Chapter 7 - One Bennett for One MaddoxDeputy Director Cross did not look like a villain.
That bothered me.
He looked like somebody’s father.
Gray suit.
Conservative tie.
Expensive glasses.
A small American flag pin on his lapel.
The kind of man people trusted because he had spent years learning how to look trustworthy.
Emma stood beside Raymond with her wrists tied.
Her eyes were red, but she wasn’t crying.
Maddox blood, apparently.
“You must be Nora,” Cross said.
“You must be disappointing your mother.”
Raymond laughed.
Cross did not.
“Search her.”
A woman stepped forward.
She checked my clothes.
Shoes.
Hair.
Nothing.
The brass boxing glove remained beneath my shirt.
Too small to matter.
At least they thought so.
“No electronics.”
Cross nodded.
“Good.”
Raymond looked toward Emma.
“Release her.”
Cross frowned.
“Not yet.”
Raymond turned.
“We agreed.”
“We agreed after confirmation.”
“Confirmation of what?”
“That Bennett came alone.”
I looked around the enormous factory.
Catwalks.
Old furnaces.
Conveyor lines.
Steel beams.
No Cole.
No Travis.
No Michael.
Exactly as planned.
Emma looked at me.
“Are you really Uncle Cole’s girlfriend?”
I almost laughed.
Raymond looked irritated.
“No.”
Emma shrugged.
“He talks about you.”
That surprised me.
“Does he?”
“Mostly angry.”
“That sounds more accurate.”
Raymond grabbed her shoulder.
“Enough.”
I stepped forward.
“Touch her again and you lose the exchange.”
Cross smiled.
“You think you have leverage.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Me.”
I held up the brass glove.
Raymond’s face changed.
Tiny reaction.
But I saw it.
“You recognize this.”
“Thomas gave those to all his children.”
“All?”
I looked at him.
“So you knew about Michael.”
“Of course.”
“Did you know Dad put data inside them?”
Raymond’s eyes narrowed.
He didn’t know.
Good.
There was no data inside.
But he didn’t know that either.
I opened the brass glove.
A tiny folded strip of paper sat inside.
I had placed it there an hour earlier.
Numbers.
A fake account code.
Raymond snatched it.
Cross stepped closer.
“What is that?”
“The access key,” I said.
“To?”
“Dad’s archive.”
Cross looked at Raymond.
“You said the evidence was physical.”
“It was.”
“Was?”
I smiled.
“Michael uploaded everything this morning.”
Cross’s face changed.
Now we had fear.
“Where?”
“Encrypted server.”
“Password?”
“In my head.”
Raymond stepped closer.
“You’re lying.”
“Then shoot me.”
Silence.
I spread my hands.
“Go ahead.”
He didn’t.
That was the advantage my father had left me.
Men like Raymond believed information was more valuable than people.
“You want the password,” I said. “Emma leaves.”
Cross shook his head.
“No.”
Raymond looked at him.
“She leaves.”
“This is my operation now.”
The sentence changed everything.
Raymond stared.
“Your operation?”
Cross’s arrogance surfaced.
“You’ve become reckless.”
“I built this network.”
“You built a gambling business.”
Cross walked closer.
“I turned it into something useful.”
People.
Round Three.
Trafficking.
Raymond looked genuinely offended.
“You used my fighters without permission.”
Cross smiled.
“You owned bodies. I found buyers.”
For the first time, I saw a fracture between them.
Perfect.
I leaned into it.
“So Raymond didn’t know.”
“Quiet,” Cross snapped.
I laughed.
“All those years being the big dangerous Maddox, and a federal bureaucrat was stealing from you.”
Raymond struck me.
Hard.
My lip split.
Emma screamed.
I tasted blood.
Good.
Anger made people stupid.
“You always hit women when men embarrass you?” I asked.
He raised his hand again.
Cross caught his wrist.
“We need her conscious.”
Raymond jerked free.
Outside, somewhere beyond the walls, the others would be listening.
Not through electronics on me.
Through the factory itself.
Michael had discovered old maintenance tunnels running beneath the building.
Dad trained fighters.
Dad also apparently taught them to crawl through impossible places.
Cross grabbed my face.
“Password.”
“Emma.”
He looked at Raymond.
“Fine.”
Raymond cut the girl’s wrists.
Emma ran toward the main door.
A guard blocked her.
I stared.
“That isn’t leaving.”
“She leaves when we have confirmation.”
“Then no password.”
Cross pulled a gun.
He pressed it against my stomach.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“You’re brave.”
“No.”
I looked at Raymond.
“I’m betting you hate being ordered around in your own factory.”
Raymond’s jaw tightened.
Cross realized.
“Don’t.”
I smiled.
“Imagine what Thomas would think.”
Raymond hit Cross.
Everything happened at once.
Cross fired.
The bullet struck a steel column.
Raymond’s guards raised weapons.
Cross’s men raised theirs.
Emma dropped.
I ran toward her.
The factory lights went out.
Cole.
Emergency alarms started.
Travis.
Steam burst from an old pipe.
Michael.
Three different distractions.
Dad had trained them well.
I reached Emma.
“Come with me.”
We ran beneath the conveyor.
Gunfire exploded above us.
A man stepped into our path.
I punched his throat.
He staggered.
I drove my knee into his stomach.
He fell.
Emma stared.
“Uncle Cole said you were scary.”
“Move.”
We reached a maintenance door.
Michael opened it from inside.
“Emma!”
She jumped into his arms.
“Who are you?”
“Complicated.”
He shoved her toward Travis.
“Take her.”
Travis moved through the tunnel.
I turned back.
“Where’s Cole?”
Michael’s face tightened.
“He went after Raymond.”
Of course.
I ran.
“Nora!”
Too late.
I climbed the steel stairs.
The factory floor looked like a war zone.
Donnelly’s federal team entered from the west.
Cross’s corrupt agents fired back.
Cole pursued Raymond along the upper catwalk.
“Cole!”
He looked at me.
Raymond did too.
He fired.
Cole ducked.
The bullet struck railing.
I reached the stairs.
Cross appeared below me.
Blood ran from his forehead.
“You.”
He raised his weapon.
A shot cracked.
Cross dropped.
Agent Donnelly stood behind him.
“Federal agents! Drop it!”
Cross laughed from the floor.
“You’re finished, Sarah.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You are.”
He reached for his gun.
She kicked it away.
On the catwalk, Raymond and Cole disappeared inside an office.
I followed.
Inside, Cole slammed Raymond against a wall.
Raymond struck him with a metal bar.
Cole fell.
Raymond raised it again.
I jumped onto his back.
He threw me into a desk.
Pain exploded through my shoulder.
“Nora!”
Cole tackled him.
They crashed through a glass partition.
Raymond grabbed Cole’s throat.
“You were weak the day you were born.”
Cole punched him.
“You’ve mentioned that.”
Raymond struck back.
“You needed Thomas because your own father abandoned you.”
Another punch.
“And Thomas died because of you.”
Cole froze.
There.
The wound Raymond knew how to use.
I got up.
“That’s not true.”
Raymond looked at me.
“He was protecting Cole when I found the gym.”
“No.”
“Cole stole financial records from my office.”
Cole’s face changed.
I understood.
“You started the investigation?”
He looked ashamed.
“I was nineteen.”
Raymond smiled.
“He thought he was a hero.”
I stepped toward Cole.
“You were.”
“No.”
“Dad chose to help you.”
Raymond swung the metal bar.
I ducked.
Cole caught his arm.
Together, we drove Raymond against the wall.
Michael entered with a gun.
Raymond stopped.
For one second, all four of us stood beneath another clock.
A factory clock.
Red hands.
Michael raised the weapon.
“Six years.”
Raymond smiled.
“Do it.”
Michael’s hand shook.
“Michael,” I whispered.
Raymond spread his arms.
“Shoot me like you shot your father.”
Michael flinched.
Cole moved toward him.
“Don’t.”
“You don’t get to tell me.”
“No.”
Cole stood between Michael and Raymond.
“Thomas saved us so we could become better than him.”
Raymond laughed.
“You run illegal fights.”
Cole didn’t look away from Michael.
“I said better. Not perfect.”
Michael lowered the gun slightly.
Raymond reached for a hidden pistol.
I saw it.
“Gun!”
A shot exploded.
Raymond staggered.
His pistol fell.
He looked down.
Blood spread across his side.
Michael stared at his own weapon.
He hadn’t fired.
Cole hadn’t.
I hadn’t.
Cross stood in the doorway.
Smoke rose from his gun.
“If I go down,” he said, “you go first.”
Raymond collapsed.
Cross turned the gun toward us.
Then Agent Donnelly shot him in the shoulder.
He fell.
Federal agents rushed inside.
Raymond was alive.
So was Cross.
Both would stand trial.
Michael looked at me.
“It’s over.”
I wanted to believe him.
Then Cross began laughing from the floor.
Donnelly frowned.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“You think Thomas Bennett only had one daughter?”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
Michael went still.
Cross smiled through the pain.
“Ask your mother.”
I stepped closer.
May you like
“My mother is dead.”
“Exactly.”
