Chapter 9 - THE PRICE OF THE TRUTHAt six the next morning, Dominic Vale made breakfast for his daughter.
The second hit flesh.
Julian stumbled backward.
Dominic saw blood spread across his shoulder.
“Julian!”
“I’m fine!”
Adrian fired again.
Gabriel returned fire.
Adrian disappeared behind a shipping crate.
The warehouse became chaos.
Sloane's men fired from the upper walkways.
Dominic pulled Anna toward cover.
Michael crawled behind a forklift.
The countdown continued on the laptop.
06:32.
Sloane shouted over the gunfire.
“Kill Vale!”
Dominic almost laughed.
That order had been given many times before.
It had never worked.
Tonight, however, survival wasn't enough.
Anna had to survive.
Julian.
Gabriel.
And Sophie waiting three blocks away.
Dominic looked at Anna.
“Can you run?”
“Yes.”
“You're limping.”
“I can still run.”
He handed her a pistol.
She stared.
“You remember?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Good.”
They moved.
Gabriel fired from the mezzanine.
“East exit!”
Dominic and Anna ran toward it.
A guard appeared.
Anna fired first.
The man dropped his weapon and fell behind a crate.
Dominic glanced at her.
“You've changed.”
“You disappeared from my life too.”
“Not voluntarily.”
“Neither did I.”
They reached the exit.
Locked.
Dominic shot the padlock.
Outside, rain hammered the dock.
Julian joined them, clutching his shoulder.
“You okay?”
“I've been better.”
“Adrian?”
“Still ugly.”
Anna laughed once.
Dominic stared at her.
“What?”
“I forgot your family uses jokes instead of therapy.”
Julian grinned.
“Cheaper.”
A shot struck the wall.
They ducked.
Gabriel emerged.
“Sloane's heading toward the pier.”
“Laptop?”
“With him.”
Dominic checked the time.
04:51.
“He wants the dead-man switch canceled.”
“Then he's keeping it alive.”
Anna looked at Dominic.
“What exactly happens at zero?”
“Everything goes to journalists and federal agencies.”
“Everything?”
“Yes.”
“Including your records?”
“Yes.”
She stared at him.
“Dominic—”
“I know.”
“You could go to prison.”
“I know.”
“For years.”
“I know.”
Anna stopped.
“Why?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Because Sophie deserves a father who stops pretending consequences are for other people.”
Anna's expression softened.
Then gunfire resumed.
No time.
They chased Sloane toward Pier Four.
A speedboat waited.
Adrian was already there.
The two men argued.
“Give me the card!” Adrian shouted.
Sloane pointed his gun.
“You're done.”
“You promised me Vale's organization!”
“And you failed.”
Adrian smiled.
“Then I'll take yours.”
He fired.
The bullet hit Sloane in the abdomen.
Sloane staggered.
Dominic arrived seconds later.
Gabriel aimed.
Adrian grabbed the laptop.
“Stay back!”
Julian emerged.
Blood soaked his shirt.
Adrian looked at him.
“You should've died properly.”
Julian laughed weakly.
“You first.”
Adrian pointed the gun toward Julian.
Anna shouted.
“Wait!”
Everyone looked.
She stepped forward.
“You want Dominic's life?”
Adrian smiled.
“I want what should have been mine.”
“You were never going to get it.”
“You don't know that.”
“I do.”
Anna pointed toward the laptop.
“The ledger contains Sloane's files on you.”
Adrian's expression changed.
“What?”
“He never planned to let you inherit anything.”
Sloane laughed from the ground.
Adrian looked down.
“You liar.”
Sloane smiled despite the blood.
“You were useful.”
Adrian's face twisted.
“You promised.”
“I promised many people many things.”
Adrian aimed at him.
Dominic moved.
“Don't.”
Adrian looked over.
“Why do you care?”
“I don't.”
“Then let me kill him.”
“Because Sophie is going to ask me what happened tonight.”
Adrian laughed.
“You're letting a child turn you weak.”
“No.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“She's reminding me strength doesn't require becoming you.”
Adrian's gun shifted toward Dominic.
“Stop moving.”
Dominic stopped.
Countdown.
02:11.
Sloane struggled toward the boat.
Gabriel saw.
“So does everyone else.”
Adrian looked around.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
He panicked.
Dominic noticed.
“It's over.”
“No.”
“Adrian.”
“No!”
He fired.
Julian pushed Dominic sideways.
The bullet hit Julian.
He collapsed.
“Julian!”
Dominic fired.
Adrian dropped his gun, clutching his thigh.
Gabriel rushed him.
Anna went to Julian.
Blood spread across his abdomen.
“Stay with me.”
Julian grimaced.
“I'm getting tired of being shot.”
Dominic knelt.
“Ambulance!”
Gabriel radioed.
Sloane crawled into the speedboat.
Nobody noticed until the engine roared.
Dominic looked.
Sloane pulled away from the dock.
The laptop sat beside him.
Countdown.
00:47.
Dominic stood.
Anna grabbed him.
“Let him go.”
“The laptop.”
“Let it happen.”
Dominic stared at her.
Everything.
All their secrets.
All his own crimes.
Forty seconds.
Sloane sped toward open water.
Thirty.
Dominic could still cancel through his phone.
His thumb hovered.
Twenty-five.
Anna watched.
“You don't have to destroy yourself to prove you've changed.”
Dominic looked at Julian bleeding on the dock.
Gabriel restraining Adrian.
Michael standing silently nearby.
Then at Anna.
“I spent my life telling myself the rules didn't apply because worse men existed.”
Fifteen.
He lowered the phone.
“I'm done.”
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
Sloane realized.
Even from the boat, Dominic could see him looking at the laptop.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
Sloane reached for something.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
The files transmitted.
Across the city, phones began ringing.
Newsrooms received encrypted archives.
Federal servers received evidence.
Prosecutors received names.
Bank accounts.
Recorded conversations.
Photographs.
Dominic's empire became public.
So did Sloane's.
Sloane stared at the laptop.
Then screamed.
A second later, his boat struck a partially submerged maintenance barrier.
The hull shattered.
Sloane flew into the river.
Dominic watched from the dock.
“Should we help him?” Gabriel asked.
Dominic sighed.
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked disappointed.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“You are changing.”
“Call harbor patrol.”
Gabriel made the call.
Sloane was pulled from the freezing water seven minutes later.
Alive.
Furious.
And surrounded by federal agents who had received enough evidence to arrest him before he reached the ambulance.
Adrian was taken into custody.
Evelyn too.
Michael sat quietly beside the warehouse wall.
He knew his own arrest was coming.
Dominic approached.
Michael looked up.
“I suppose this is where you kill me.”
“No.”
“That would've been your father's method.”
“My father wanted out.”
Michael closed his eyes.
“You know.”
“Yes.”
“I killed him.”
“You'll tell prosecutors everything.”
Michael laughed bitterly.
“And if I don't?”
Dominic looked at him.
“You will.”
“Why?”
“Because guilt brought you here.”
Dominic glanced toward Anna.
“It might as well take you the rest of the way.”
Paramedics carried Julian toward an ambulance.
Dominic rushed over.
“Is he going to live?”
The paramedic nodded.
“Bullet missed major organs. He's lucky.”
Julian opened one eye.
“I prefer talented.”
Dominic grabbed his hand.
“You idiot.”
“You're welcome.”
“For what?”
“Getting shot for you.”
Dominic smiled.
“You've been trying to make up for seven years.”
“Is it working?”
“Ask me later.”
Julian closed his eyes.
“Fair.”
Anna stood beside Dominic.
Sirens reflected across the water.
She looked exhausted.
“Where's Sophie?”
Dominic immediately turned toward the command vehicle.
“Waiting.”
Anna's face broke.
She ran.
Dominic followed.
The SUV door opened before they reached it.
Sophie jumped out.
“Mommy!”
Anna dropped to her knees.
Sophie crashed into her arms.
Both began crying.
Dominic stopped several feet away.
He didn't want to intrude.
Sophie held her mother tightly.
“I found Dad!”
Anna looked over Sophie's shoulder at Dominic.
He froze.
Sophie smiled through tears.
“I told you I'd find him.”
Anna laughed and cried at the same time.
“You did.”
Then Sophie reached one hand toward Dominic.
“Come here.”
He walked forward.
Anna looked up.
For six years, thousands of words had existed between them.
Anger.
Questions.
Regret.
But Sophie solved it with three.
“Group hug.”
Dominic almost laughed.
Then he knelt.
Anna hesitated.
Only for a second.
Sophie wrapped one arm around each of them.
And on a rainy dock in Brooklyn, while police lights flashed and an entire criminal empire began collapsing around them, Dominic Vale finally held the family he hadn't known he'd lost.
But the consequences were only beginning.
May you like
Because by sunrise, Dominic's name was on every television in America.
And federal agents were coming for him too.
