Chapter 6
That night, Marcus began watching Victor.
Within seventy-two hours, they had photographs of Victor meeting men connected to Adrian’s rivals.
They intercepted conversations about money and territory.
They confirmed the planned ambush at Pier Nine.
But nothing led to Emily.
Adrian was sitting at his desk staring at another useless report when Lily began throwing Mr. Buttons into the air.
Up.
Down.
Up.
Down.
On the twelfth toss, the old seam broke.
Something hard clicked against the wooden floor.
Lily stared.
“Uncle Adrian?”
She reached inside the stuffing and pulled out a tiny cloth-wrapped object.
“It was in his tummy.”
Adrian knew the shape before she finished unwrapping it.
He plugged the USB drive into an isolated laptop.
Emily’s recording began.
Victor’s voice filled the room.
Adrian listened once.
Then again.
The call confirmed everything.
The stolen schedules.
The planned assassination.
Victor’s promise that he would control Mercer territory afterward.
And one unfinished sentence.
“…keep her at the old cannery warehouse until—”
The recording ended.
Adrian closed his eyes.
Emily had hidden the evidence.
Which meant she had known Victor might take her.
And if Victor still had not found the recording, he still needed Emily alive.
Adrian looked at Lily.
“Will that find Mommy?”
“Yes.”
He picked up the rabbit.
His thumb brushed Emily’s crooked stitches.
“Yes, sweetheart. I think it will.”
The next morning Adrian announced that the search for Emily Hart was over.
“She left willingly,” he told his senior men. “We stop wasting resources.”
Victor relaxed.
Barely.
But Adrian saw it.
For the next two days, Marcus’s surveillance teams appeared to withdraw.
Victor took the bait.
Friday afternoon, he drove north along the coast to an abandoned warehouse behind the shuttered Seaview Cannery.
Marcus followed from nearly a mile back.
Through a long-range camera, he saw Victor enter.
Through a thermal scope, he saw a second-floor room.
One person sat against the wall.
Alive.
Small frame.
Bound wrists.
Marcus called Adrian.
“We found her.”
Adrian stood so quickly his chair struck the wall.
“Condition?”
“Alive.”
“Victor?”
“Inside.”
“Stay invisible.”
“There’s something else. Victor looked in his mirror twice on the drive. He may think he was followed.”
Adrian’s jaw hardened.
“He’ll move her.”
“That’s my guess.”
“How long?”
“A few hours at most.”
Adrian looked through the open study door.
Lily sat on the floor in green pajamas feeding imaginary tea to Mr. Buttons.
She saw his face change.
“Is it Mommy?”
Adrian walked to her.
He knelt.
“I know where she is.”
Lily’s eyes widened.
“You’re going?”
“Yes.”
“Bring her home.”
Adrian remembered his promise.
This time there was no hesitation.
“I will.”
The cannery warehouse had once stored frozen seafood.
Now its windows were boarded, its refrigeration rooms abandoned and its loading yard surrounded by stacked containers.
Adrian arrived shortly before midnight with Marcus and a small group of men whose loyalty had been checked twice.
They entered through the rear fence.
Forty yards inside, every floodlight ignited.
White light swallowed the yard.
Then darkness.
The steel gate slammed behind them.
Gunfire erupted from the upper windows.
“Cover!”
Adrian threw himself behind a container.
Victor had known.
Maybe not the exact hour.
Maybe not the exact plan.
But he had known enough.
For several minutes the warehouse yard became chaos.
Adrian’s men forced a path toward the building while Marcus circled toward the north wall.
Then every shot stopped.
A door opened above them.
Victor stepped onto a second-floor walkway.
Emily stood in front of him.
Her wrists were bound.
She was thinner.
Her hair was tangled.
A bruise darkened one cheek.
But she was alive.
Victor held her against him.
“Adrian!”
Adrian emerged partially from cover.
Victor raised his voice.
“You have something of mine.”
Adrian touched his coat.
The USB.
Victor smiled.
“Give it to me, open the gate, and Emily walks away.”
Emily looked across the yard.
Her eyes found Adrian.
She shook her head.
“No.”
Victor tightened his grip.
“Quiet.”
May you like
Emily shouted, “Don’t give him anything!”
Victor’s face changed.
