Chapter 7 - The Price of Staying
Vincent’s arrest did not end the war.
It started another one.
Within hours, loyalists attacked 2 Costello businesses.
A warehouse burned.
Three men disappeared.
And someone stole container 614 before federal agents reached it.
The explosives were still somewhere in New York.
Reeves entered Arthur’s study at midnight.
“We have a problem.”
Arthur looked up.
“You saying that in my house is becoming repetitive.”
“The container is gone.”
Clara stood immediately.
“How?”
“Inside help at the port.”
Arthur’s expression darkened.
“Vincent planned for arrest.”
Clara understood.
“He has a second command structure.”
Reeves nodded.
“And whoever runs it knows Clara helped us.”
Arthur’s face changed.
“No.”
Clara turned.
“Arthur.”
“You leave tonight.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You don’t give me orders.”
“Then consider it begging.”
That silenced everyone.
Arthur Costello did not beg.
Arthur walked toward her.
“I already watched you disappear once.”
“That was your fault.”
“I know.”
“And this isn’t.”
“No.”
“Then stop treating me like something you own.”
“I’m treating you like something I cannot lose.”
The room went still.
Clara stared at him.
“That,” she whispered, “is exactly the problem.”
Arthur frowned.
“You still don’t understand love.”
His expression hardened slightly.
“Then explain it.”
“It isn’t locking someone somewhere safe. It isn’t controlling where they go because losing them frightens you.”
Arthur said nothing.
“It’s respecting their choice even when you hate it.”
Arthur looked at her for a long time.
Then he nodded.
“What’s your choice?”
“To finish this.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“Of course it is.”
They found the missing container through a detail nobody else noticed.
A toll charge.
$18.75.
Clara recognized the account.
Vincent’s shell company had used the same transponder years earlier for trucks traveling to a disused Costello meatpacking facility in Brooklyn.
At 3:00 a.m., Arthur, Clara, Gregory, and Reeves stood around the map.
“The explosives are here,” Clara said.
Reeves radioed his team.
Arthur looked at her.
“You stay in the car.”
She stared.
He sighed.
“Sorry. Reflex.”
“Improvement.”
“Painful improvement.”
For the first time in days, she smiled.
Arthur looked stunned.
Clara’s smile disappeared.
“Don’t make it weird.”
“Too late.”
The raid began before dawn.
Agents surrounded the building.
Arthur remained outside because Reeves had threatened to arrest him personally if he interfered.
Clara almost enjoyed watching that conversation.
Then gunfire erupted.
An explosion shattered windows.
Smoke poured from the roof.
Reeves shouted into his radio.
Clara saw a man escaping through the rear loading dock.
She recognized him.
Mickey.
Arthur’s former soldier.
He carried a remote detonator.
“Mickey!”
He turned.
His thumb hovered over the button.
Arthur saw him too.
“Clara, down!”
Mickey smiled.
“You ruined everything.”
“No,” Clara shouted. “Vincent did.”
“He made us rich.”
“He made you disposable.”
Mickey hesitated.
Clara saw it.
“He’s in federal custody while you’re standing here holding the evidence that puts you away for life.”
Mickey looked at the detonator.
“He told you he’d protect you, didn’t he?”
Silence.
“He told Arthur the same thing when Arthur was a boy.”
Mickey’s hand lowered slightly.
Then a shot rang out.
Mickey collapsed.
The detonator hit the concrete.
Arthur pulled Clara behind a vehicle.
Reeves’s agents rushed forward.
The explosives were secured 22 minutes later.
The war was over.
Or so Clara believed.
At sunrise, she stood beside Arthur near the East River.
He looked exhausted.
“So,” he said.
“So.”
“You’re leaving.”
It was not a question.
“Yes.”
Arthur looked toward the water.
“Where?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Will you tell me?”
“No.”
He nodded.
The answer hurt him.
But he accepted it.
Clara studied his face.
“You’re not going to send anyone after me?”
“No.”
“Track my accounts?”
“No.”
“Buy the town I move to?”
Arthur almost smiled.
“That one feels unnecessarily specific.”
“Arthur.”
“No.”
She nodded.
Then he said the hardest words he had ever spoken.
“I hope you find somewhere you don’t have to take care of anyone.”
May you like
Clara's eyes burned.
Arthur walked away before she could see his did too.
