Chapter 5 - MIDNIGHT AT PIER 17
Rain began falling at 11:34 p.m.
By midnight, the East River looked black enough to swallow the city.
Dominic stood alone beneath the warehouse lights at Pier 17 carrying Gabriel’s black box.
At least, he appeared alone.
Marcus had twelve men positioned beyond the shipping containers.
Nathan was inside a surveillance van two blocks away.
Elena had refused to stay behind.
Dominic had argued.
She had won.
Again.
She waited inside the van with Nathan, listening through a hidden microphone in Dominic’s collar.
Dominic looked at his watch.
12:01.
Then headlights appeared.
A black SUV rolled between warehouses.
Another followed.
Then a third.
Victor Sloane stepped from the center vehicle.
Lucy walked beside him.
Dominic’s hands curled.
She was wearing the same pink dress.
Her knees were dirty.
Her hair ribbon was gone.
But she appeared unharmed.
Victor rested one hand on her shoulder.
Dominic could see the missing piece of his left ear.
Exactly as Lucy had described.
“Uncle Dominic!”
Victor tightened his grip.
“Easy.”
Dominic’s voice became cold.
“Take your hand off her.”
Victor smiled.
“You sound like your father.”
“That isn’t a compliment.”
“No. I suppose not.”
Victor was in his late fifties now.
Gray threaded through his brown hair.
A pale scar ran from his ear toward his jaw.
He looked ordinary.
That was the frightening part.
“You have the material?”
Dominic raised the case.
“You have Lucy.”
“I can see we’re both observant.”
Lucy glared up at Victor.
“You smell like old soup.”
For half a second, Dominic almost laughed.
Victor did not.
“Charming child.”
“She gets that from Gabriel.”
Victor’s smile vanished.
Dominic saw it.
Good.
“You hated him.”
“I respected him.”
“You killed him.”
Victor shrugged.
“He made a choice.”
“You put a bomb in his car.”
“He was going to destroy twenty years of work.”
“So you murdered him.”
Victor looked toward Lucy.
“Adults make difficult decisions.”
Lucy frowned.
“My mommy says bad people always make excuses.”
Dominic’s mouth twitched.
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Enough.”
Dominic held up the box.
“You want this? Let her walk to me.”
Victor shook his head.
“Open it first.”
Dominic did.
Ledger.
Drive.
Envelope.
Photograph.
Everything appeared legitimate.
Victor nodded.
“Bring it halfway.”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“She walks halfway. I walk halfway.”
Victor considered.
Then pushed Lucy gently.
“Go.”
She started walking.
Dominic moved.
Ten feet.
Twenty.
Lucy’s eyes stayed fixed on him.
When they were only several yards apart, Victor said, “Stop.”
Dominic stopped.
Lucy stopped.
“Put the box down.”
Dominic placed it on the pavement.
“Lucy walks.”
Victor nodded.
Lucy moved.
Five steps.
Four.
Three.
Then gunfire erupted from the warehouse roof.
Not Marcus’s men.
Victor’s.
Dominic lunged.
He grabbed Lucy and rolled behind a concrete barrier.
Bullets struck metal.
“Stay down!”
“I am!”
Victor shouted orders.
Dominic pressed his hand against the earpiece.
“Marcus!”
“We’re compromised! He knew our positions.”
Of course he did.
Victor had learned Dominic’s security patterns years ago.
Marcus’s men returned fire.
Elena’s voice came through the earpiece.
“Dominic, get Lucy out.”
He looked down.
Lucy was staring toward the black box.
“He didn’t pick it up.”
“What?”
“The bad man.”
Dominic glanced around the barrier.
Victor was retreating toward his SUV.
The box remained on the pavement.
Why?
Then Dominic understood.
“Bomb.”
He grabbed Lucy and ran.
The explosion ripped through the pier.
Heat slammed into his back.
Dominic fell, shielding Lucy beneath him.
His ears rang.
Smoke covered the dock.
“Uncle Dominic?”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“So are my dry-cleaning bills.”
She looked confused.
“Never mind.”
He stood painfully.
Victor’s SUV accelerated away.
Marcus emerged through the smoke.
“You alive?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Lucy?”
“Alive.”
Marcus touched his earpiece.
“Van’s under attack.”
Dominic’s blood turned cold.
“Elena.”
They ran.
Two blocks away, the surveillance van door hung open.
Nathan lay on the ground.
Blood covered his shirt.
Dominic dropped beside him.
“Nathan.”
“I’m fine.”
“You have a bullet hole.”
“Technically it went through.”
“Where’s Elena?”
Nathan’s eyes filled with panic.
“They took her.”
Dominic stood.
The exchange had been a distraction.
Victor never wanted the files.
He wanted Elena.
Why?
Lucy screamed.
“Mommy!”
Nathan grabbed Dominic’s sleeve.
“He said something before they left.”
“What?”
“Victor told Elena she was the only person Gabriel trusted with the location.”
“Location of what?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic thought.
Gabriel’s files.
The ledger.
The deposit box.
Those were evidence, but Victor clearly feared something else.
Something Elena knew without realizing she knew it.
Lucy suddenly spoke.
“Blue Harbor.”
Dominic turned.
“What?”
“Daddy’s song.”
She hummed quietly.
“Little bird, little bird, three stars in the sky. If the night gets dark, fly back to Blue Harbor.”
Dominic’s heart pounded.
Blue Harbor was not only a code phrase.
It was a place.
Their mother used to take Dominic and Gabriel to a summer house near Montauk.
A small cove she called Blue Harbor because of the color of the water.
The property had been abandoned after her death.
Victor knew Elena had the code.
He assumed she knew the place.
Dominic grabbed his phone.
“Marcus.”
“I’m thinking the same thing.”
They drove east.
The storm intensified.
Lucy sat beside Dominic in the armored SUV, wrapped in a blanket.
“You’re supposed to stay with Sarah.”
“No.”
“Lucy.”
“He has Mommy.”
“I know.”
“I’m coming.”
“This is not negotiable.”
She crossed her arms.
“My mommy says everything is negotiable when rich people want something.”
Marcus coughed from the front seat.
Dominic rubbed his forehead.
“Why does your mother teach you these things?”
“She talks on the phone.”
Nathan, patched up by a medic and stubbornly accompanying them, laughed painfully.
Dominic finally compromised.
“You stay in the vehicle with Nathan when we arrive.”
“Okay.”
“You do not leave.”
“Okay.”
“You promise?”
Lucy looked directly at him.
“Promise.”
Blue Harbor sat behind rusted gates forty miles east of Manhattan.
The house had not been occupied in nearly fifteen years.
Dominic remembered summer nights.
His mother playing piano.
Gabriel running barefoot across the lawn.
A childhood before death and power turned everything hard.
Now Victor’s vehicles were parked outside.
Marcus’s team surrounded the property.
Dominic approached from the rear.
They entered through the kitchen.
Voices came from the basement.
Victor.
Elena.
Dominic moved toward the stairs.
Marcus stopped him.
“Wait for backup.”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“He has her because of me.”
“He has her because he’s a psychopath.”
“Still going.”
Marcus sighed.
“I hate working for you.”
“You’ve said that for twelve years.”
They descended.
Victor stood beside an old brick wall.
Elena was tied to a chair.
Two guards held weapons.
Victor pointed at the wall.
“Tell me where.”
“I don’t know.”
“You know the phrase.”
“That doesn’t mean I know what Gabriel hid.”
Victor slapped her.
Dominic saw red.
Marcus grabbed his arm.
“Wait.”
Victor leaned close to Elena.
“Gabriel came here the night before he died.”
Elena stared.
“He left something.”
“I don’t know what.”
“A recording.”
Dominic froze.
Victor continued.
“Not files. Not ledgers. A recording of Senator Graves authorizing Gabriel’s murder.”
Elena’s eyes widened.
“That’s impossible.”
Victor smiled.
“No. Gabriel was always recording people.”
Dominic remembered the device under the piano.
Victor’s obsession with listening devices.
Gabriel had learned from him.
Victor grabbed Elena’s hair.
“Where did he put it?”
“I don’t know!”
A small noise came from upstairs.
Dominic turned.
Lucy stood at the basement doorway.
She had broken her promise.
Of course she had.
Elena screamed.
“Lucy, run!”
Victor spun.
His gun lifted.
Dominic fired first.
The bullet struck Victor’s shoulder.
Marcus shot one guard.
Dominic tackled the second.
Chaos exploded.
Elena screamed.
Lucy ducked.
Victor fled through a side door into the storm.
Dominic cut Elena’s restraints.
“You okay?”
“Yes. Lucy!”
They reached her.
Elena wrapped her daughter in both arms.
“I told you to stay!”
Lucy started crying.
“I heard you.”
Dominic looked toward the open door.
Victor was escaping.
Marcus asked, “Go?”
Dominic looked at Elena and Lucy.
Nine years ago, Dominic had chosen business over answering his brother’s phone call.
Tonight he chose differently.
“No.”
Marcus understood.
He sent the others.
Dominic stayed.
Elena looked surprised.
“You’re letting him go?”
“My people will find him.”
“What if they don’t?”
Dominic looked at Lucy.
“Then we find him tomorrow.”
Lucy suddenly pointed toward an old wooden staircase.
“Red light.”
Everyone froze.
Dominic followed her finger.
Beneath the third step, almost invisible in the darkness, something blinked.
Red.
Marcus pried open the board.
Inside was a cassette recorder wrapped in plastic.
Dominic stared.
Gabriel had left one final piece behind.
Nathan found an old player upstairs.
They pressed play.
Static.
Then Senator Graves’s voice filled the basement.
“Gabriel Vale cannot reach federal investigators.”
Victor answered.
“I understand.”
Graves spoke again.
“Handle it before morning.”
The recording stopped.
Elena looked at Dominic.
“That’s enough.”
Dominic nodded.
Enough to destroy Victor.
Enough to destroy Graves.
Enough to give Gabriel justice.
But outside, gunfire suddenly sounded.
One shot.
Then silence.
Marcus’s radio crackled.
“We lost Sloane.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
The voice continued.
“He got away.”
Dominic looked toward the storm.
Victor was wounded.
Cornered.
Exposed.
And more dangerous than ever.
Then Lucy slipped her hand into Dominic’s.
He looked down.
“Are you mad?”
“At you?”
She nodded.
“You broke your promise.”
“I know.”
“Yes. I’m mad.”
Her face fell.
“But I’m glad you’re okay.”
She leaned against him.
Dominic looked at Elena.
Something unspoken passed between them.
They had the evidence.
May you like
They had each other.
And for the first time in nine years, Dominic had a chance to finish the fight without becoming the man his father had been.
