Chapter 9 - The Night Damian Finally Said ItThe plan was insane.
Nobody moved.
Damian stared at the man he had trusted since adolescence.
“You?”
Anthony's expression was almost apologetic.
“I wish you hadn't come here.”
Nicholas reached subtly toward his waistband.
“Don't.”
Anthony shifted the gun.
“I know exactly how fast you are, Nick.”
Patrick looked tired rather than afraid.
“You've been feeding Vincent information.”
“Sometimes.”
“Why?”
Anthony laughed bitterly.
“You think men like us get choices?”
Damian's voice was cold.
“You always had a choice.”
“No. You had choices.”
Anthony stepped farther inside.
“You were Patrick Cole's son. Even when everything fell apart, you inherited money, protection, loyalty.”
“I inherited war.”
“And won it.”
Anthony's jaw tightened.
“My father owed Richard Cole three million dollars. When he couldn't pay, Halcyon owned us. I was fourteen.”
Damian stared.
“You could have told me.”
“When? At sixteen? At twenty? After Vincent showed me photographs of my sisters walking to school?”
Elena watched him.
This wasn't a man enjoying betrayal.
This was a man who had been trapped so long he no longer knew the shape of freedom.
Anthony looked at Elena.
“I didn't know about the garage.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I knew Vincent planned pressure. Not murder.”
“Five bullets feels like pressure to you?”
His face tightened.
“When I learned what happened, I helped Damian find the folder.”
“And then helped Vincent escape,” Patrick said.
Anthony didn't deny it.
Damian took one step forward.
Anthony raised the gun.
“Don't.”
“If you wanted me dead, I'd already be dead.”
“Don't test me.”
Damian kept moving.
“Then shoot.”
“Damian,” Elena warned.
He ignored her.
Anthony's hand trembled.
Damian stopped two feet from the barrel.
“Shoot me.”
Anthony swallowed.
“I will.”
“No, you won't.”
“Why?”
“Because you're still the kid who stole my father's car when we were seventeen and drove it into a fountain.”
Despite everything, Anthony's mouth almost smiled.
“You said you wouldn't mention that again.”
“I lied.”
Silence.
Damian's voice softened.
“Put the gun down.”
Anthony's eyes filled.
“I can't.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No.”
His phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
Whatever he saw destroyed the last hesitation.
“I'm sorry.”
He aimed at Elena.
Damian moved instantly.
Gunfire exploded.
Nicholas tackled Anthony.
Patrick pulled Elena down.
The bullet struck the wall.
Anthony and Nicholas crashed across the floor.
Damian seized the gun.
Within seconds Anthony was pinned.
Nicholas punched him once.
“That's for aiming at her.”
Damian looked at his brother.
Nicholas shrugged.
“You were going to do it.”
Anthony began laughing.
Then crying.
“You don't understand.”
His phone lay on the floor.
Elena picked it up.
A live video played.
Two women sat tied to chairs.
Anthony's sisters.
A countdown timer showed forty-seven minutes.
Elena's anger vanished.
“Oh God.”
Anthony looked at Damian.
“Vincent has them.”
Damian released him.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“What happens when the timer reaches zero?”
“They die.”
Everyone moved.
Patrick's equipment could trace transmissions through Halcyon routing networks.
Nicholas worked at a computer.
Elena sat beside Anthony.
“You should have told him.”
Anthony stared at the floor.
“I betrayed him for twelve years.”
“You also saved his life more than once.”
“That doesn't erase it.”
“No.”
She thought of Margaret.
Her father.
All the damage caused by people hiding truth to “protect” somebody.
“But continuing the lie doesn't fix it either.”
Anthony looked at Damian.
“I gave Vincent your mother's schedule.”
Damian's face became still.
Anthony continued before courage disappeared.
“He told me it was surveillance. He said they wanted photographs proving Margaret met with certain politicians.”
“You gave him the garage route.”
“Yes.”
Damian walked toward him.
Elena stood.
“Damian.”
He stopped.
Anthony didn't defend himself.
“If she had died,” Damian said, “I would kill you.”
“I know.”
“If Elena dies because of this…”
Anthony closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Damian clenched his fists.
Then stepped away.
Nicholas shouted from the computer.
“Got it.”
A warehouse in Newark.
Thirty-nine minutes.
Damian looked at Anthony.
“You're coming.”
Anthony nodded.
The rescue unfolded violently but quickly.
They breached the warehouse through two entrances.
Patrick coordinated from outside.
Nicholas disabled the lights.
Damian and Anthony reached the hostages.
Vincent wasn't there.
But six Halcyon operatives were.
Gunfire echoed.
Anthony took a bullet through the side while shielding his younger sister.
Damian dragged him behind cover.
“You're not dying.”
Anthony laughed weakly.
“Seems contagious around your family.”
They got both women out alive.
Anthony survived.
As paramedics loaded him into an ambulance, he grabbed Damian's wrist.
“Vincent has one more target.”
“Who?”
Anthony looked toward Elena.
“He doesn't want her dead anymore.”
Elena frowned.
“Why?”
“He needs her.”
“For what?”
“The ledger isn't complete.”
Patrick had mentioned that.
Thomas copied evidence but encrypted the identities.
Anthony continued.
“Thomas created a biometric lock.”
Elena stared.
“A what?”
“Not technology. Genetics.”
Nobody understood.
Anthony winced.
“There are two halves of the final code.”
“Where?” Damian asked.
“One was hidden with Thomas.”
“The grave?”
Anthony nodded.
“And the other?”
He looked at Elena.
“Inside something Thomas knew nobody could steal.”
“What?”
“His daughter.”
Elena's face went pale.
Damian stepped closer.
“What does that mean?”
Anthony struggled for breath.
“Your medical records.”
She frowned.
Then realization hit.
Seven years earlier, after her father's death, Elena had undergone surgery following a car crash.
A metal plate had been placed near her collarbone.
She touched the scar.
“No.”
Anthony nodded.
“Vincent believes Thomas hid a micro-engraved code on the surgical implant.”
Damian's expression darkened.
Elena remembered Vincent's men switching her phone.
Following her.
The hospital attack.
They hadn't only been trying to kill her.
They had been trying to retrieve something.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Damian answered.
Vincent's voice.
“Put Elena on.”
“No.”
“Then you'll never see your mother again.”
Damian froze.
Vincent laughed softly.
“Yes. Margaret is with me.”
Elena looked at him.
Vincent continued.
“Bring Thomas's ledger and Elena Whitfield to the old Cole shipyard tomorrow night.”
Damian's eyes turned murderous.
“If you've hurt her—”
“I haven't.”
A pause.
“Yet.”
The call ended.
Damian stared at Elena.
“No.”
She already knew what he meant.
“You're not trading yourself.”
“He has your mother.”
“I'll get her back.”
“With what?”
“My way.”
“Which usually involves guns.”
“Effective tools.”
“Damian.”
He turned away.
Elena grabbed his hand.
“Look at me.”
He did.
“You can't protect everyone by deciding everything alone.”
His jaw tightened.
“My father tried that.”
The words stopped him.
“So did Margaret. So did Anthony. Look where secrets got all of you.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“We go.”
“No.”
“Together.”
“Absolutely not.”
“We give Vincent what he thinks he wants.”
“And then?”
May you like
Elena looked toward Patrick.
“Then we finish what our fathers started.”
