Chapter 8: The Cost of Loyalty
Chapter 8: The Cost of Loyalty
Nobody moved.
The tender bounced across the waves.
Leo took the waterproof evidence case from Ethan.
“Victoria,” he said, “tell Mason to steer toward the black boat.”
Victoria stared at him.
“The black boat is damaged.”
“Then we improvise.”
“You were supposed to remove Margaret quietly.”
“You changed the plan.”
Victoria’s expression hardened.
“I gave the orders.”
Leo smiled.
“Not anymore.”
He pointed the gun toward her.
“You’re a liability.”
For the first time, Victoria understood that the conspiracy no longer belonged to her.
Leo had never been loyal.
He had been waiting for the right moment to take control.
Ethan watched his wife’s confidence crumble.
“Who are you really working for?” Ethan asked.
Leo opened the evidence case and checked its contents.
“Dr. Adrian Vale.”
Victoria’s uncle.
Victoria shook her head.
“My uncle would never betray me.”
“He used you.”
Leo explained that Dr. Vale had created Northstar’s offshore network years earlier. Victoria believed she was reclaiming her family fortune, but her uncle had been stealing from both Northstar and Cole Maritime.
Margaret’s investigation had come too close.
Daniel Ross had discovered the entire scheme.
That was why he died.
Victoria looked sick.
“You killed Daniel?”
“Your uncle ordered it.”
“And my father?”
Leo smiled again.
“Ask Vale.”
Victoria’s face changed.
Her father’s death had been ruled a suicide.
But now doubt entered her eyes.
The distraction lasted only a second.
It was enough.
Mason turned the tender sharply.
Leo lost his balance.
Ethan slammed into him.
The gun fired into the sky.
They struggled on the wet deck.
Leo struck Ethan across the face and reached for the pistol.
Victoria kicked the weapon overboard.
Leo stared at her.
“You stupid—”
Captain Hayes tackled him from behind.
Together, Ethan and the captain restrained him.
Margaret’s raft reached them minutes later.
Ethan pulled his mother aboard.
She touched the blood on his lip.
“I’m all right,” he said.
“No,” Margaret answered. “None of us are.”
Behind them, the yacht erupted into a tower of fire.
The burning vessel illuminated Victoria’s face.
She looked at Ethan.
“My uncle killed my father.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know him.”
She swallowed.
“And I know where he keeps the original financial records.”
Ethan stared at her.
May you like
Victoria had become his enemy.
But she might also be the only person capable of destroying the man behind everything.
