Chapter 6 - Pier Nineteen
At 11:58 p.m., Bella walked onto Pier 19 carrying an empty laptop bag.
Lucas hated the plan.
That was partly why Bella insisted on it.
Victor expected Lucas to behave like the frightened 12-year-old he had raised: protect what he loved, react emotionally, obey the man who understood his weaknesses.
Bella intended to make Victor misunderstand both of them.
Freda sat inside the warehouse beneath a hanging light.
Her hands were bound.
Victor stood behind her.
Rianna stood beside him.
Bella stopped.
"So that's it?"
Rianna smiled.
"Disappointed?"
"Mostly confused."
"You should be."
Lucas emerged several yards behind Bella.
Victor's expression hardened.
"I said the drive."
Bella raised the bag.
"Freda first."
Victor laughed.
"You think this is a negotiation?"
"No."
Bella looked toward Rianna.
"I think she does."
Rianna's smile disappeared.
Bella had spent her career studying suspicious transactions.
People lied.
Numbers did not.
During the drive to the pier, she had found something Lucas's men missed.
Rianna had secretly transferred millions from Victor's network into offshore accounts.
She was not Victor's loyal employee.
She was robbing him.
Bella said one number aloud.
"$18,640,000."
Victor slowly turned toward Rianna.
Bella continued.
"Cayman account. Opened 14 months ago."
Rianna reached for her weapon.
Victor's men moved first.
Chaos erupted.
Lucas grabbed Bella and pulled her behind a steel container as shouting filled the warehouse.
No glamorous gun battle followed.
Only confusion.
Fear.
Metallic echoes.
People scrambling for cover.
Bella hated every second.
Then Benny's plan activated.
The warehouse lights died.
Emergency sprinklers exploded overhead.
In darkness, Lucas's security team entered through the eastern loading doors.
Bella crawled toward Freda.
"Sweetheart?"
"I'm here."
She cut the older woman's restraints.
Then someone grabbed Bella from behind.
Rianna.
A pistol pressed against Bella's side.
"Walk."
Bella obeyed.
Rianna dragged her toward the river exit.
"You ruined everything."
"You ruined it yourself."
"Do you know what men like Lucas do to women like us?"
Bella remained silent.
"They use us. Then they decide we're dangerous because we learned too much."
"Is that what happened to you?"
Rianna laughed bitterly.
"My father gave Victor 20 years. When he became inconvenient, Victor destroyed him."
"So you wanted revenge."
"I wanted his empire."
"Then why manipulate Lucas's medication?"
Rianna's face changed.
Bella had guessed correctly.
"You switched those pills."
"I needed leverage."
"You couldn't know Lucas would give one to me."
"No."
Rianna smiled.
"That was luck."
The casualness made Bella sick.
Rianna had planted several medications in Lucas's private drawer, hoping eventually to compromise him.
Instead, a drunken mistake had changed Bella's life.
"You don't get to call my child leverage."
Rianna tightened her grip.
"Your child is an accident."
Bella looked at her.
"So am I, apparently. I'm still here."
Then Freda swung the rolling pin she had somehow retrieved from a workbench.
It struck Rianna's wrist.
The gun fell.
Bella kicked it away.
Lucas appeared seconds later.
He saw Rianna on the floor.
Saw Bella.
Saw Freda holding the rolling pin.
For perhaps the first time in his adult life, Lucas Dracott looked genuinely bewildered.
Freda pointed the rolling pin at him.
"Don't just stand there."
Bella laughed.
She could not help it.
The sound came out half hysterical, half relieved.
Then a vehicle engine roared outside.
Victor escaped.
But Rianna did not.
Police arrived 7 minutes later.
Not officers owned by North Meridian.
Federal agents.
Benny had transmitted the financial evidence before they ever reached the pier.
Lucas stared at him.
"You sent everything?"
"Every file."
"That evidence implicates Dracott Holdings."
"I know."
Lucas could have destroyed Benny.
Instead he nodded.
"Good."
Bella heard the single word.
It mattered.
The empire Lucas inherited might collapse.
He had chosen truth anyway.
At sunrise, they returned to his penthouse.
The same room.
The same windows.
A completely different morning.
Lucas stood before the glass.
Bella watched him count the exits.
"3," she said.
He turned.
"Three exits."
A faint smile appeared.
"You remembered."
"I remember everything about that morning too."
His smile disappeared.
"Bella, I'm sorry."
"For which part?"
"All of it."
She appreciated that he did not make the apology prettier than it deserved.
"I was cruel."
"Yes."
"I treated desperation like consent to control the situation."
"Yes."
"I gave you medication without knowing what it was."
"Yes."
His jaw tightened.
"I can't undo any of it."
"No."
"What I can do is never make your choices for you again."
Bella studied him.
"That's a beginning."
Not forgiveness.
Not love.
A beginning.
Lucas looked toward her stomach.
"And the baby?"
"My decision about my pregnancy is mine."
"Yes."
"But if I continue it, and if you're going to be part of this child's life, you don't get to disappear into whiskey every time the past hurts."
Lucas absorbed that.
"I haven't had a drink since you walked into my office."
Bella hadn't known.
"Why?"
"Because the first morning after I met you, I realized I couldn't remember which pill I'd handed you."
His voice dropped.
"I never wanted to be that man again."
Bella looked away.
There were dangerous men who frightened people because they enjoyed power.
Then there were damaged men who had become dangerous because fear was the only language they had learned.
Lucas could not change his past.
But perhaps he could choose his next sentence.
He stepped closer.
"I don't expect you to love me."
"Good."
"I don't expect forgiveness."
"Also good."
A tiny smile touched his mouth.
"But I would like to know you."
Bella met his eyes.
"You can start with coffee."
"I don't drink coffee."
"Then learn."
He almost smiled again.
His phone rang.
Marcus.
Lucas answered.
The smile vanished.
"What?"
He listened.
Then looked at Bella.
Victor had been found.
Not arrested.
Dead.
His car had been discovered beneath an overpass.
On the passenger seat was a note.
VICTOR WAS NEVER IN CHARGE.
And beneath it:
BRING MY CHILDREN HOME.
May you like
Signed:
Adrian Vale.
