Chapter 7 - THE CHOICE SHE REFUSED TO MAKEVictor made one mistake.
He thought prison had taught Evelyn fear.
It had taught her patience.
The FBI wanted her nowhere near the exchange.
Evelyn disagreed.
“He has my mother.”
“We don't know that,” Agent Collins said.
“He put a sunflower on her table. He knows what Daniel brought me when I got out. He's watching us.”
“Which is exactly why you don't go.”
Evelyn leaned over the conference table.
“If Victor wanted my mother dead, she'd already be dead. He wants leverage.”
“To make Michael change his testimony?”
“No.”
Evelyn looked at Daniel.
“He wants the evidence Rachel saved.”
Daniel understood immediately.
The original memory card.
Rachel's documents connected Victor's family to the hit-and-run cover-up.
Without them, prosecutors still had Michael's testimony and financial evidence.
But Victor feared those photographs for another reason.
His father was still alive.
Former senator Charles Dane.
If federal prosecutors proved Charles personally orchestrated the original cover-up, the Dane family legacy collapsed.
Victor wasn't protecting himself alone.
He was protecting a dynasty.
Victor called at noon.
“Bring the memory card.”
“I want to hear my mother.”
A pause.
Then Evelyn heard breathing.
“Evelyn?”
Her knees weakened.
“Mom.”
“Don't give him anything.”
A man's voice moved away from the receiver.
Then Victor returned.
“She has always been surprisingly difficult.”
Evelyn closed her eyes briefly.
“Where?”
Victor named an abandoned seaside hotel forty miles north of Boston.
“Midnight.”
“No police.”
“Obviously.”
“If she is hurt—”
“You assaulted two people with a baseball bat, Ms. Lane. Threats sound strange coming from you.”
Evelyn's jaw tightened.
Victor continued.
“Come alone.”
He disconnected.
The FBI immediately began planning.
Daniel pulled Evelyn aside.
“You don't have to prove anything.”
“This isn't proof.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, Daniel.”
She looked at him.
“For three years every decision in my life belonged to someone else. Guards told me when to wake up. Courts told me where I could stand. Michael controlled what people believed about me.”
She took his hand.
“I'm choosing this.”
Daniel's expression softened painfully.
“Then choose to come back too.”
Evelyn squeezed his fingers.
“I plan to.”
Midnight.
The hotel stood against the Atlantic like a dead thing.
Broken windows.
Salt-worn walls.
Dark corridors.
Evelyn entered carrying a small purse.
The real memory card was elsewhere.
Federal agents were positioned outside.
A tiny transmitter sat beneath her collar.
Victor appeared at the end of the lobby.
He wore an expensive black coat.
No panic.
No visible weapon.
“You look different from the photographs,” he said.
“So do you.”
He smiled.
“I doubt that was a compliment.”
“My mother.”
“Soon.”
“Now.”
Victor studied her.
“You were always Michael's weakness.”
Evelyn laughed once.
“Interesting. I thought money was.”
“Michael wanted to be admired.”
Victor approached.
“You made people admire him.”
“And you made him afraid.”
“Fear is more dependable.”
“Not tonight.”
Victor's smile disappeared.
“Card.”
Evelyn removed a memory card from her bag.
Victor held out his hand.
“Mother first.”
A door opened upstairs.
Two men escorted Evelyn's mother onto the balcony.
She appeared unharmed.
“Mom!”
“I'm okay.”
Victor nodded.
One man began bringing her downstairs.
Evelyn relaxed slightly.
Then Victor said:
“Now give me the card.”
She tossed it.
He caught it.
Looked at it.
And smiled.
“Thank you.”
Evelyn's mother reached the lobby.
Evelyn moved toward her.
Victor raised a pistol.
“Unfortunately, I can't let either of you leave.”
Evelyn stopped.
“So this was never an exchange.”
Victor looked almost amused.
“Of course not.”
From beneath Evelyn's collar, every word was being transmitted.
But Victor knew.
He suddenly reached forward, grabbed the small microphone, and ripped it away.
He crushed it beneath his shoe.
Evelyn's stomach dropped.
Victor smiled.
“I was wondering how long federal agents would keep using the same model.”
One of his men fired toward the ceiling.
Outside, floodlights ignited.
Federal agents shouted.
Victor grabbed Evelyn's mother and pulled her backward.
Everything happened at once.
Evelyn lunged.
Gunfire cracked.
Glass exploded.
Her mother screamed.
Victor disappeared through a service corridor dragging her with him.
Evelyn ran after them.
“EVELYN!”
Daniel's voice.
He wasn't supposed to be inside.
She turned for half a second.
He came through the lobby behind agents.
Then Victor fired.
Daniel jerked backward.
Evelyn screamed.
He fell.
Something inside her stopped.
For one terrifying instant the old rage returned.
Hot.
Blind.
Violent.
A gun lay near a fallen guard.
Evelyn could reach it.
Could chase Victor.
Could end everything.
Her hand moved.
Then stopped.
Three years.
Concrete walls.
Handcuffs.
Regret.
She pulled Daniel behind cover instead.
“Medic!”
His eyes opened.
“I'm okay.”
Blood covered his shoulder.
“You're bleeding.”
“Still handsome?”
“Daniel!”
“Just checking.”
A medic rushed forward.
Evelyn laughed and cried simultaneously.
Daniel grabbed her wrist.
“Your mother.”
Federal agents were already pursuing Victor.
Evelyn wanted to follow.
But this time she did not confuse revenge with rescue.
She trusted them.
Ten minutes later, gunfire stopped.
Agent Collins appeared.
“Your mother's safe.”
Evelyn collapsed against the wall.
“And Victor?”
Collins shook his head.
“He escaped through a storm drain.”
Again.
Daniel's bullet wound was clean.
No major artery damage.
Evelyn sat beside his hospital bed at dawn.
“You weren't supposed to come.”
“I know.”
“You could have died.”
“I know.”
“You're an idiot.”
“I've suspected.”
She stared at him.
Then kissed him.
No warning.
No dramatic speech.
Just three years of loneliness, fear, letters, coffee, patience, and the unbearable relief of finding him alive.
When she pulled away, Daniel looked stunned.
“That was…”
“Don't make it weird.”
“I wasn't going to.”
“You absolutely were.”
“I was going to say medically therapeutic.”
She laughed.
Then her expression softened.
“I don't know what I'm ready for.”
Daniel touched her hand.
“Then this doesn't have to mean anything tomorrow.”
“It means something.”
He waited.
Evelyn whispered:
“It means I want a tomorrow.”
Across town, police received an anonymous call.
A vehicle had been abandoned at a marina.
Inside was Victor Dane's coat.
Blood stained one sleeve.
But there was no Victor.
Only a handwritten note on the driver's seat.
EVELYN MADE THE WRONG CHOICE.
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Underneath:
NOW SHE LOSES EVERYTHING.
