Chapter 6 - The Choice Bridget Was Never Supposed to Make
Victor evacuated the house in 4 minutes.
Pippa thought it was another adventure until she saw Bridget’s face.
“Mommy?”
“Coat on, sweetheart.”
“Where are we going?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Victor entered carrying a small bag.
“We split up.”
Bridget turned.
“No.”
“Gabriel takes you and Pippa east. I go south.”
“You’re bait.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Victor almost looked amused.
“That sounded like an order.”
“It was.”
“Unfortunately, you don’t work for me.”
“Neither do you.”
Gabriel looked between them.
“I’m going to pretend neither of you expects me to referee this.”
Victor ignored him.
“Mercer wants me. If we separate, he follows me.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
Victor had no answer.
Bridget understood.
He was gambling with himself because that was the only life he considered expendable.
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“We stay together until there’s an actual plan.”
Victor’s voice hardened.
“This is not negotiable.”
“Everything is negotiable.”
“Bridget.”
“Victor.”
Pippa raised her hand.
Everyone looked at her.
“I vote with Mommy.”
Gabriel turned away, shoulders shaking.
Victor stared at the child.
“This is not a democracy.”
Pippa frowned.
“What’s that?”
“Never mind.”
They moved together.
For 2 days they stayed at an old lodge owned by Gabriel’s family.
There Victor finally explained what Mercer wanted.
A physical ledger.
Victor’s father had kept handwritten records of payments, names, political bribes, and criminal partnerships stretching back decades.
Victor had spent years dismantling those relationships.
Mercer had discovered the ledger existed.
“Where is it?” Bridget asked.
Victor looked at her.
“With someone I trust.”
“Gabriel?”
“No.”
Gabriel appeared offended.
Victor continued.
“A retired judge named Evelyn Shaw.”
Bridget stared.
“A judge has your mafia ledger?”
“She prosecuted my father.”
“That raises several questions.”
“She also helped me dismantle what he built.”
Bridget’s perception of Victor shifted again.
“You were trying to get out.”
“I was trying to make the legitimate companies survive without the criminal ones.”
“And Mercer?”
“Made too much money from the old system.”
The attack finally made sense.
Mercer was not stealing Victor’s empire.
He was trying to preserve the criminal one.
“Then give the ledger to police.”
“It implicates innocent people whose names were used without their knowledge. It also implicates people powerful enough to bury the investigation.”
“So what’s your plan?”
“Build a case Mercer cannot bury.”
Bridget crossed her arms.
“You have one?”
“Almost.”
“That sounds like rich-man language for no.”
Victor smiled faintly.
She hated that she liked it.
That evening, Pippa fell asleep beside Victor while watching an animated movie.
Bridget found them on the couch.
Victor was awake.
Pippa’s head rested against his chest.
He looked trapped.
“You know you can move.”
“She’ll wake up.”
Bridget smiled.
“The terrifying Victor Lacombe has been defeated by a 45-pound child.”
“Thirty-nine.”
Bridget blinked.
“You know how much she weighs?”
“She told me.”
“Of course she did.”
Bridget sat beside them.
For a while neither spoke.
Then Victor said, “I haven’t held a sleeping child since Luca.”
Bridget looked at him.
His eyes remained on Pippa.
“I thought I had forgotten what it felt like.”
Something broke quietly inside her.
She reached over and took his hand.
Victor looked down at their fingers.
Then at Bridget.
This time neither moved away.
The kiss was slow.
Careful.
Nothing like Bridget expected from him.
It felt less like taking and more like asking.
When they separated, Victor rested his forehead against hers.
“This is a bad idea.”
“Probably.”
“You should leave.”
“Probably.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
His thumb brushed her hand.
“I don’t know how to do this.”
Bridget smiled sadly.
“Neither do I.”
Pippa stirred.
Both froze.
Her eyes remained closed.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Did you kiss Victor?”
Bridget nearly fell off the couch.
Victor’s eyes widened.
Pippa still appeared asleep.
“No.”
Pippa smiled.
“Liar.”
Victor covered his mouth.
Bridget glared at him.
“Do not laugh.”
That peaceful moment lasted 11 minutes.
Then Gabriel entered.
“Victor.”
His tone changed everything.
A phone lay in his hand.
“Mercer contacted Judge Shaw.”
Victor stood carefully, transferring Pippa to Bridget.
“What happened?”
“She’s missing.”
Victor went still.
Gabriel continued.
“And Mercer left a message.”
He handed over the phone.
A video began.
Judge Evelyn Shaw sat tied to a chair.
Adrian Mercer stood behind her.
He was younger than Bridget expected.
Expensive suit.
Ordinary face.
Cold eyes.
“Victor,” Mercer said into the camera, “you have until tomorrow night.”
He smiled.
“Bring me the ledger.”
Then his gaze shifted toward the camera.
“And bring the nurse.”
Bridget’s blood ran cold.
Mercer leaned closer.
“Because she heard more in that pharmacy than she realizes.”
The video ended.
Bridget looked at Victor.
“What does that mean?”
Victor did not answer.
Then Bridget remembered.
The storage room.
Victor drifting in and out of consciousness.
Words muttered while she stitched him.
Something she had dismissed as delirium.
A name.
A date.
A ship.
She whispered it now.
“Pacific Mariner. October 17.”
Victor’s face changed.
Gabriel swore.
Bridget stared at them.
“What did I just remember?”
May you like
Victor answered quietly.
“The one thing Mercer has killed 3 people to keep hidden.”
