CHAPTER 7 — PIER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER 7 — PIER SEVENTEEN
Rain hammered the abandoned shipping terminal.
Ethan parked two blocks away.
Detective Cole had ordered him to wait for backup.
He ignored her.
Olivia walked beside him beneath the rusted loading cranes.
“You always do this,” she whispered.
“Do what?”
“Walk into danger because you think money makes you untouchable.”
“No. I walk into danger because everyone around me keeps selling pieces of my family.”
They entered through a broken side gate.
Inside the warehouse, Luke remained tied to the chair.
Gavin stood nearby with four armed guards.
Richard was nowhere in sight.
Olivia stepped into the open.
“Gavin.”
He raised his weapon.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“Richard wants the key.”
Ethan emerged behind her and held up the brass key.
“Let my brother go.”
Gavin smiled.
“Your brother?”
Luke raised his head.
“Careful, Ethan. He’s stalling.”
A metal door slammed behind them.
More guards appeared.
Ethan counted eight.
Gavin extended his hand.
“The key.”
Ethan tossed it across the floor.
Gavin picked it up.
Then Olivia said, “That isn’t the cellar key.”
Gavin looked down.
Ethan charged.
He struck Gavin before the guard could aim.
Luke threw his bound body sideways, knocking another man off balance.
Olivia grabbed a loose chain and pulled it across the path of two rushing guards.
Ethan reached Luke and cut the ropes with a broken piece of metal.
Gunfire erupted.
The warehouse lights died.
Detective Cole’s team stormed through the loading doors.
“Police! Drop your weapons!”
Chaos exploded.
Gavin ran toward the river exit.
Luke chased him despite the blood soaking his shirt.
Ethan followed.
They reached the dock as Gavin jumped into a waiting speedboat.
Luke grabbed the railing and leaped aboard.
“Luke!” Ethan shouted.
The boat tore away from the dock.
Luke and Gavin fought beneath the storm.
Gavin struck Luke’s wound.
Luke collapsed.
Ethan ran along the pier as the boat accelerated.
Then a second figure stepped from the cabin.
Richard.
He pressed a gun against Luke’s head.
“Stop following us, Ethan!”
The boat disappeared into the rain.
Detective Cole reached Ethan.
“We’ll track them.”
“No,” Olivia said.
She stood behind them holding Gavin’s abandoned phone.
“Richard has already changed the plan.”
She showed Ethan a message.
Prepare the helicopter. Destination: Northpoint Clinic.
Luke’s face changed.
“Northpoint?”
Ethan remembered the name.
It was the private psychiatric hospital where their mother had died twelve years earlier.
May you like
Olivia looked at him.
“She didn’t die there, Ethan.”
