Chapter 8 - EIGHTY-FOUR MILLION DOLLARS
Evelyn laughed.
She could not help it.
The situation was too absurd.
“I have sixty-three dollars in my checking account.”
Anthony stared at her.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Dominic helped his father sit.
Anthony explained.
Years earlier, Victor had hidden money from Calder operations in shell companies.
Thomas discovered the accounts.
Instead of transferring the money to police—where corrupt officials could return it to Victor—he moved it into a legal trust controlled by an anonymous beneficiary.
Evelyn.
“Why me?”
“Because you were eighteen,” Anthony said. “No criminal history. No business connection to us. Thomas believed nobody would look at his daughter.”
“He put stolen money in my name?”
“Money Victor stole from us and others.”
“That distinction will sound wonderful in federal court.”
Despite the tension, Dominic almost smiled.
Anthony continued.
“Thomas built a release condition. The beneficiary could access the trust only with two authentication pieces.”
“The pocket-watch key,” Evelyn said.
“And?”
Anthony looked at Dominic.
“A phrase Thomas gave me.”
Dominic frowned.
“You?”
“He knew Victor might find one of us. Never both.”
“What phrase?”
Anthony shook his head.
“I don’t know anymore.”
Evelyn stared.
“You forgot?”
“Victor kept me drugged for years. There are weeks I can’t remember. Sometimes months.”
Dominic’s anger became frighteningly quiet.
“We’re leaving.”
They made it halfway upstairs before the first explosion shook the house.
Victor had anticipated them.
Windows shattered.
Smoke filled the corridor.
Dominic pushed Evelyn and Anthony through a side door.
“Boat dock.”
They ran toward the lake.
Gunfire followed.
Warren covered the rear.
At the dock, an old motorboat waited.
Dominic helped Anthony aboard.
Evelyn jumped in.
Warren was twenty yards behind them.
A shooter appeared.
Warren fired.
Then jerked backward.
“Warren!”
He collapsed.
Dominic ran back.
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
“You’ll get killed!”
“He came back for my father.”
Dominic tore free.
He reached Warren, dragged him behind a stone wall, and returned fire until the shooter retreated.
Together they reached the boat.
Warren had been hit in the shoulder.
Alive.
They escaped across the black water.
Evelyn pressed cloth against Warren’s wound while Dominic drove.
Anthony watched his son.
“You went back.”
Dominic did not turn.
“He would have done the same.”
Anthony’s eyes lowered.
“I wasn’t a good father.”
“Not tonight.”
“Dominic—”
“Not tonight.”
Back in Chicago, Anthony was placed under medical protection.
Federal investigators were contacted through an attorney outside Illinois.
For the first time, Dominic was prepared to dismantle everything his family had built illegally.
Evelyn found him on the balcony at dawn.
“You’re giving it all up.”
“The illegal parts.”
“That could be most of it.”
“It isn’t.”
“You sure?”
“No.”
She stood beside him.
“What happens to you?”
“Depends what the government finds.”
“Prison?”
“Possible.”
The answer frightened her more than she expected.
Dominic looked at her.
“You should take Molly and leave Chicago.”
“No.”
“Victor knows what you are to the trust.”
“Then leaving doesn’t fix anything.”
“It gets you away from me.”
She frowned.
“Is that what you want?”
He looked toward the lake.
“That stopped mattering when people started trying to kill you because of my family.”
“You didn’t answer.”
His silence did.
Evelyn stepped closer.
“You know what my father wrote? Good men do bad things. Bad men spend years pretending to be good.”
“And which am I?”
“I haven’t decided.”
Dominic looked down at her.
“That sounds promising.”
“It wasn’t meant to.”
“Still.”
She smiled.
He touched her cheek.
Slowly.
Giving her every opportunity to move away.
She did not.
Their first kiss was nothing like Evelyn expected from Dominic Calder.
No possession.
No demand.
It was cautious.
Almost uncertain.
That made it more dangerous.
She pulled back first.
“You’re my employer.”
“Technically you haven’t cleaned anything in four days.”
“That’s your argument?”
“It’s what I have.”
She laughed.
His phone rang.
The moment vanished.
Dominic answered.
His expression changed.
“What do you mean she’s gone?”
Evelyn’s heart stopped.
“Molly?”
Dominic looked at her.
“No.”
“Who?”
He lowered the phone.
“My mother.”
A video arrived seconds later.
Eleanor sat tied to a chair.
Victor stood behind her.
“Dominic,” he said into the camera, “bring Evelyn Reed to Calder Pier Nine tonight at eleven.”
Evelyn went cold.
Victor smiled.
“And bring the key.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“No.”
The video continued.
“If you involve police, your mother dies. If Evelyn doesn’t come, your mother dies. If you attempt one of your clever substitutions…”
Victor leaned closer to the camera.
“…I’ll tell Evelyn what really happened the night her father died.”
Evelyn stared.
The video ended.
“What does that mean?”
Dominic said nothing.
“Dominic.”
Anthony appeared in the doorway.
His face answered before his mouth did.
Evelyn turned toward him.
“What happened the night my father died?”
Anthony closed his eyes.
“Thomas wasn’t alone in the car.”
A terrible silence filled the room.
“Who was with him?”
May you like
Anthony looked at Dominic.
“My son.”
