Chapter 3 - The Traitor Behind the Gates
Only four people knew about the cemetery.
Celine.
Cashin.
Marcus.
And the driver who had brought them there.
The driver was found unconscious behind the church, a needle mark in his neck and no memory of stopping the truck.
That left three people.
Celine sat inside a reinforced room at the estate while Cashin’s security teams searched every corridor, vehicle, office, and staff quarter.
Nobody said the word betrayal aloud.
They did not need to.
Someone inside Cashin’s organization had given Adrian Vale access to camera schedules. Someone had known about the cemetery almost immediately. Someone could be listening now.
Cashin removed every electronic device from the library and placed them inside a soundproof container. Guards swept the walls for transmitters.
Celine watched the process with growing unease.
“How many people work here?” she asked.
“Forty-two,” Marcus replied.
“And you trust all of them?”
“I did yesterday.”
Cashin stood beside the cold fireplace. A shallow cut crossed his cheek from the church debris.
Celine had already cleaned it, despite his insistence that it was nothing.
“It needs stitches,” she said.
“It does not.”
“It will scar.”
“I have others.”
“That isn’t a medical argument.”
Marcus turned away to hide a smile.
Cashin’s eyes remained on the security reports. “The shooter knew our destination before we arrived. Either our communications are compromised or someone left this estate after hearing the plan.”
“Could Leah’s note have been a trap?” Marcus asked.
Celine shook her head. “That was her handwriting.”
“She may have written it under threat.”
“She used a phrase only we understood.”
“Rook could have forced the explanation from her.”
Celine hated that he was right.
Cashin looked toward the locker receipt.
“Whether it is bait or evidence, Vale expects us to retrieve it.”
“So we don’t go,” Marcus said.
Celine stood. “We have to.”
“They’ll be watching the station.”
“They’re already watching everything.”
Cashin studied her. “You have a proposal.”
“We let them see what they expect.”
Marcus folded his arms. “Which is?”
“Me entering the station with your men.”
“No,” Cashin said immediately.
She ignored him. “They believe I’ll do anything to save Leah and Noah. That makes my behavior predictable. We use that.”
“They may shoot you before you reach the locker.”
“They won’t. They need the evidence.”
“They need you dead.”
“Not until they know whether copies exist.”
Cashin’s voice turned cold. “You are discussing your life as though it is a tool.”
“So do you.”
“That is different.”
“Because you decided it is?”
“Because I have spent years preparing for the consequences of my choices.”
“And I’ve spent years walking into emergency rooms without knowing what was behind the doors. Courage isn’t the absence of danger, Cashin. Sometimes it’s choosing which danger matters.”
The use of his first name silenced the room.
Celine had called him Mr. Voss since waking at the estate.
Something softened in his expression before the walls returned.
“You will not enter that station unprotected.”
“I didn’t ask to.”
They created a plan based on deception.
A woman matching Celine’s height would enter Grand Central wearing her coat and crescent bracelet. Cashin’s men would surround her discreetly. Cameras would capture the movement. Vale’s watchers would focus on the decoy.
Meanwhile, Celine and Marcus would enter through a maintenance tunnel with a transit employee who owed Cashin a favor.
Cashin would remain in the command vehicle.
That was the official plan.
Celine did not believe for one second that he intended to remain anywhere.
Before leaving, she visited the estate’s medical room to collect supplies. One of the night nurses, Angela Price, was organizing medication trays.
Angela had cared for Celine during her first days of consciousness. She was quiet, gentle, and almost impossible to dislike.
“You shouldn’t be going,” Angela said.
“I don’t have much choice.”
“People always have choices.”
“Sometimes every choice hurts someone.”
Angela looked toward the door. “Mr. Voss frightens most people.”
“Does he frighten you?”
“He used to.”
“What changed?”
Angela closed a drawer. “I realized the most dangerous person in a room is not always the cruelest. Sometimes it’s the one who has convinced himself cruelty is necessary.”
Celine considered the words.
“You think that’s Cashin?”
“I think that describes many men in this house.”
Angela handed her a small first-aid kit.
Their fingers touched.
Celine noticed a faint black mark beneath Angela’s sleeve.
A tattoo.
The bottom of a vertical blade.
Her blood turned cold.
Angela pulled her sleeve down.
For one suspended second, neither woman moved.
Then Angela smiled sadly.
“You were always more observant than they expected.”
Celine stepped backward.
Angela drew a small pistol from beneath the medication cart.
“Don’t scream.”
“Rook’s tattoo.”
“My brother’s tattoo.”
“You’re his sister.”
“Half-sister.”
“Does Cashin know?”
“No. He believes Angela Price came from Ohio with excellent references.”
“Did you place the shoe at the gate?”
Angela’s expression showed no pride.
“Yes.”
“And the camera schedules?”
“Yes.”
Celine looked toward the closed door.
“What do you want?”
“To prevent more people from dying.”
“You helped kidnap a child.”
“I did not know Rook would take Noah.”
“But you kept helping him.”
“He is my brother.”
“That doesn’t make him right.”
“No. It makes him mine.”
Celine understood that kind of loyalty. She also understood its danger.
“Where are Leah and Noah?”
“Alive.”
“Where?”
“I can’t tell you.”
Angela’s hand trembled slightly around the gun.
“You don’t want to hurt me,” Celine said.
“Please don’t make me.”
“You cared for me.”
“That was not an act.”
“You changed my bandages. You sat with me when I woke screaming.”
“I know.”
“You told me I was safe.”
Tears filled Angela’s eyes.
“I wanted it to be true.”
“Then help me make it true.”
The door opened.
Cashin entered.
Angela swung the gun toward him.
He stopped.
Behind him, two guards raised their weapons.
Celine stepped between them.
“Lower your guns.”
Cashin did not look away from Angela. “Move, Celine.”
“No.”
“She has a weapon.”
“She hasn’t fired it.”
“Yet.”
Angela backed toward the window. “I’m sorry.”
Cashin’s voice became quiet and lethal. “Your name.”
“Angela Price.”
“Your real name.”
“Angela Rook.”
Recognition passed over his face.
“You were sixteen when your brother worked for me.”
“You remember.”
“I remember everyone connected to the dead.”
Her grip tightened. “Elias said you would kill him even if he surrendered.”
“He sold three people to an ambush.”
“He said Vale forced him.”
“He took money.”
“He was trying to pay for our mother’s treatment.”
Cashin’s face remained hard. “He could have asked me.”
“He was ashamed.”
“Three families buried people because of his shame.”
“And how many families buried people because of yours?”
The question struck deeper than the weapon.
Celine watched Cashin’s jaw tighten.
Angela continued. “Vale promised to protect Elias. Then he trapped him. My brother has spent six years doing whatever Vale demands because he believes you’ll kill him if he leaves.”
“He is not a prisoner if he kidnaps children.”
“I know.”
Angela’s voice broke.
“I know what he has become.”
Celine slowly extended her hand.
“Give me the gun.”
Angela shook her head.
“You said you wanted to stop people from dying. Start now.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“Elias will know.”
“Then we protect you too.”
Angela laughed bitterly. “Protection from whom? Vale? My brother? Him?”
She glanced toward Cashin.
Celine did not lower her hand.
“From anyone who tries to hurt you.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No. But I can promise I won’t look away.”
Angela’s face crumpled.
The gun lowered an inch.
Then one of Cashin’s guards fired.
The bullet struck Angela in the shoulder.
She collapsed.
Celine dropped beside her, pressing both hands over the wound.
“What did you do?” she screamed.
The guard looked stunned. “I thought she was aiming—”
“You thought wrong!”
Blood spread beneath Celine’s fingers.
Angela gasped. “Locker… not safe.”
Celine leaned closer. “What?”
“Bomb.”
Cashin turned toward Marcus. “Stop the team.”
Angela struggled to breathe.
“Vale wants… evidence destroyed. Station crowded. Blame you.”
Cashin issued orders into his radio.
Celine maintained pressure. “Where are Leah and Noah?”
Angela’s eyes fluttered.
“St. Vincent.”
“We know that.”
“Below it.”
“The tunnel?”
Angela nodded faintly.
“Orpheus lab.”
“What is Orpheus?”
“New drug. Stronger than fentanyl. Clinic tested doses on patients who couldn’t fight back.”
Celine felt sick.
Emma Ruiz had not died because of careless prescribing.
She had been an experiment.
“Where is the entrance?”
Angela whispered, “Old ambulance elevator.”
Her pulse weakened beneath Celine’s fingers.
“Stay with me,” Celine ordered. “You don’t get to leave after giving me half the answer.”
Angela’s lips trembled.
“Elias carries the access code. Four numbers.”
“What numbers?”
“The day our mother died.”
Angela lost consciousness.
Celine worked with the estate physician to stabilize her. The bullet had missed major arteries, but she needed surgery.
When the medical team carried Angela away, Cashin turned toward the guard who fired.
“You are relieved of duty.”
“Boss, I was protecting you.”
“You ignored a direct instruction to lower your weapon.”
“She was armed.”
“So was everyone else in the room.”
The guard surrendered his weapon.
Cashin faced Celine.
“There was a bomb in locker 318.”
“Yes.”
“Our decoy team was thirty seconds from opening it.”
“But they didn’t.”
“Because the woman who betrayed us warned you.”
“She also told us where the hostages are.”
“And Vale now knows his informant may have turned.”
Celine removed her blood-covered gloves.
“We can still reach them.”
“Not by waiting until tomorrow night.”
“You want to attack the hospital now.”
“I want to enter before Vale moves them.”
“Angela said it’s a laboratory. There may be patients.”
Cashin’s expression darkened. “Then we take medical support.”
“Your men aren’t trained for a chemical environment.”
“Are you?”
“I worked in emergency response before Harbor Mercy.”
“That does not mean you are going underground.”
“You need someone who understands the clinic’s records and the drug.”
“I need you alive.”
“And Leah needs me to keep my promise.”
Cashin stepped closer.
“I cannot lose you in that building.”
The words came out before he could stop them.
Celine stared at him.
It was the first time he had admitted that her life mattered for a reason beyond obligation.
“You barely know me,” she whispered.
“I know enough.”
The room seemed to narrow around them.
Celine touched the cut on his cheek.
“You don’t protect people by locking them away,” she said. “You protect them by standing beside them when they choose to fight.”
His eyes closed briefly beneath her hand.
When they opened, the decision had been made.
“We enter St. Vincent before sunset.”
A phone rang in Marcus’s pocket.
He answered, listened, and turned pale.
“What?” Cashin demanded.
Marcus lowered the phone.
“The bomb squad opened locker 318 remotely.”
“Was the evidence inside?”
“No.”
“What did they find?”
Marcus looked at Celine.
“A live video feed.”
He turned the screen toward them.
Leah sat tied to a chair beneath a flickering hospital light. Blood marked her forehead. Noah was pressed against her side.
Behind them stood Elias Rook.
He held a gun to the child’s head.
“Come early,” he said into the camera. “And come through the ambulance entrance.”
May you like
His gaze shifted as if he could see Cashin through the screen.
“My sister’s life for theirs.”
