Chapter 6 - Midnight at Pier 19
At 11:58 p.m., the lake looked like black glass.
Pier 19 had been abandoned for six years, but someone had turned the old shipping warehouse into a fortress.
Men stood on catwalks.
Vehicles blocked both exits.
My mother sat tied to a chair beneath a hanging industrial lamp.
Sebastian stood behind her.
Dominic Vale stood beside him.
I had spent my life imagining monsters as men who looked monstrous.
Vale looked like somebody's favorite uncle.
That somehow made him worse.
Alessandro walked beside me.
No visible weapon.
Dad carried the brass key.
Victor was nowhere to be seen.
That was intentional.
“Claire,” Mom whispered.
“I'm okay.”
Vale smiled.
“Family reunions are touching.”
“Let her go,” I said.
He looked amused.
“Daniel's daughter has spirit.”
Dad stepped forward.
“You wanted the key.”
He raised it.
“Release Evelyn.”
Sebastian laughed.
“You were always terrible at negotiation.”
“And you were always jealous of men better than you.”
Sebastian's smile vanished.
There it was.
The weakness.
Not greed.
Not power.
Pride.
Dad had known it.
Alessandro knew it too.
“Was that why you killed my father?” Alessandro asked.
Sebastian looked at him.
“I made you.”
“You raised me.”
“I gave you everything.”
“You gave me grief and taught me to call it strength.”
Sebastian's face twisted.
“Antonio was weak.”
Alessandro remained still.
“He trusted people.”
“He trusted the wrong people.”
“Yes.”
Alessandro's gaze hardened.
“He trusted you.”
For the first time, Sebastian looked wounded.
Vale became impatient.
“The key.”
Dad tossed it.
Vale caught it.
Then smiled.
“Kill them.”
Nothing happened.
His men didn't move.
Vale frowned.
“Did you hear me?”
A voice answered from the darkness.
“Perfectly.”
Victor stepped onto the catwalk.
Beside him stood federal agents.
Dozens.
Red laser sights appeared across the warehouse.
Vale spun toward Dad.
“You—”
Dad smiled.
“The key was never the evidence.”
Sebastian went pale.
Alessandro touched his lapel.
A tiny microphone was clipped beneath it.
“You've been recording us?”
“From dinner yesterday.”
Vale reached for a gun.
Everything exploded into motion.
I ran toward Mom.
A gunshot cracked.
Alessandro tackled Vale.
Sebastian grabbed me before I reached the chair.
Cold metal pressed against my throat.
“Stop!”
Everyone froze.
Sebastian dragged me backward.
His breathing was wild.
Alessandro rose slowly.
Blood ran from his eyebrow.
“Let her go.”
Sebastian laughed.
“You sound like your father.”
“Good.”
“I spent seventeen years teaching you not to be him.”
“You failed.”
Sebastian pressed the gun harder against me.
“Move and she dies.”
Alessandro looked at me.
Not the weapon.
Me.
His eyes were calm.
Trust me, they seemed to say.
Then Mom kicked the chair sideways.
It struck Sebastian's knee.
I dropped.
A shot exploded.
Alessandro crossed the distance between us.
He hit Sebastian once.
The gun skidded away.
Agents swarmed.
Vale was arrested.
Sebastian was handcuffed.
My mother was freed.
Dad held her for the first time in seventeen years.
I should have watched them.
Instead, I looked for Alessandro.
He stood ten feet away.
One hand pressed against his side.
Blood covered his fingers.
“Alessandro?”
He looked down almost curiously.
Then collapsed.
I reached him before anyone else.
“No.”
His eyes fluttered.
“Claire.”
“Don't talk.”
“I wasn't shouting.”
A laugh broke through my tears.
“You idiot.”
His hand found mine.
“Three dollars.”
“What?”
“The cup.”
His breathing became shallow.
“Best three dollars I ever spent.”
“Stay awake.”
Paramedics ran toward us.
His fingers weakened around mine.
“Claire.”
“I'm here.”
“If I don't—”
“No.”
“Listen.”
“No.”
He smiled faintly.
“You're still terrible at taking orders.”
“And you're still giving them.”
His eyes closed.
The ambulance doors shut three minutes later.
I stood on the pier covered in his blood.
My mother held me.
My father stood beside us.
And as the ambulance disappeared into the darkness, I finally understood the terrifying truth.
May you like
Somewhere between hating Alessandro Romano and learning the man beneath the name, I had fallen in love with him.
And I might have realized it too late.
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