Chapter 7 - Pier Nine
I showed Graham the photograph.
He looked at it once and became very still.
“Where is Pier Nine?”
“You know where it is.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
“On the north side of the old military terminal.”
“Who has access?”
“Dorian’s people, some dock contractors, and anyone who doesn’t mind trespassing.”
He reached for his phone.
“No police,” I said.
“I didn’t say police.”
“No army of men either.”
“You’re not going.”
“Then Mara dies.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Neither do you.”
Agent Reed entered the room with Vivian. I had called them before showing Graham the photograph because I no longer trusted any single person with the truth.
Reed studied the image. “This was taken less than an hour ago.”
“Can you trace it?” Graham asked.
“Not without a live signal.”
“Then we give them what they want,” I said.
Graham shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
“You have a better plan?”
“Yes. I go alone.”
“That is not a plan. That is an old habit.”
He stepped close. “You don’t understand what Pier Nine is.”
“I understand what it is to lose someone because a man with power decided he knew best.”
The words struck the old wound between us. Graham’s eyes darkened.
“You will stay in the car.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“If Mara is there, she hears my voice. If she’s being used as bait, I want to know what they’re baiting.”
Reed held up a hand. “We can put a team within reach, but they’ll need a clean line of sight. Mr. Calloway, your men cannot be visible.”
“They won’t be.”
“And you will not carry a weapon into the exchange.”
Graham’s expression suggested she had asked him to remove a limb.
“Agreed,” he said.
We reached the terminal at 11:43. Rain blurred the lights along the harbor. I carried the ledger in a waterproof case, though the real ledger remained with Vivian. The case held blank pages and a tracking device.
Graham walked beside me in a dark coat. He looked less like a king than a man going to meet the consequences of his own reign.
“If this goes wrong,” he said, “you run toward the water and keep moving.”
“You’re very charming when you’re terrified.”
He looked at me. “I’m terrified all the time.”
I had no answer for that.
The warehouse door opened before we reached it.
Inside, the air smelled of salt, diesel, and wet wood. A single lamp hung over a chair.
Mara sat in it, her wrists bound but her head lifted.
“Elena, don’t—”
A man struck the wall beside her, not her. “Quiet.”
Dorian Voss stepped from the shadows.
He was older than Graham, silver-haired and elegantly dressed, with a calm smile that never reached his eyes.
“Graham,” he said. “You brought the wife.”
“You asked for the ledger.”
“I asked for proof that you still understand loyalty.”
Graham held out the case. “Let them go.”
Dorian looked at me. “Do you know what your husband did for this city?”
“He made money.”
“He kept the harbor functioning when honest men were too timid to make decisions.”
“Honest men don’t need hostages.”
Dorian chuckled. “You sound like your father.”
Graham moved forward, but I caught his sleeve.
“What happened to my father?” I asked.
“He chose the wrong side.”
“Which side was that?”
“The side that believed truth mattered more than survival.”
“Did you kill him?”
Dorian’s smile faded. “I gave an order. Someone else carried it out.”
Graham’s voice became deadly quiet. “You said you didn’t know.”
“I said no such thing.”
The man beside Mara reached for the case. I let it go.
At that instant, the warehouse lights went out.
A gunshot cracked against the metal walls. Graham shoved me down as Reed’s team stormed through the side entrance.
Mara kicked her chair backward into her captor’s knees. He fell, and she rolled free. I crawled toward her while people shouted in the dark.
When the emergency lights flickered on, Dorian was gone.
Graham stood near the loading door, one hand pressed against his side.
“You’re bleeding,” I said.
“Not badly.”
“Where is Dorian?”
He looked toward the open door.
“He was never here to negotiate.”
On the floor beneath the lamp lay the ledger case.
It had been opened.
The blank pages were scattered around it.
May you like
Someone had taken the tracking device.
And someone inside our plan had told Dorian exactly what we were carrying.
