Chapter 5 - MIDNIGHT AT PIER SEVENTEEN
Khloe wanted to go.
Vincent said no.
They argued for eleven minutes.
It was the first genuine argument they'd ever had, and Gabriel privately decided it was the bravest thing he'd witnessed all year.
“That is my mother,” Khloe said.
“And Daniel wants you.”
“Which is exactly why—”
“Which is exactly why you're staying here.”
“You can't lock me up.”
“I can protect you.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
Vincent stopped.
The sentence hit harder than she intended.
He knew men who called control protection.
His father had been one.
Vincent had sworn he wouldn't become him.
Yet there he stood deciding where Khloe could go because he was afraid of losing her.
He exhaled.
“You're right.”
Khloe blinked.
“What?”
“You're right.”
“Could you repeat that? I may never hear it again.”
Despite everything, Vincent almost laughed.
Then he became serious.
“If you come, you follow my instructions.”
“I will.”
“If I tell you to run, you run.”
“Yes.”
“And you stay beside Gabriel.”
Khloe nodded.
At 11:53 p.m., three black SUVs rolled toward the abandoned pier.
Fog crawled across the harbor.
Old warehouses stood like skeletons against the water.
Vincent wore no tie.
Khloe sat behind him clutching her sketchbook.
Gabriel checked his phone.
“Thermal shows four inside.”
“Daniel?”
“Probably.”
“And Mrs. Evans?”
“One seated figure.”
Khloe's hands trembled.
Vincent reached backward.
He didn't speak.
He simply offered his hand.
Khloe took it.
At midnight, they entered.
Daniel Voss stood beneath a hanging industrial lamp.
Khloe's mother, Diane, sat tied to a chair twenty feet away.
“Khloe!”
“Mom!”
Daniel raised one hand.
“That's far enough.”
Vincent's men spread out.
Daniel smiled.
“Look at you, Vincent. Your father would be disgusted.”
“My father is dead.”
“Yes. And apparently he took your judgment with him.”
Daniel looked at Khloe.
“All this for a secretary?”
Vincent didn't answer.
Daniel smiled wider.
That was answer enough.
“Give me the book.”
Khloe held it tighter.
“Let my mother go.”
“You're negotiating now?”
Her voice shook.
“Yes.”
Daniel laughed.
Then Khloe surprised everyone.
She threw the sketchbook into a metal barrel burning beside her.
Daniel's face collapsed.
“No!”
He lunged.
Vincent moved faster.
Chaos erupted.
Gabriel pulled Diane behind a steel column as Vincent slammed Daniel against a crate.
Two of Daniel's men ran.
Another surrendered.
Within seconds, it was over.
Daniel stared at the burning barrel in horror.
“You stupid girl.”
Khloe looked at him.
“The real sketchbook is at the estate.”
Vincent turned.
Khloe shrugged.
“I bought a replacement at a drugstore.”
Even Gabriel laughed.
Daniel didn't.
“You think this ends with me?”
His expression changed.
“Holloway owns police captains. Port officials. Councilmen. Your organization is already collapsing from the inside.”
Vincent grabbed his collar.
“Where's the ledger?”
Daniel smiled through a split lip.
“You'll never find it.”
Khloe looked toward the harbor.
Then toward Daniel's expensive shoes.
Mud.
Red clay.
Not harbor sludge.
She remembered something from her art-history coursework.
The original Costa family chapel outside the city had been built on red-clay soil.
She turned to Vincent.
“Your father's chapel.”
He stared.
“What?”
“Daniel was there recently.”
Daniel's face betrayed him.
Khloe saw it.
So did Vincent.
The ledger was hidden at the abandoned Costa chapel.
Rebecca Sloan's federal team arrived seven minutes later.
Daniel's smile disappeared when he saw her badge.
“You made a deal with the government?”
Vincent looked at him.
“I made a decision.”
Daniel was taken away.
Diane hugged her daughter so tightly Khloe could barely breathe.
Then she noticed Vincent.
Her eyes narrowed.
“So you're the boss.”
Vincent, feared by dockworkers, politicians, and professional criminals, looked unexpectedly uncertain.
“Yes, ma'am.”
“My daughter sleeps at your house?”
Khloe turned crimson.
“Mom.”
Vincent coughed.
“It's not—”
Diane pointed at him.
“You better have a very good guest room.”
“I have several.”
“Of course you do.”
Khloe buried her face in her hands.
For the first time in days, Vincent laughed.
Actually laughed.
It transformed him.
Khloe looked up.
And something inside her shifted dangerously.
Hours later, after Diane was safely taken to a protected location, Khloe and Vincent drove to the old family chapel.
They searched beneath pews.
Behind altar stones.
Inside cabinets.
Nothing.
Then Khloe noticed a painting.
A cheap reproduction of a Renaissance Madonna.
Hung crooked.
“That doesn't belong here.”
Vincent looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“Your father had expensive taste.”
She lifted the painting.
Behind it was a wall safe.
Vincent opened it.
Inside lay a black ledger.
And an envelope.
His name was written across it.
Vincent.
The handwriting belonged to his father.
He opened the envelope.
Read the first page.
Then stopped breathing.
Khloe touched his arm.
“What is it?”
Vincent looked at her.
For the first time since she'd known him, fear appeared openly in his eyes.
“My father knew.”
“Knew what?”
Vincent handed her the letter.
May you like
The final sentence was underlined twice.
If anything happens to me, Samuel Holloway ordered my death.
