Chapter 6 - The Price of a Father
Victor Calder wanted the flash drive.
In exchange, he promised Anthony Russo alive.
Cameron’s answer was immediate.
“No.”
Avery stared at him.
Calder laughed through the phone.
“Still cold, Cameron.”
“I don’t negotiate without proof of life.”
A pause.
Then Anthony’s voice came faintly.
“Avery?”
Her knees weakened.
“Dad?”
“Don’t give him anything.”
A blow sounded.
Avery screamed.
Cameron’s hand closed around the phone.
“If you touch him again—”
“You’ll what?” Calder asked. “Become the man you’ve spent fifteen years pretending you aren’t?”
The line disconnected.
Avery turned on Cameron.
“We give him the drive.”
“No.”
“That is my father.”
“And the drive is the only reason your father is still breathing.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Victor.”
“I just got my father back!”
Her voice broke.
“I haven’t even seen him. I haven’t touched him. I haven’t gotten to ask why he missed fourteen birthdays.”
Cameron stepped closer.
“I will bring him home.”
“You cannot promise that.”
“No.”
His eyes remained steady.
“But I can promise I’ll risk everything I own before I risk you.”
Avery stared at him.
“That isn’t romantic.”
“I wasn’t trying to be.”
“It sounds like you’re deciding for me again.”
Cameron closed his eyes.
She had hit the wound exactly.
“Then decide.”
“What?”
He placed the flash drive in her palm.
Julian looked alarmed.
“Cameron.”
“Her father. Her evidence. Her decision.”
Avery stared at the tiny piece of plastic.
This was what she had demanded.
Agency.
Choice.
It felt terrible.
She thought of Anthony’s video.
Don’t give him anything.
Avery closed her fingers.
“We don’t trade it.”
Cameron nodded once.
“We make Calder think we will.”
The plan formed before dawn.
Bradley Hayes became unexpectedly useful.
He had spent years laundering Calder’s money and knew the shell companies.
In exchange for immunity discussions with federal prosecutors, Bradley agreed to contact Calder.
Avery hated needing him.
Bradley seemed to know it.
Before the call, he approached her in the Moretti library.
“I’m sorry.”
She looked up.
“For what part?”
His face reddened.
“All of it.”
“That’s convenient now.”
“I know.”
“You humiliated me because you thought I was powerless.”
Bradley swallowed.
“Yes.”
“That matters more than apologizing after you discover the woman you mocked has Cameron Moretti standing behind her.”
Bradley looked toward Cameron.
Then back.
“You’re right.”
Avery had expected excuses.
The lack of one disarmed her.
“I don’t forgive you.”
“I understand.”
“But help bring my father home.”
“I will.”
Bradley arranged the exchange at an abandoned shipping terminal in Red Hook.
Calder demanded Avery deliver the drive personally.
Cameron refused.
Avery overruled him.
Again.
At 2:10 a.m., she entered the warehouse wearing a wire.
Cameron’s voice came through the tiny earpiece.
“Thirty feet ahead. Keep walking.”
“You sound nervous.”
“I am.”
“Cameron Moretti gets nervous?”
“Only recently.”
Despite everything, she smiled.
Then Victor Calder stepped into the light.
He was elegant, silver-haired, and utterly ordinary-looking.
That disturbed her most.
Beside him stood Anthony.
Alive.
Avery stopped.
Fourteen years vanished.
“Dad.”
Anthony’s face collapsed.
“My little bird.”
She moved forward.
Calder raised a gun.
“Drive first.”
Avery froze.
“Let him go.”
“Not how negotiations work.”
“You killed him once already.”
Calder smiled.
“Technically, I failed.”
Avery held up the drive.
“You want this?”
“Very much.”
“Then tell me why.”
Calder’s smile faded.
“Because your father stole things that belonged to me.”
“Evidence belongs to whoever survives long enough to use it.”
Anthony almost smiled.
“That’s my girl.”
Calder struck him.
Cameron’s voice came through Avery’s earpiece.
“Hold.”
She fought every instinct to move.
Calder extended his hand.
Avery approached.
Ten feet.
Eight.
Six.
Then Anthony shouted:
“NOW!”
The warehouse exploded into motion.
Lights died.
Cameron’s men entered from three sides.
Avery dropped.
Gunfire cracked overhead.
Anthony tackled Calder.
The weapon skidded across concrete.
Avery crawled toward her father.
Then someone grabbed her from behind.
A blade touched her throat.
Julian.
Avery froze.
Across the warehouse Cameron saw them.
His face changed.
“Julian?”
The man Cameron trusted most tightened his arm around Avery.
“Drop it.”
Cameron slowly lowered his weapon.
Julian smiled bitterly.
“Victor said you’d choose her.”
Cameron stared at his oldest friend.
“You’re the leak.”
“For eleven years.”
Calder climbed to his feet laughing.
Anthony stared at Julian in horror.
Cameron looked only at Avery.
Julian pressed the knife closer.
“Now we finally know Cameron Moretti’s price.”
Avery’s heart hammered.
Cameron raised his hands.
“No.”
His voice was almost calm.
“You know mine.”
Julian frowned.
Cameron looked directly at Avery.
“And you’ve just forgotten hers.”
Avery understood.
She drove her heel down onto Julian’s foot, slammed her head backward, and dropped.
Cameron moved.
One brutal second later, Julian was on the floor.
Calder ran.
Anthony chased him.
“Dad!”
A gunshot thundered.
Anthony staggered.
Avery screamed.
And Cameron had to choose.
Chase the man who had destroyed his family.
Or save the man who had once saved him.
May you like
Cameron did not hesitate.
He ran to Anthony.
