Chapter 7 - TWENTY MINUTES TO SAVE HER BROTHER
The River Street warehouse had belonged to the Rainer family for thirty years.
Nicholas knew every entrance.
Shaw knew that.
Which was why Nicholas did something nobody expected.
He did not go inside.
He called the investigators coordinating the response and told them exactly what had happened.
Then he waited.
Audrey sat beside him in an unmarked car two blocks away.
Every instinct in Nicholas’s body demanded action.
Violence.
Control.
He had spent his adult life solving threats by moving faster than everyone else.
Audrey watched him grip the steering wheel.
“You want to go in.”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you?”
“Because this isn’t only about what I want.”
Her eyes filled.
“That may be the first intelligent thing you’ve said all night.”
He looked at her.
She laughed through tears.
So did he.
It was brief.
Then the radio crackled.
Movement at the warehouse.
Two vehicles.
Several men.
Officers positioned nearby.
Nicholas’s phone rang.
Shaw.
“You’re late.”
“I’m here.”
“You brought police.”
Nicholas said nothing.
Shaw laughed.
“Your father would be embarrassed.”
“My father made many mistakes.”
“And you think you’re better?”
“No.”
Nicholas looked at Audrey.
“I’m trying to make different ones.”
The line went silent.
Then Shaw said, “You should have come alone.”
A gunshot cracked somewhere near the warehouse.
Audrey screamed Eli’s name.
Nicholas nearly moved.
Then the radio erupted with voices.
Officers entering.
Vehicle attempting escape.
Suspect detained.
Another shot.
Nicholas held Audrey back as she reached for the door.
“Not yet.”
“That’s my brother!”
“I know.”
“Let me go!”
“Not until they tell us it’s safe.”
She hit his chest once.
Not hard.
Desperate.
Nicholas took it.
Then the radio came alive again.
“Hostage located.”
Audrey froze.
“Male, seventeen. Alive.”
Her knees gave out.
Nicholas caught her before she hit the pavement.
This time she did not pull away.
She buried her face against his chest and sobbed.
For several seconds, Nicholas held her.
Nothing more.
No kiss.
No promise.
No claim.
Just arms around someone who had finally received the words she needed.
Alive.
Eli walked out of the warehouse eleven minutes later wrapped in a gray blanket.
Audrey ran to him.
Nicholas stayed where he was.
Brother and sister collapsed into each other under the flashing lights.
Nicholas watched them.
May you like
For the first time in years, being the most powerful man in the parking lot meant absolutely nothing.
He was grateful for that.
