Chapter 7 - THE LAST LOYAL MAN
Grace did not look directly at the hidden guard.
That saved the plan.
Marcus extended his hand.
“The ledger.”
“Lily first.”
“No.”
“Then we stand here.”
He laughed.
“You think you have leverage?”
“I think if you kill me, you never know whether Daniel made copies.”
Marcus stopped smiling.
Grace saw it.
There.
Fear.
“My husband was smarter than you.”
“He’s dead.”
“And you’re still looking for his work twelve years later.”
Marcus’s face hardened.
Lily watched.
Grace touched her wrist again.
Lily’s eyes moved toward an overhead catwalk.
Another person?
Lily blinked once.
Grace’s blood went cold.
At least two.
Marcus had prepared better than Adrian expected.
Grace continued talking.
“Why the dress?”
“What?”
“The gun.”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Because peace would have ended me.”
There it was.
“The Cross-DeLuca wedding meant accountants would compare books. Freight routes would be merged. Old contracts examined. Eventually someone would find inconsistencies.”
“So you put C-17 in Vivian’s dress.”
“I planned to shoot Adrian during the ceremony.”
Grace stared.
“With the same gun?”
“Yes.”
“Then leave it near Vivian?”
“Inside her dressing room after the chaos.”
“You were going to kill him in front of three hundred people.”
“Confusion is useful.”
“And blame DeLuca again.”
Marcus shrugged.
“It worked before.”
Grace nearly lunged at him.
Instead, she remembered Lily.
“Why scream at Vivian through a child?”
Marcus frowned.
“What?”
“You let Lily see you.”
“She was supposed to stay downstairs.”
“She saw your watch.”
His eyes moved to his wrist.
For the first time, he seemed to hate it.
Grace continued.
“You spent twelve years building lies and a four-year-old saw through one because your watch caught the light.”
Marcus’s face twisted.
“She understood nothing.”
“No.”
Grace looked at Lily.
“She understood enough.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“Give me the ledger.”
Grace shook her head.
“Not until she’s beside me.”
He pointed the gun at Lily.
Grace stopped breathing.
“Do not test me.”
“Marcus.”
“Ledger.”
Grace held it out.
He approached.
Closer.
Closer.
Then Lily suddenly slid off the crate.
Marcus turned.
“Stay there!”
Lily screamed and ran.
Grace threw the ledger directly into Marcus’s face.
He fired.
The bullet struck steel.
Grace dove toward Lily.
Gunfire erupted from above.
The hidden Cross guard on the catwalk fired toward the entrance.
Then another shot answered.
Gabriel.
Adrian’s team entered from both sides.
Marcus grabbed Grace by the coat and pulled her backward.
The pistol jammed beneath her jaw.
“Stop!”
Everything froze.
Adrian stepped into the warehouse.
No jacket.
No visible weapon.
Marcus laughed.
“I knew you’d come.”
Adrian looked at Grace.
Then Lily.
Lily had reached Gabriel and was clinging to his leg.
Safe.
For the moment.
“Let her go.”
Marcus tightened his grip.
“You always did make women your weakness.”
Grace’s eyes flashed.
Adrian answered calmly.
“She isn’t my weakness.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because you took a child.”
Marcus laughed.
“There’s the new Adrian.”
“What does that mean?”
“The moral one.”
Adrian’s face remained still.
“You think morality made me weak?”
“I think guilt did.”
“Maybe.”
Marcus’s eyes narrowed.
Adrian continued.
“You killed my father.”
“Yes.”
“You killed Daniel Carter.”
“Yes.”
“You manipulated a war for twelve years.”
“Yes.”
“And today you hid a gun in Vivian’s dress so I’d restart it.”
Marcus smiled.
“Finally.”
“Finally what?”
“You understand.”
“No.”
Adrian took one step closer.
“I understand you mistook being necessary for being loved.”
Marcus flinched.
Just once.
“You were my brother,” Adrian said.
“I made you.”
“You stood beside me.”
“I kept you alive!”
“You kept me angry.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“Same thing in our world.”
“No.”
Adrian’s voice dropped.
“You needed me wounded enough to need you.”
Grace felt Marcus’s grip change.
The truth had hit him harder than accusation.
Adrian continued.
“My father saw you.”
“Your father was weak.”
“He saw exactly what you were.”
“He was going to hand half our routes to DeLuca.”
“He was going to stop burying sons.”
Marcus shouted, “He was destroying us!”
Lily flinched.
Adrian’s eyes changed.
“You’re frightening her.”
Marcus looked toward Lily.
One second.
That was all Grace needed.
She slammed her heel backward into Marcus’s knee.
He stumbled.
Grace twisted.
The gun discharged.
Adrian lunged.
Marcus fell.
The weapon slid across concrete.
Gabriel kicked it away.
Three men pinned Marcus face-down.
Grace crawled toward Lily.
Her daughter ran into her arms.
“Mommy!”
Grace held her.
“I’m here.”
“You came.”
“I came.”
Marcus fought beneath the guards.
“Adrian!”
Adrian stood over him.
Marcus’s face pressed against the same kind of dirty concrete where Sebastian Cross had died twelve years earlier.
“You owe me!”
Adrian looked down.
“For what?”
“Everything!”
“No.”
Marcus screamed.
“I took a bullet for you!”
Adrian crouched.
“You ordered the bullet.”
Marcus went silent.
Adrian removed the silver watch from Marcus’s wrist.
The damaged clasp glinted beneath the work light.
He stared at it.
Twelve years of dinners.
Funerals.
Wars.
Birthdays.
Deals.
All attached to a man who had turned loyalty into a costume.
Adrian placed the watch on the floor.
Then crushed the face beneath his shoe.
Marcus stared.
“You think this ends anything?”
“No.”
Adrian stood.
“It begins something.”
Police sirens approached.
Marcus laughed.
“You called cops?”
“Yes.”
“You’re Adrian Cross.”
“I know.”
“You don’t give family business to police.”
Adrian looked toward Grace and Lily.
“Family business ended when you kidnapped a four-year-old.”
Marcus’s expression shifted.
“You’ll destroy everything your father built.”
Adrian answered quietly.
“No.”
He looked at the ruined watch.
“I’m finally going to find out what he was actually trying to build.”
Marcus Hale was taken from Hawthorne Steel in handcuffs at sunrise.
Grace watched until the police car disappeared.
Then she looked at Adrian.
“What now?”
He glanced at Lily asleep against her shoulder.
“Now I tell Vivian the wedding can go forward.”
Grace raised an eyebrow.
“You still want to marry her?”
Adrian almost smiled.
“No.”
“Then why?”
May you like
“Because she deserves the chance to cancel it herself.”
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