Chapter 13 - PIER 19
Gabriel wanted Claire locked inside a panic room.
Claire refused.
“You heard her.”
“I heard a threat.”
“She planted devices here before she disappeared.”
“My men are searching.”
“And if they miss one?”
“They won’t.”
“Like they didn’t miss the bug inside a stuffed rabbit?”
That silenced him.
Claire softened.
“She wants me because she thinks Lily told me something important.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“Did she?”
Claire thought.
Then she remembered the four numbers on Lily’s wrist.
She had nearly forgotten them.
She found Lily.
“What were those numbers?”
Lily looked confused.
“The ones on your arm.”
The child whispered, “Miss Anna wrote them.”
“Why?”
“She said remember.”
“What are they?”
Lily repeated them.
4-1-7-9.
Gabriel stopped.
Vincent looked at him.
“What?”
Gabriel walked to the office safe.
Typed four digits.
Nothing.
Claire frowned.
“Not that.”
Then Sofia spoke.
“Elena’s locker.”
Gabriel turned.
“What locker?”
“At Pier 19.”
They drove there under heavy security.
Claire hated every second.
Pier 19 was mostly abandoned warehouses beside dark water.
Gabriel found the locker inside an old customs office.
4179 opened it.
Inside was a flash drive.
And a handwritten note.
GABRIEL, IF YOU’RE READING THIS, I FAILED.
His hands shook.
Claire looked away while he read.
Elena had documented everything.
Kane’s return.
Anna’s betrayal.
Payments to corrupt officials.
Routes.
Accounts.
Names.
Enough evidence to destroy both Kane’s organization and parts of Gabriel’s empire.
Elena had prepared to expose everything.
Including her husband.
Gabriel sat down.
“She was going to turn me in.”
Claire said nothing.
He laughed bitterly.
“My own wife.”
“She was trying to get Lily out.”
Gabriel looked at the final line.
IF YOU LOVE OUR DAUGHTER MORE THAN YOU LOVE POWER, YOU’LL KNOW WHAT TO DO.
Footsteps echoed outside.
Gabriel stood.
Too late.
Gunfire erupted.
Windows shattered.
Claire hit the floor.
Gabriel’s men returned fire.
Anna’s voice echoed through a loudspeaker.
“Give me the drive!”
Gabriel grabbed Claire and dragged her behind a concrete pillar.
“Stay down.”
She looked at him.
“What are you going to do?”
He checked his weapon.
“For once?”
He looked at Elena’s note.
May you like
“The thing my wife wanted.”
Then he stepped into the gunfire.
