Chapter 13 - The Woman Who Ordered Nora’s Death
Vincent was not alive.
The man driving the car was his younger half brother, Thomas Calder.
Roman had never met him.
Vincent had erased Thomas from family records after discovering his involvement with Anthony.
Thomas had spent fourteen years building what remained of Charles and Anthony’s network.
And Victoria had been working with him.
Not willingly at first.
Eventually, willingly enough.
Roman confronted her at Pier Nine.
Victoria stood beside Thomas.
“You betrayed us.”
She cried.
“I was trying to survive.”
Nora stepped forward.
“So was I.”
Victoria looked at her.
Nora understood immediately.
“You ordered the warehouse.”
Victoria said nothing.
“You ordered them to kill me.”
“I ordered them to frighten you.”
Evelyn had said the same thing.
Nora laughed bitterly.
“Everyone keeps tying me to chairs and calling it a misunderstanding.”
Roman almost smiled despite the situation.
Thomas raised a weapon.
Roman’s men raised theirs.
Roman held up one hand.
“No.”
He was finished with wars.
Thomas mocked him.
“You’ve become soft.”
“No. I became tired.”
“You gave our empire to prosecutors.”
“It wasn’t an empire. It was a cage.”
Thomas fired.
Dominic tackled Roman.
Chaos erupted.
Nora dragged Victoria behind cover.
“Why are you helping me?” Victoria gasped.
“Because I’m tired too.”
Federal agents closed in.
Roman had informed them before coming.
Thomas realized too late that Roman no longer fought alone.
He fled into the tunnels.
Roman pursued.
At the final chamber, Thomas held a gun to Sarah.
“Drop it.”
Roman did.
Thomas smiled.
“You always were Isabella’s weakness.”
Sarah elbowed him.
Roman lunged.
The gun fired.
Sarah fell.
Nora screamed.
Roman subdued Thomas.
Agents arrived.
Nora pressed both hands against her mother’s wound.
“Stay with me.”
Sarah smiled weakly.
“I’m trying.”
“No. You don’t get to leave again.”
Mercer arrived with the medical team.
The bullet had passed through Sarah’s shoulder.
Painful.
Not fatal.
Nora laughed and cried at once.
Sarah looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
“You owe me about eleven years of babysitting.”
Sarah laughed weakly.
“I can do that.”
Thomas was arrested.
Victoria surrendered.
Evelyn agreed to testify against her father.
The network collapsed piece by piece.
But one question remained.
Who had first ordered Nora’s abduction?
Victoria claimed Thomas.
Thomas claimed Evelyn.
Evelyn claimed Charles changed the plan.
Roman refused to accept contradictions.
He returned to the warehouse where Nora had been held.
Nora insisted on joining him.
“You don’t need to come back here.”
“Yes, I do.”
Inside, she stood where she had been tied.
Roman remained close without touching her.
“What do you remember?”
“The bulb.”
“What else?”
“Perfume.”
“Evelyn?”
“Yes.”
“Voices?”
“Two men.”
“What did they say?”
Nora closed her eyes.
“Move her before the wedding.”
“And?”
“She knows too much.”
“Anything else?”
Nora’s eyes opened.
“One man called someone ma’am.”
Roman frowned.
Evelyn had been there.
Why call her ma’am indirectly?
Nora continued.
“He said, ‘Ma’am wants it finished before Calder hears her story.’”
Roman looked at her.
“So someone else ordered your death.”
They searched the warehouse.
Behind a broken cabinet they found a cigarette case.
Initials:
V.C.
Victoria Calder.
Roman closed his hand around it.
Victoria had lied.
Again.
At the federal holding facility, Roman confronted her.
She broke.
“Yes.”
Nora sat opposite her.
“Why?”
Victoria cried.
“Because Sarah’s daughter could open the vault.”
“That’s all?”
“No.”
She looked at Nora.
“Because Gabriel recorded everything the night Isabella died.”
“Where?”
“Pier Nine.”
Roman leaned forward.
“We searched it.”
“Not the last room.”
“What last room?”
Victoria whispered, “The room under the waterline.”
She gave them a code.
Nora stood.
Victoria caught her hand.
“Don’t go.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas wasn’t the one protecting that room.”
Roman turned.
“Who was?”
Victoria stared at him.
“The person who has been beside you since you were seventeen.”
Roman slowly looked toward the observation glass.
Dominic was gone.
His chair sat empty.
Roman’s phone vibrated.
A message from Dominic.
I’M SORRY.
Then another.
DON’T COME TO PIER NINE.
A photograph arrived.
May you like
Dominic stood inside the submerged room.
Beside him was Caleb.
