleep.”
“No.”
She took his pistol.
His eyes narrowed.
“Clara.”
“Sleep.”
“You are holding my gun incorrectly.”
“I’m considering correcting that by hitting you with it.”
Arthur actually laughed.
Then he slept.
Four hours.
Longest in months.
Clara remained beside him.
When he woke, the first thing he saw was her.
Something changed between them.
Neither named it.
There were larger wars waiting.
Ryan finally talked.
Victor planned to leave Chicago.
He needed Evelyn alive long enough to access the final offshore account.
He had prepared an aircraft.
Daniel discovered the departure point.
A private airfield.
They alerted federal agents.
But Victor never arrived.
Because the airfield was another distraction.
When Clara returned to Arthur’s penthouse, Evelyn was gone.
A message waited.
Bring the ledger to Pier 17.
Daniel swore.
Arthur examined the note.
“No.”
“What?”
“Victor doesn’t want the ledger.”
“Then what?”
“Me.”
Arthur understood his father’s final obsession.
Victor could tolerate losing money.
He could not tolerate losing his legacy.
Arthur had rejected everything Victor believed a Kingsley should be.
Victor wanted his son kneeling before the end.
Arthur went to Pier 17.
Clara followed without telling him.
Naturally.
The warehouse was empty except for one chair.
Evelyn sat tied to it.
Arthur approached.
Clara watched from the shadows.
Victor appeared above on a catwalk.
“You disappoint me,” he told Arthur.
“Get in line.”
Victor smiled.
“You dismantled an empire.”
“It deserved dismantling.”
“You think you’re clean?”
“No.”
That answer surprised everyone.
Arthur continued.
“I’ve hurt people. Built fear. Made choices I’ll answer for. But I don’t sell children. I don’t burn women alive. And I don’t call cruelty an inheritance.”
Victor’s smile vanished.
Clara realized Arthur had spent his life terrified of becoming his father.
That was the real reason he trusted nobody.
Not because everyone might betray him.
Because he feared someday he would become the worst person in the room.
Victor raised his weapon.
Clara stepped from hiding.
“Looking for this?”
She held the brass key.
Victor stared.
Arthur cursed softly.
“Clara.”
Victor smiled again.
“There she is.”
Clara tossed the key onto the concrete.
Victor descended.
Exactly as she hoped.
Daniel emerged behind him.
Dominic from another entrance.
Victor found himself surrounded.
Police sirens approached.
For one second, Clara thought it was over.
Then Victor laughed.
“You think I came alone?”
Red laser sights appeared across Arthur’s chest.
Snipers.
Arthur froze.
Victor reached into his coat and removed a phone.
“One button.”
Clara looked toward the warehouse roof.
Victor smiled.
“And Arthur loses everyone he has left.”
Then another phone rang.
Not Victor’s.
Daniel’s.
He looked at the screen.
His face emptied.
“Clara…”
“What?”
Daniel turned the phone toward her.
May you like
A live video showed their childhood home burning.
And someone was standing inside the upstairs window.
