Chapter 10 - The Empire Begins to Collapse
They escaped Aegis through a storm drain that emptied three blocks away.
Carver emerged first, covered in soot and rage.
Patrick followed carrying a ledger beneath his coat.
Sadie climbed out next.
Declan caught her hand and pulled her upward.
Behind them, flames consumed the building.
Sirens approached.
Leo appeared in an SUV.
“Get in.”
Carver looked at Declan.
“You inviting me?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Carver climbed into his own vehicle.
Patrick moved toward Declan’s.
Declan blocked him.
“No.”
Patrick stared.
“We’re wasting time.”
“You’ve had nine years.”
“Declan.”
“You travel separately.”
Patrick’s expression hardened.
Then Sadie spoke.
“He comes with us.”
Both brothers looked at her.
She folded her arms.
“If Patrick disappears again, we lose our only person who knows Vincent’s current operation.”
Declan did not like it.
Which meant she was probably right.
Patrick entered.
The ride was silent for three minutes.
Then Patrick looked at Sadie.
“You look like Michael.”
“Don’t.”
“All right.”
Another minute.
“You organize meetings better.”
Sadie stared.
Declan slowly turned toward his brother.
Patrick shrugged.
“I had access to company systems.”
“You read her meeting notes?”
“I was running an intelligence network.”
Sadie said, “Apparently not a very good one, since someone else owned you.”
Leo made a choking sound from the front seat.
Patrick looked at her.
“You’re brave.”
“No. I’m tired.”
Declan glanced out the window so no one saw the smile.
The surviving ledgers were enough.
Not everything.
Enough.
Rebecca Sloan received copies.
By 8:30 p.m., emergency warrants went out for accounts tied to Vincent.
Bank transfers froze.
Customs officials were suspended.
Two port supervisors were arrested.
Three politicians denied knowing anyone named Moretti despite photographs proving otherwise.
The network began collapsing.
And so did Declan’s empire.
Every legitimate Hayes account was frozen alongside the corrupt ones.
Banks refused transactions.
Clients canceled contracts.
News helicopters surrounded company property.
Employees went home terrified they would lose jobs.
Declan watched it all from a federal safe location.
Sadie sat beside him.
“You could save part of it.”
“How?”
“Cooperate.”
“I am.”
“I mean fully.”
Declan understood.
Confess.
Not only to Patrick’s scheme.
To his own crimes.
He had spent years telling himself his operations were controlled.
That he avoided the worst businesses.
That he protected workers.
That he kept violence away from civilians.
Those distinctions mattered morally.
They mattered less legally.
Sadie did not lecture him.
That was worse.
He asked, “Do you think I deserve prison?”
She looked at him.
“I think you deserve consequences.”
“Diplomatic.”
“I worked for executives.”
He almost smiled.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“If I lose everything?”
Sadie paused.
“That isn’t the question.”
“What is?”
“If you lost the empire, who would you be?”
Declan looked away.
He did not know.
Patrick entered with Rebecca Sloan.
The brothers had barely spoken since Aegis.
Sloan placed documents on the table.
“We have enough to dismantle Northstar.”
“Vincent?” Declan asked.
“Not yet.”
“Lucia?”
“Still missing.”
Patrick said, “Vincent has a private marina in Jersey.”
Sloan stared.
“You’re mentioning that now?”
“You didn’t ask.”
Declan rubbed his forehead.
Sadie said, “Please tell me you were adopted.”
Patrick almost smiled.
Sloan turned toward him.
“You understand cooperation does not erase your crimes.”
“I know.”
“You kidnapped Michael Collins.”
“Yes.”
“You arranged the Warehouse Twelve fire.”
“Yes.”
“You conspired to frame your brother.”
“Yes.”
“You financed Carver.”
“Yes.”
Carver, seated across the room with his own lawyer, shouted, “Temporarily!”
Nobody cared.
Sloan continued.
“And you faked your death.”
Patrick nodded.
“Technically not a federal crime by itself.”
Sloan stared.
Patrick sighed.
“Old habit.”
Declan looked at Sadie.
“This is my family.”
“I’ve noticed.”
Michael arrived by secure video feed.
His first question:
“Did the ledgers survive?”
Sadie held one up.
“Three.”
“Good.”
Patrick looked toward the screen.
Michael looked back.
Nine years between prisoner and captor.
Patrick’s face changed.
“I’m sorry.”
Michael said nothing.
“I know that means nothing.”
“Correct.”
“I kept you alive.”
“That isn’t mercy after kidnapping me.”
Patrick swallowed.
“No.”
Michael leaned toward the camera.
“Do you know why I never gave you the evidence?”
Patrick answered quietly.
“Because you hated me.”
“No.”
Michael shook his head.
“Because I kept waiting for you to become the man your brother remembered.”
Declan looked at Patrick.
Michael continued.
“I thought eventually shame would outweigh ambition.”
Patrick’s eyes lowered.
“I was wrong.”
“No.”
Michael’s voice softened.
“You came to Aegis.”
“For myself.”
“Maybe.”
Patrick looked away.
Michael said, “A person doesn’t become good through one decision. But sometimes one decision proves becoming good is still possible.”
Sadie stared at her father.
Even after nine years, he could make forgiveness sound like a reprimand.
Sloan interrupted.
“We have movement.”
A map appeared.
Vincent’s frozen accounts had triggered automated transfers.
Most failed.
One succeeded before the freeze.
Five million dollars moved to a marina company in Jersey City.
Patrick pointed.
“That’s him.”
Declan stood.
Sloan said, “Federal teams are moving.”
“Lucia is there.”
“You are not.”
“She’s my attorney.”
“She’s also my daughter,” Patrick said quietly.
Everyone looked at him.
Silence.
Lucia had been engaged to Patrick.
Sadie blinked.
“What?”
Patrick closed his eyes.
“Not biologically.”
Declan stared.
Patrick sighed.
“I meant goddaughter.”
Leo muttered, “Maybe phrase that differently.”
Even Sloan nearly smiled.
Then Michael spoke through the screen.
“Vincent won’t stay at the marina.”
Patrick turned.
“Why?”
“Because he plans exits before entrances.”
“What’s his exit?”
Michael looked at Sadie.
“Your father always said meetings reveal everything.”
Sadie frowned.
Then understood.
“The canceled meetings.”
She pulled the calendar records.
Every Northstar shipment matched a canceled meeting.
But the meeting locations formed a pattern.
Manhattan.
Brooklyn.
Jersey.
Manhattan.
Brooklyn.
Jersey.
Repeating.
The next scheduled cancellation was tonight.
11:30 p.m.
Location:
PIER SEVENTEEN.
Sadie looked at Declan.
“He never changed the plan.”
Patrick said, “Midnight.”
Declan nodded.
“The marina is a diversion.”
Sloan ordered teams redirected.
Then Declan’s phone rang.
Lucia.
He answered.
“Lucia?”
Her voice was barely audible.
“Declan.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you see anything?”
“Water.”
“Pier?”
“I think so.”
“Is Vincent there?”
A pause.
Then Vincent’s voice replaced hers.
“Midnight, Declan.”
Declan stared at the clock.
9:06 p.m.
Vincent continued.
“Bring Patrick.”
“No.”
“If you don’t, Lucia dies.”
Patrick reached for the phone.
Declan stopped him.
Vincent said, “And bring Michael Collins’s daughter.”
Declan’s eyes hardened.
“Absolutely not.”
Sadie looked at him.
Vincent laughed.
“Then I release documents proving Ms. Collins murdered Greg Mercer during a planned theft.”
Sadie froze.
“You have the security footage.”
“Yes.”
“Edited.”
“Editing is such an ugly word.”
Declan’s face became ice.
“If you touch her—”
“There it is.”
Vincent sounded delighted.
“The weakness Patrick never understood.”
“What?”
“You.”
The call ended.
Sadie stared at Declan.
“What did he mean?”
“Nothing.”
Patrick laughed once.
Declan turned.
“What?”
Patrick looked almost amazed.
“You genuinely don’t know.”
“Know what?”
Patrick looked at Sadie.
Then at Declan.
“You spent your whole life thinking attachment makes people vulnerable.”
Declan’s jaw tightened.
Patrick continued.
“But Vincent figured something out before you did.”
“What?”
“The secretary is not your weakness.”
Patrick’s expression softened strangely.
“She’s the reason you finally have something worth losing.”
Sadie’s eyes moved toward Declan.
He did not answer.
He could not.
Because beneath the collapsing company, the arrest warrants, the betrayals, and the brother who had returned from the dead, Declan realized Patrick was right.
For years he had protected an empire.
Tonight he wanted to protect one person.
May you like
And he was beginning to understand those were not the same thing.
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