Chapter 5 - THE CHOICE BETWEEN VIOLENCE AND JUSTICE
Two days later, a brick came through the front window of Audra’s temporary office.
A note was wrapped around it.
Come home before your husband loses more than you.
Dorian arrived to find Audra speaking to police beside a carpet of shattered glass.
His first instinct came naturally.
“I’m moving you somewhere secure.”
“No.”
“This isn’t negotiable.”
Audra looked at him.
He stopped.
Old habit.
Old voice.
Old man.
He tried again.
“I’m afraid you’re in danger.”
“That’s true.”
“I can protect you.”
“I’ve hired independent security.”
“I’ll pay.”
“No.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I need to know the people protecting me answer to me.”
It wounded him.
Which did not make it unfair.
Dorian looked at the broken window.
“I know who did this.”
“Everett?”
He glanced at her.
She had already guessed.
“What are you going to do?” Audra asked.
The old answer appeared instantly.
Everett would disappear.
For most of Dorian’s adult life, there had been problems that ended because the person causing them ceased to remain available.
He could imagine the entire sequence.
One call.
No paperwork.
No witness.
No Everett.
Audra watched his face.
He understood that she knew exactly where his mind had gone.
“I don’t know yet,” he said.
She nodded once.
“Then decide what you’re trying to save.”
“My business.”
“No.”
She looked at him with exhausted sadness.
“Decide whether you’re trying to save your empire from becoming Everett’s or save yourself from becoming him.”
That night, Dorian did something nobody expected.
He gave Silas permission to send the financial evidence to outside counsel and independent investigators.
No disappearing men.
No midnight justice.
No cleaning the problem with blood.
When several captains learned what he had done, they called him weak.
Everett called him worse.
The conflict broke open at a private governance meeting ten days later.
Audra attended because one building under discussion sat partially inside a Whitcomb-controlled property trust.
She entered a room full of angry men and placed a legal folder on the table.
“I’m here because my signature is required for the property question,” she said. “I am not here to choose who controls Dorian’s organization.”
Everett smiled.
“Convenient distinction.”
Audra looked at him.
“You’ve spent three years buying internal debt through shell companies.”
The smile disappeared.
Copies of the evidence moved around the table.
“You used Blythe Sorrell’s communications access to identify weak relationships. You exploited the separation in my marriage because you knew several legitimate partners trusted my judgment.”
Everett’s face hardened.
“And then,” Audra said, “you threw a brick through my window because intimidation has always been easier for men like you than hearing the word no.”
Two men moved toward the doors.
Dorian’s security reacted.
Weapons appeared.
Audra did not scream.
Dorian looked around the room.
One command from him could turn polished hardwood into a crime scene.
Everett knew it.
“You don’t have the stomach anymore,” Everett said.
Dorian looked at his cousin.
Maybe that was true.
Or maybe stomach had never been the right word.
“Lower them,” Dorian told his men.
His security chief stared at him.
“Boss—”
“Lower them.”
The weapons went down.
Everett laughed.
“You really did let her make you soft.”
Dorian looked toward Audra.
“No.”
Then back to Everett.
“She made me notice what hard men leave behind.”
Everett reached for an exit.
One of his men panicked.
There was a flash of metal, a shouted warning, the deafening crack of a gunshot into the ceiling.
Chaos erupted.
Dorian saw Audra behind him.
He did not chase Everett.
He grabbed Audra and dragged her behind a stone counter as alarms screamed and sprinkler water exploded over the room.
His security chief shouted that Everett was escaping through the north loading entrance.
Dorian knew exactly where the exit led.
He could catch him.
For seventeen years, pursuit would have been automatic.
Audra was beside him on the wet floor.
Alive.
Looking at him.
“Sir!” his security chief shouted. “We can take him!”
Dorian looked toward the loading corridor.
Then back at Audra.
“Call the investigators.”
May you like
The chief stared.
“Let them take him.”
