Chapter 6 - The Waitress Who Owned the Empire
Nobody spoke.
Norah laughed because the alternative was screaming.
“I make eleven dollars an hour before tips.”
Richard smiled.
“And technically control forty-two percent of a shipping company worth $2.8 billion.”
“Richard,” Daniel warned.
“No more secrets.”
Richard walked closer.
“Twenty-six years ago, Daniel’s father, Arthur Hayes, financed the expansion of Davenport Maritime. My father needed money. Arthur received forty-two percent ownership.”
Norah looked at Daniel.
“You knew?”
“I found out later.”
Richard continued.
“When Arthur died, the shares transferred to Daniel. When Daniel was declared dead, they passed into a trust.”
“For Liam and me?”
“No.”
Richard smiled.
“For you.”
Liam stared at his sister.
“Why only her?”
“Because Arthur’s trust named the eldest surviving daughter of Daniel Hayes.”
Norah swallowed.
Richard spread his hands.
“The waitress owns nearly half my company.”
Vincent finally understood.
“The gambling debt.”
“Leverage,” Richard said. “We needed Norah poor, frightened, and controllable.”
“You built Liam’s debt deliberately.”
“Liam made that remarkably easy.”
Liam looked down.
Norah’s face hardened.
“And my mother?”
Richard’s smile faded.
Daniel stepped forward.
“Don’t.”
Norah looked between them.
“What about Mom?”
Richard answered.
“She discovered the trust.”
Daniel lunged.
Vincent stopped him.
Norah whispered, “What did you do?”
Richard said nothing.
That silence was enough.
Norah’s eyes filled.
“You killed her?”
“Her illness was real.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“She was going to contact the trustees.”
Daniel shouted, “You withheld her medication!”
Richard’s face hardened.
“I protected my company.”
Norah stopped crying.
Something inside her became still.
“Your company?”
She looked around the warehouse.
Then back at him.
“You just said it belongs to me.”
Richard’s expression changed.
For the first time, Norah saw fear.
Vincent saw it too.
He almost smiled.
Richard raised a gun.
“Not for long.”
Tommy moved toward Liam.
Vincent’s men remained outside because Richard had threatened to detonate the building if anyone approached.
But Richard had made one mistake.
He believed Khloe had remained in Manhattan.
A voice sounded from the catwalk.
“Dad.”
Richard looked up.
Khloe stood above them.
Beside her was Evelyn Davenport.
Richard stared.
Impossible.
The chair where Evelyn had supposedly been tied was empty.
A decoy.
Khloe had entered through a maintenance tunnel shown on old port plans.
Evelyn held Richard’s private phone.
“You always underestimated women,” she said.
Richard’s face twisted.
“Evelyn.”
“I spent thirty years being afraid of you.”
She raised the phone.
“Tonight I stopped.”
Richard lunged toward a detonator.
The warehouse lights died.
Vincent moved instantly.
Norah dropped.
A gunshot exploded.
Then another.
Someone crashed into metal shelving.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Norah crawled toward Liam.
She reached him and cut his restraints with a broken piece of plastic.
“Go!”
“What about you?”
“GO!”
Vincent fought Tommy near the loading doors.
Tommy swung a metal bar.
Vincent blocked it, drove him backward and disarmed him.
Richard fled toward the pier.
Daniel followed.
“Dad!”
Norah ran after them.
Outside, rain had begun.
Richard reached a speedboat.
Daniel caught him on the dock.
The two men collided.
Richard’s gun skidded across wet boards.
Norah reached them.
Richard grabbed Daniel and shoved him toward the water.
Vincent appeared behind Norah.
“Stay back.”
Richard laughed.
“It’s finished, Russo.”
“No,” Norah said.
Richard looked at her.
She held Evelyn’s phone.
Its screen showed an active call.
Richard’s face changed.
Norah spoke carefully.
“You confessed to manipulating Liam’s debt.”
Silence.
“You admitted my ownership.”
Richard stared.
“And you admitted what you did to my mother.”
His eyes widened.
Norah turned the phone.
The call was connected to federal investigators.
Everything had been recorded.
Sirens erupted beyond the warehouses.
Richard stepped backward.
“No.”
Red and blue lights reflected across the river.
“No!”
He lunged toward Norah.
Vincent intercepted him.
Federal agents flooded the pier seconds later.
Richard Davenport was forced to his knees.
Handcuffs closed around his wrists.
Norah watched the man who had controlled her family for two decades being led away.
She expected satisfaction.
Instead, she felt tired.
Vincent approached.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
She frowned.
“What?”
“People who say they’re okay after nights like this worry me.”
Despite herself, she laughed.
Vincent looked at her.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Norah noticed blood spreading across his shirt.
Her smile disappeared.
“Vincent?”
He looked down.
A bullet had entered beneath his ribs.
His knees buckled.
Norah caught him.
“Vincent!”
His weight dragged them both to the dock.
She pressed her hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
His eyes struggled to remain open.
“You’re very demanding for a waitress.”
She was crying now.
“And you’re very annoying for a mafia boss.”
May you like
He almost smiled.
Then his eyes closed.
