Chapter 6 - The Name in the Ledger
Vincent woke to darkness.
Not hospital darkness.
Home.
Nora sat beside his bed.
Her head rested against the mattress, one hand still wrapped around his.
He stared at their joined fingers.
For years, sleep had been the most dangerous part of his day.
Sleep meant dreams.
Dreams meant fire.
Tonight there had been none.
“Nora.”
Her head lifted instantly.
“You’re awake.”
“How long?”
“Six hours.”
He looked at his bandage.
“You stitched me.”
“A doctor stitched you.”
“Here?”
“You threatened to leave the ambulance.”
“That sounds like me.”
“It was incredibly annoying.”
Vincent smiled faintly.
Then he remembered.
“Grant?”
Nora’s expression answered.
“Dead.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“Caleb?”
“Downstairs.”
“Why?”
“Because you told everyone not to hurt him until you woke.”
Vincent pushed himself upright.
Nora tried to stop him.
“I need answers.”
“So do I.”
They went downstairs together.
Caleb sat at the dining table.
His gun lay several feet away.
The ledger was open before him.
“I didn’t betray you,” he said immediately.
Vincent remained standing.
“Your name appears forty-three times.”
“My father’s name.”
Vincent stopped.
Caleb pointed at the initials.
“C.R. Charles Rourke.”
Vincent looked closer.
Caleb’s father had served as security chief for Vincent’s father.
He had died the year after the fire.
Caleb continued.
“My father helped your father move money. I knew some of it. Not this.”
Vincent looked at the dates.
One entry appeared the night of the fire.
C.R. — EAST GATE — $250,000.
Caleb stared at it.
“My father opened the gate.”
Nora understood first.
“For Celeste.”
Caleb’s face broke.
“He helped her get inside.”
Vincent said nothing.
Caleb had been seventeen when his father began working for the Mercers.
They had grown up almost like brothers.
“I swear to you,” Caleb said, “I didn’t know.”
Vincent believed him.
That did not make the truth hurt less.
Nora turned pages.
Near the end, she found something else.
A company name.
Marrow Development Holdings.
Still active.
Vincent pulled out his phone.
“Trace every property.”
Within an hour, they had an address.
An abandoned rehabilitation center north of the city.
Owned through three shell companies.
The final owner was Celeste Marrow.
“She wants us to find it,” Nora said.
Vincent looked at her.
“Why?”
“She could have hidden this better.”
Caleb nodded.
“It’s bait.”
“Then we don’t go.”
Vincent and Caleb both stared at Nora.
She folded her arms.
“What?”
Vincent almost smiled.
“You say that as though either of us has ever responded rationally to bait.”
“You’re learning today.”
Instead, they called federal investigators.
That surprised Nora.
Vincent saw her expression.
“I’m a businessman.”
“With armed guards.”
“Chicago is dangerous.”
She gave him a look.
He almost laughed.
The plan was simple.
Police would surround the property quietly.
Vincent would remain home.
Nora would remain with Eli.
Nobody would behave heroically.
The plan lasted forty-three minutes.
Then Nora received a video.
Melissa Grant was tied to a chair inside the abandoned facility.
Celeste stood behind her.
She looked older than the photographs but unmistakable.
Beautiful.
Elegant.
A pale scar ran behind her ear.
“Nora,” Celeste said into the camera. “You have something that belongs to me.”
The camera moved.
Samuel Grant’s body lay on the floor.
Melissa began sobbing.
“You have one hour.”
The screen went black.
Vincent took Nora’s phone.
“No.”
“She’ll kill Melissa.”
“She already killed Grant.”
“That doesn’t mean I let her kill someone else.”
“You are not going.”
Nora stared at him.
“You don’t own me.”
His jaw tightened.
“I know.”
“Then don’t speak to me like you do.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“And I’m trying to be the person who can live with herself tomorrow.”
Vincent looked away.
She softened.
“You understand that better than anyone.”
He did.
That was the problem.
Forty minutes later, Nora walked into the rehabilitation center carrying the ledger.
Vincent watched through cameras from a surveillance van.
He hated every second.
Celeste appeared at the far end of the room.
“So,” she said. “The little nursing student grew up.”
Nora held the ledger.
“Let Melissa go.”
Celeste smiled.
“You still think being good protects people.”
“No.”
Nora’s voice remained steady.
“I think people like you depend on everyone else being too afraid to stop you.”
Celeste’s smile disappeared.
“Give me the book.”
Nora held it up.
“First Melissa.”
Celeste gestured.
One of her men cut Melissa loose.
Melissa ran.
As soon as she reached the door, Nora tossed the ledger across the floor.
Celeste picked it up.
She opened it.
Then screamed.
The pages were blank.
In the surveillance van, Vincent smiled.
Nora had replaced it.
Celeste drew a gun.
Vincent was out of the van before Caleb could stop him.
Inside, Nora saw the weapon.
“You think this is funny?”
Celeste demanded.
“No.”
Nora’s eyes shifted toward the entrance.
“But I think you talk too much.”
Vincent’s voice came from behind her.
“She always did.”
Celeste froze.
Eleven years disappeared from Vincent’s face.
Nora watched terror rise in him.
The woman.
The fire.
The match.
Celeste turned.
“You still have the scars.”
Vincent’s hands began trembling.
She smiled.
“I wondered whether you still screamed in your sleep.”
Nora moved beside him.
She placed her hand against his chest.
His heartbeat hammered beneath her palm.
“Vincent.”
He looked down.
“Stay here.”
Celeste watched them.
Understanding dawned.
Then hatred.
“Oh.”
She laughed.
“That’s why you can touch her.”
Vincent’s breathing slowed.
Nora kept her hand against him.
Celeste raised the gun.
“Nora!”
The shot exploded.
Vincent moved.
So did Caleb.
Celeste’s gun spun across the floor.
Police flooded the building.
Seconds later, Celeste was pinned against the concrete.
She screamed Vincent’s name.
He did not look at her.
His attention remained on Nora.
“You’re bleeding.”
Nora looked down.
The bullet had grazed her arm.
“I’m fine.”
Vincent stared at the blood.
Then at Celeste.
For one dangerous second, murder entered his eyes.
Nora touched his face.
“No.”
“She hurt you.”
“And she doesn’t get to decide who you become.”
His jaw worked.
Then Vincent stepped backward.
He allowed police to take Celeste away.
For the first time in eleven years, he watched the woman who burned him disappear without feeling the flames.
Outside, dawn was breaking over Lake Michigan.
Nora leaned against him.
Vincent put his arm around her.
Then Caleb approached carrying the real ledger.
“We have another problem.”
Vincent sighed.
“What now?”
Caleb opened the final page.
There, written in Vincent’s father’s handwriting, was a sentence none of them had seen.
IF I DIE, CONTROL OF MERCER HOLDINGS PASSES TO THE PERSON WHO SAVED MY SON’S LIFE.
May you like
Beneath it was a name.
Nora Bennett.
