Chapter 7 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
Roman did not kill anyone.
That sounds like a small thing.
In his world, it wasn't.
By eleven-thirty, federal teams surrounded Saint Marrow Cold Storage.
Roman knew the building better than the agents.
His father had purchased it decades earlier.
Underground loading tunnels.
Maintenance shafts.
A drainage system wide enough for a person to crawl through.
The kind of place designed by men who wanted exits nobody else knew existed.
I was supposed to remain in the command vehicle.
I did.
For approximately nine minutes.
Then Felix called me.
Directly.
“Mara.”
“What do you want?”
“Not Roman.”
I looked through the windshield.
Roman was standing twenty yards away speaking with Ortega.
“What?”
“This was never about him.”
“You tried to crush him with a truck.”
“A professional disagreement.”
“You murdered my husband.”
Silence.
Then Felix said, “Vincent murdered your husband.”
“You cut the brake line.”
Another silence.
My heart hammered.
Felix's voice lowered.
“Daniel should have minded his business.”
Something inside me became cold.
I activated the recorder on a second phone Ortega had given me.
“Say that again.”
Felix laughed.
“You think I'm stupid?”
“I think you're a coward who murdered a father and now threatens a three-year-old.”
He breathed hard.
Good.
Angry men talked.
“You don't understand anything.”
“Then explain.”
“Daniel found records that would have destroyed people who had been protecting Hail Continental long before Roman learned how to wear a suit.”
“Protecting?”
“Building.”
“You mean stealing.”
“I mean doing what men like Roman pretend they never benefited from.”
“You killed Daniel because he found out.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because he refused money.”
My stomach twisted.
“You tried to bribe him.”
“Vincent offered him two million dollars.”
Daniel had never told me.
Of course he hadn't.
He had been trying to keep me safe.
Felix continued.
“Your husband could have taken you somewhere warm and spent the rest of his life raising that little girl.”
My throat burned.
“But he said no.”
“He said he wouldn't let his daughter grow up on blood money.”
Felix went silent.
I closed my eyes.
That sounded exactly like Daniel.
The pain was almost unbearable.
“Where's Celeste?”
“Inside.”
“Alive?”
“For now.”
“What do you want?”
“The original storage card.”
“Agents have copies.”
“I don't care about copies.”
That confused me.
“Why?”
Felix laughed.
“Ask Roman why.”
The line went dead.
I left the vehicle.
Roman saw me immediately.
“You were told to stay inside.”
“Felix called.”
Everything in Roman's face changed.
I told him what Felix said.
When I mentioned the original storage card, Roman became very still.
“Why would he care if copies already exist?”
Roman didn't answer.
“Roman.”
He looked at Ortega.
Ortega looked away.
That was all I needed.
“What are you hiding?”
Roman exhaled.
“The card contains more than Daniel's files.”
“What?”
“An encryption key.”
“For what?”
“The Hail family private ledgers.”
I stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“We didn't know whether Daniel had copied it deliberately.”
“What does it unlock?”
Roman's silence answered before he did.
“Everything.”
Ortega stepped closer.
“Offshore accounts. Historical payments. Bribery. Property transfers. Names going back twenty years.”
I looked at Roman.
“Your crimes?”
“No.”
“Your family's?”
“Yes.”
“Are you in it?”
Roman held my gaze.
“My name is in the ledgers.”
My stomach dropped.
“For what?”
“Inheritance transfers. Cash distributions when I was younger. Payments my father ordered on my behalf.”
“Illegal?”
“Some.”
“You told me you were cleaning the company.”
“I am.”
“After benefiting from it.”
“Yes.”
I wanted him to defend himself.
He didn't.
That made it worse somehow.
“Why help the federal investigation if these records can destroy you?”
Roman looked toward the abandoned building.
“Because Daniel died trying to do what I should have done years earlier.”
The answer stopped me.
Roman reached into his coat.
He removed the original storage card.
I stared.
“You kept it?”
“We copied everything first.”
“You're giving it to Felix?”
“No.”
“Then why bring it?”
“Because he needs to believe I might.”
Before I could respond, gunfire cracked from the northern side of the building.
Agents moved.
Roman's radio erupted.
“Movement! East loading bay!”
An explosion shook the pavement.
Smoke poured from Saint Marrow.
“Celeste!” I shouted.
Roman grabbed me.
“Stay here.”
“You can't—”
“I can.”
He ran.
Agents followed.
For twelve unbearable minutes, I heard gunfire.
Then silence.
A side door opened.
Roman emerged carrying Celeste.
She was alive.
Barely.
Blood covered her forehead.
Agents surrounded them.
Relief hit me so hard I almost collapsed.
Then Celeste lifted her head.
Her eyes searched.
Found me.
Her lips moved.
I ran toward her.
“What?”
“Lily.”
My entire body went cold.
I turned.
The command vehicle door was open.
The federal agent who had been assigned to sit with her lay unconscious beside it.
“Lily!”
I ran.
Empty seat.
Her red toy car rested on the ground.
No Lily.
I screamed her name.
Roman turned.
His face drained of color.
Ortega shouted commands.
Agents spread out.
Then my phone rang.
Vincent.
I answered with shaking hands.
His voice was calm.
“Hello, Mara.”
I couldn't breathe.
“Where is my daughter?”
“Aren't you tired of asking men where the people you love have gone?”
“Where is she?”
“She's fine.”
In the background I heard a tiny sniff.
Then Lily's voice.
“Mommy?”
My knees buckled.
“Lily!”
“Mommy, dark.”
“Baby, I'm coming.”
Vincent took the phone back.
“You have my files.”
I looked at Roman.
His face had become deadly still.
Vincent continued.
“I have your daughter.”
Roman reached for the phone.
Vincent heard him.
“Roman, if you bring police, she disappears.”
Roman's voice was almost a whisper.
“If you hurt her—”
“You'll do what?”
Vincent laughed.
“Become your father?”
Roman said nothing.
Vincent gave us an address.
Then one instruction.
“Bring the original card.”
The line went dead.
I looked at Roman.
“No police.”
Ortega immediately objected.
“Mara—”
“No.”
Roman looked at me.
“We're not giving Vincent control.”
“He has my daughter!”
“I know.”
“You don't know what this feels like.”
Roman's eyes flashed.
“No. I know exactly what it feels like to discover somebody you were responsible for protecting has been taken because of your war.”
The words stopped me.
He stepped closer.
“I will bring her back.”
“Promise me.”
Roman looked at the red toy car on the pavement.
Then at me.
“I won't promise you something because you need to hear it.”
My chest hurt.
He placed the car in my hands.
“I will promise you this.”
His voice dropped.
“I will not choose my empire over your daughter.”
For reasons I couldn't explain, I believed him.
We left Saint Marrow twenty minutes later.
But as our car disappeared down the highway, neither Roman nor I saw Felix Voss sitting handcuffed inside an ambulance.
We didn't see him slip one hand free.
May you like
And we didn't see him quietly steal an agent's phone.
The first person he called was Vincent.
