Chapter 6 - The Price of Betrayal
"Drop it," Roman said.
Connor's gun shook.
"It's not what it looks like."
Harper stared at him.
"That sentence has really become your brand."
The man behind Paige wore a maintenance uniform.
He pressed the blade closer.
"Ledger."
Roman didn't move.
"What ledger?"
The man smiled.
"The real one."
Connor whispered, "Harper, do what he says."
Harper looked at Paige.
Fear had erased every trace of the smug woman from the gala.
"Let her go."
"Ledger first."
Harper stepped toward her desk.
Roman caught her hand.
She looked at him.
Trust me.
He didn't say it.
He didn't need to.
Roman nodded almost imperceptibly toward the ceiling.
Harper understood.
Sprinklers.
She grabbed a heavy legal binder and threw it against the fire alarm.
Water exploded from the ceiling.
Lights flickered.
Roman moved.
Two seconds later, the man was on the floor.
Paige screamed.
Connor dropped the gun.
Roman kicked it away.
His men secured the attacker.
Harper approached Connor.
"You had a gun."
"They gave it to me."
"You brought them here."
"They had Paige."
Harper looked at the woman Connor had chosen over her.
Then back at him.
"You betrayed me for years. You helped Daniel watch me. And somehow you still want me to believe you're the victim."
Connor's eyes filled.
"No."
For once, he didn't defend himself.
"I want you to believe I'm trying to stop being the man who did those things."
Harper didn't answer.
Roman's men identified the attacker.
Former employee of Mercer Shipping.
Arthur's private security.
Roman looked at Harper.
"We have him."
"No."
She shook her head.
"We have an employee. Arthur will deny everything."
"So what do you suggest?"
Harper looked toward the soaked Calder files.
"We build a case."
Roman smiled faintly.
"There she is."
Over the next two days, Harper did what she understood better than fear.
She worked.
With Evelyn communicating remotely, Margaret reconstructing old transactions, Roman providing corporate records, and Connor reluctantly supplying years of communications with Daniel, the shape of D.C.M. emerged.
Daniel handled legal operations.
Arthur Mercer controlled money.
Connor had been an asset.
Paige had been another.
But something still didn't fit.
Why Harper?
Her father's evidence explained the surveillance after she joined the firm.
Not before.
Connor had been introduced to her months before she received the Calder case.
Roman discovered the answer.
A trust.
Jonathan Bennett had left Harper ownership in a company she'd never heard of.
Bennett River Holdings.
It owned fourteen percent of an old freight terminal.
The terminal through which D.C.M. moved most of its hidden money.
"They need your signature to sell it," Roman said.
Harper stared at the documents.
"Connor's engagement."
"Exactly."
"If we married, he'd gain marital leverage over the trust."
Roman nodded.
The affair had accidentally destroyed Daniel's plan.
Harper almost laughed.
"Paige saved me by sleeping with my fiancé."
From across the room Paige muttered, "You're welcome."
Sarah choked on her coffee.
Even Harper laughed.
The strange sound broke something open in the room.
For the first time, Paige looked at Harper without competition.
"I'm sorry," she said.
Harper considered her.
"I believe you're sorry."
Paige's eyes lifted hopefully.
"That doesn't mean I forgive you."
The hope disappeared.
"But," Harper continued, "it means you can decide what kind of person you become after this."
Paige nodded.
Connor looked down.
The words had been meant for him too.
That evening, Harper found Roman on the balcony of his penthouse office.
"You disappeared."
"I walked twenty feet."
"For you, that's apparently disappearing."
He handed her coffee.
She leaned against the railing.
"Why are you helping me?"
"Again?"
"Again."
Roman looked across Chicago.
"My father died because I didn't believe him."
Harper waited.
"He told me someone inside our company was stealing. I thought grief after my mother's death had made him paranoid."
Roman's voice remained controlled.
"He died three weeks later."
"You were young."
"Twenty-three."
"Still young."
"I've spent fifteen years proving he was right."
Harper looked at him.
"And if Arthur killed him?"
Roman's jaw tightened.
"I want the truth."
"Not revenge?"
He met her eyes.
"I've wanted revenge."
"That's not what I asked."
A long silence.
"No," Roman finally said. "Not anymore."
Harper believed him.
That frightened her.
Because trust was returning faster than she wanted it to.
Roman stepped closer.
"About the gala."
"The kiss?"
"Yes."
Harper raised an eyebrow.
"You're filing a post-event report?"
"I should have asked more clearly."
"You did ask."
"Ten seconds isn't exactly informed contract language."
She smiled.
"Good thing I'm a lawyer."
Roman's gaze dropped briefly to her mouth.
Then returned to her eyes.
This time, he didn't move.
He waited.
Harper understood.
She closed the distance herself.
The kiss was different.
No audience.
No Connor.
No humiliation.
No performance.
Just choice.
When they separated, Roman touched his forehead to hers.
Then Harper's phone rang.
Daniel.
She answered.
"Where are you?"
His voice sounded tired.
"Does it matter?"
"Arthur knows Evelyn is alive."
Harper straightened.
"How?"
"I told him."
Roman's expression hardened.
Harper put the call on speaker.
"Why?"
"Because I need him to believe I'm still loyal."
"What are you doing, Daniel?"
"Trying to survive."
"That's what you've always done."
Daniel went quiet.
Then:
"Your father said the same thing before I killed him."
Harper stopped breathing.
Roman's hand tightened.
Daniel continued.
"I didn't mean to say that."
"Yes, you did."
"Harper—"
"You killed my father."
"It wasn't supposed to happen that way."
"Tell me where you are."
Daniel laughed shakily.
"Still a lawyer."
"Tell me."
"Pier Nineteen."
Roman was already signaling his men.
Daniel whispered, "Come alone if you want Evelyn alive."
The call ended.
Harper looked at Roman.
"No."
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face did."
"You're not going alone."
"He'll kill her."
"Possibly."
"Roman."
He stepped closer.
"And he'll kill you if you walk in there alone."
Harper's phone buzzed.
A photograph appeared.
Evelyn tied to a chair.
Behind her stood Daniel.
But Harper zoomed in.
There was another figure reflected in a window.
Arthur Mercer.
And he was holding the silver key Daniel had stolen from Harper's apartment.
Under the photograph came a message.
MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE.
Then a second message appeared.
It came from Evelyn's number.
DON'T COME. DANIEL ISN'T THE ONE YOU SHOULD FEAR.
A third message began typing.
One word appeared.
May you like
ROMAN—
Then the screen went black.
