Chapter 17 - Warehouse SeventeenDamen arrived at New Bedford Harbor at 11:18 P.M.
He brought twelve men.
Marcus brought sixteen.
Claudia brought the FBI.
Damen was not pleased about the last part.
“You asked me to find Sera,” Claudia said. “You didn’t ask me to protect your criminal ego.”
Marcus coughed to hide a laugh.
Damen ignored both of them.
Warehouse Seventeen stood near the abandoned eastern docks.
Dark.
No vehicles.
No movement.
Too clean.
“It’s a trap,” Marcus said.
“I know.”
“Still going?”
Damen checked his weapon.
“Yes.”
Inside, they found blood.
Not Sera’s.
One guard lay unconscious near the office.
Another had been zip-tied to a pipe.
Marcus crouched.
“These guys didn’t get hit by our people.”
Damen saw a broken chair.
A length of rope.
Then something on the floor.
A gold bracelet.
Sera’s.
He picked it up.
His breathing changed.
Marcus noticed.
“She left it.”
Damen nodded.
A trail.
They followed.
Behind the warehouse, tire tracks led toward the harbor.
Then Damen found another object.
One of Sera’s earrings.
Fifty yards later, the second.
Marcus smiled.
“She’s marking the route.”
Damen closed his fist around the jewelry.
“That’s my wife.”
They reached Pier Nine.
A yacht was already moving away.
Damen saw figures on deck.
Then—
“SERA!”
She turned.
Even across the water, he knew her.
Helena grabbed her arm.
Sera fought.
The yacht accelerated.
Damen ran toward a speedboat moored beside the pier.
Marcus caught his shoulder.
“Boss.”
Damen turned.
“You cannot drive that thing.”
“I can drive anything.”
“You crashed a golf cart last Christmas.”
“That tree moved.”
Marcus stared.
Damen climbed aboard.
Marcus cursed and followed.
The pursuit tore across the black harbor.
Ahead, Sera saw the smaller boat approaching.
Helena did too.
“Your husband is persistent.”
“You kidnapped his wife.”
“Yes.”
“That tends to upset him.”
Helena pointed a pistol at her.
Sera’s smile disappeared.
“Go below.”
“No.”
“Sera.”
“No.”
Helena’s eyes narrowed.
“You really have changed.”
“Yes.”
Helena stepped closer.
“You know courage doesn’t make you bulletproof.”
“No.”
Sera looked at the dark water.
“But it makes choices easier.”
Then she threw herself overboard.
“SERA!”
Helena lunged.
Too late.
Sera hit the freezing Atlantic.
Cold swallowed her.
She kicked upward.
A bullet struck the water nearby.
Then another.
Damen saw her fall.
Everything inside him stopped.
He didn’t think.
He dove.
Marcus shouted behind him.
Damen hit the water hard.
“Sera!”
A wave rolled over him.
Then he saw her.
Ten feet away.
He reached her.
She wrapped both arms around his neck.
“I knew you’d come.”
Damen kissed her forehead.
“You jumped into the Atlantic.”
“She had a gun.”
“You could have been killed.”
“So could you.”
“This conversation is not finished.”
She laughed breathlessly.
Marcus pulled them aboard.
Behind them, federal boats surrounded Helena’s yacht.
Within minutes it was over.
Helena stood on deck with both hands raised.
But she was smiling.
Damen noticed.
He hated that smile.
Later, wrapped in blankets inside an ambulance, Sera watched Helena being placed into federal custody.
Helena stopped beside her.
“You think this ends because they arrested me?”
Sera looked at her.
“It ended for Grant.”
“Grant was a child.”
“And Charles?”
Helena’s smile faded.
Sera continued.
“You spent your life afraid of powerful men, Helena. Then you became exactly like them.”
For the first time, Helena had no answer.
Federal agents led her away.
Damen sat beside Sera.
She rested her head against him.
“We’re going home?”
“Yes.”
“No secret meetings?”
“No.”
“No gunfights?”
“I can’t promise that.”
She looked up.
“Damen.”
“I’ll try.”
She smiled.
Then Claudia approached.
Her expression killed the warmth instantly.
“What?”
“Helena wasn’t lying about one thing.”
She handed Damen a phone recovered from the yacht.
A message had arrived twenty minutes earlier.
VOSS SAFEHOUSE COMPROMISED.
Damen stood.
“My father.”
Claudia nodded.
They returned to Rhode Island before dawn.
The safehouse door was open.
Two guards were unconscious.
Viktor was gone.
On the kitchen table sat a handwritten note.
Damen recognized his father’s writing.
Don’t look for me. Protect your wife.
May you like
Below it was another sentence.
The man running the network is already inside your house.
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