Chapter 6 - Declan’s One Rule
Declan knew something was wrong because Audrey did not answer.
Three months earlier, that would have irritated him.
Tonight, it terrified him.
Her abandoned phone was found beside her car.
Gideon brought it upstairs.
Declan stared at the cracked screen.
“Find her.”
“We are.”
“Find her.”
Gideon had never seen him like this.
Not angry.
Not cold.
Afraid.
Twenty-seven minutes later, security recovered garage footage.
Elliot Crane.
Audrey unconscious.
A gray van.
Declan’s entire organization moved.
Road cameras.
Port contacts.
Private security networks.
Every resource he had once used to control the city was redirected toward one purpose.
Bring Audrey home.
Nathan arrived after receiving a call from Audrey’s father.
“What happened?”
Declan said nothing.
Nathan grabbed his jacket.
“You were supposed to protect her.”
Declan turned.
“I was supposed to let her choose.”
“And now she’s gone.”
The words hit hard.
Gideon stepped between them.
“Fighting doesn’t find Audrey.”
Nathan backed away.
Declan looked at the map.
“Crane needs the ledger.”
“So he’ll use Audrey against Thomas,” Gideon said.
“No.”
Declan saw it suddenly.
“He doesn’t need Thomas.”
Nathan frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Audrey remembers everything.”
Four years of schedules.
Accounts.
Names.
Locations.
She was the living index to Mercer Holdings.
Crane could sell that knowledge to Hale.
Or use it to destroy Declan.
Across the city, Audrey woke inside an abandoned printing warehouse.
Her wrists were tied.
Elliot sat opposite her.
“You look like your mother.”
Audrey stared.
“You knew her?”
“I knew your family.”
“Then untie me.”
He smiled.
“Still Thomas’s daughter.”
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Your father knows where it is.”
“Then why kidnap me?”
“Because fathers become cooperative when daughters disappear.”
Audrey forced herself to breathe.
For four years, she had watched dangerous men negotiate.
She had learned something from Declan.
The person who spoke first usually revealed more.
So she stayed silent.
Elliot eventually leaned forward.
“Mercer will come.”
“I know.”
“That doesn’t frighten you?”
Audrey looked directly at him.
“It should frighten you.”
Hours later, Declan received a video.
Audrey sat tied to a chair.
Elliot stood behind her.
“Ledger for secretary.”
The video ended.
Gideon looked toward Declan.
“We don’t have the ledger.”
Declan picked up his coat.
“Then we find it.”
Thomas eventually revealed the hiding place.
A safety deposit box registered under Audrey’s late mother’s maiden name.
Inside was a flash drive.
Not a paper ledger.
It contained enough evidence to destroy Victor Hale’s empire.
Nathan stared at the files.
“This could destroy Mercer too.”
Declan knew.
Some transactions implicated his own organization.
Gideon asked, “What’s the move?”
Declan looked at Audrey’s frozen face on the video.
Four years ago, he would have protected the empire.
There would have been no question.
Tonight there was none either.
“Give Crane everything.”
Gideon blinked.
“Boss—”
“Everything.”
“You could lose the company.”
“I know.”
“People could go to prison.”
“I know.”
“You could go to prison.”
Declan looked at him.
“Then I go.”
The exchange was arranged at an abandoned rail depot.
Declan arrived alone, carrying the drive.
Elliot brought Audrey.
Her lip was cut, but she was standing.
When she saw Declan, anger flashed across her face.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
He almost laughed.
Even kidnapped, she was still telling him what to do.
Elliot pressed a gun against her side.
“The drive.”
Declan held it up.
“Release her.”
“First I verify it.”
“No.”
Elliot smiled.
“You’re negotiating from weakness.”
Declan looked at Audrey.
“No.”
His voice was calm.
“You are.”
Police sirens erupted in the distance.
Elliot spun.
Audrey moved.
She drove her heel into his foot and twisted away.
A gunshot exploded.
Declan crossed the distance before he knew whether he had been hit.
He pulled Audrey behind a concrete barrier.
Gideon’s men surrounded the depot as federal agents arrived from the opposite entrance.
Nathan had anonymously transmitted the ledger to federal investigators before the exchange.
Elliot was trapped.
Within minutes, it was over.
Audrey trembled against Declan.
He held her.
Not because she owed him.
Not because she worked for him.
Because she reached for him first.
Then she pulled back.
“You gave him the drive?”
“Yes.”
“You knew what was on it?”
“Yes.”
“You could lose everything.”
“Yes.”
Audrey stared.
“Why?”
Declan touched her face, then stopped before making contact.
He let his hand fall.
“Because there is no version of my empire worth more than you.”
Audrey’s breath caught.
But before she could answer, federal agents approached.
“Declan Mercer?”
He turned.
“We need you to come with us.”
Audrey’s heart sank.
Declan calmly offered his hands.
As the agents led him away, he looked back once.
And smiled at her.
For the first time, Audrey understood.
May you like
Declan had finally chosen her freedom.
Even if it cost him his own.
