Chapter 6 - A Kingdom Without Its King
The men outside Mina’s apartment never entered.
They came close.
Close enough to damage the lock.
Close enough for her security guard to end up with a fractured wrist.
But the sound of police sirens changed everything.
The intruders disappeared down the service stairs before officers reached the floor.
Mina stood in her kitchen afterward, furious.
Not shaking.
Not crying.
Furious.
Gabriel arrived twenty-five minutes later.
“You're moving.”
“No.”
“This is no longer a discussion.”
“This is my home.”
“It was your home. Now it's a known target.”
Mina stared at him.
“You sound exactly like him.”
“Occupational hazard.”
“Where is Octavio?”
“Very angry.”
“He's in an ICU bed.”
“Yes.”
“He can barely stand.”
“Yes.”
“And he’s angry?”
Gabriel looked tired.
“You really don't understand Octavio yet.”
Back at the hospital, Mina discovered he had attempted to get out of bed.
Dr. Ward had nearly sedated him.
Two physical therapists had argued with him.
A respiratory specialist had threatened to resign.
And Octavio, who had been awake less than twenty-four hours after seven months unconscious, was demanding a secure vehicle.
Mina entered Room 1208.
“What are you doing?”
Octavio looked at her.
His expression changed immediately.
Relief.
Only for a second.
Then anger replaced it.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Gabriel said—”
“I know what Gabriel said.”
“You're leaving Chicago.”
“No.”
He stared.
She stared back.
Dr. Ward quietly exited.
Gabriel remained by the door.
Octavio spoke slowly.
“They came to your home.”
“Yes.”
“Because of me.”
“Because of what I know.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“Mina.”
“Octavio.”
Gabriel looked at the ceiling.
Octavio tried sitting straighter.
The effort exhausted him.
Mina adjusted his pillows while still arguing.
“You don't get to wake up from a seven-month coma and reorganize my life.”
“I get to keep you alive.”
“I've managed that for thirty-two years.”
“Last night somebody put a gun to your head.”
“And last night I helped save you.”
His eyes darkened.
“Exactly.”
The room fell quiet.
Mina finally understood.
It wasn't control driving him.
It was guilt.
He believed she had become a target because she had cared for him.
She sat down.
“Listen to me.”
Octavio looked away.
“No. Look at me.”
He did.
“I chose to question that medication order.”
“You didn't choose the gun.”
“No.”
“You didn't choose to become part of this.”
“No.”
“So let me fix it.”
“You can't fix everything.”
His expression became almost bitter.
“That's new information.”
For the first time, Mina saw more than a crime lord.
She saw a man whose entire identity had been built around control.
Control of businesses.
Rooms.
People.
Danger.
For seven months he had controlled nothing.
Now he had awakened into a world where his oldest friend might have betrayed him, his company had changed, his hospital had been infiltrated and a nurse he barely knew was being threatened.
“You need to know what happened while you were gone,” Mina said.
“I will.”
“No. I mean everything.”
Gabriel placed a tablet on the bed.
Rain Consolidated had changed dramatically.
Victor had sold two subsidiaries.
He had moved corporate headquarters.
Three executives loyal to Octavio had resigned.
One had disappeared.
A port-services company had been acquired by an offshore holding group.
Security contracts had changed.
And millions had moved through accounts that had never existed before the crash.
Octavio scrolled slowly.
His hands trembled.
Not from fear.
From weakness.
“Black Harbor Logistics,” he said.
Gabriel nodded.
“Formed two months after the crash.”
“Who owns it?”
“Shell companies.”
Octavio looked at Mina.
“This is why.”
“Why what?”
“The attack.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
Octavio struggled to recall.
“Night of crash. Meeting.”
“With whom?”
“Federal contractor.”
Gabriel’s eyebrows lifted.
“You never told me that.”
“Couldn't.”
“Why?”
Octavio stared at the financial records.
“I found money disappearing.”
“From Rain Consolidated?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
Mina noticed his breathing changing.
“Slowly.”
Octavio continued.
“Someone used shipping contracts. Construction invoices. Ghost vendors.”
Victor had controlled operations.
Mina asked the obvious question.
“Did you suspect Victor?”
Octavio closed his eyes.
“No.”
“Who did you suspect?”
“My CFO.”
“Where is he now?”
Gabriel answered.
“Daniel Kessler disappeared the week after your crash.”
Mina felt the room shift.
“Disappeared?”
“Car found at O’Hare. No Daniel.”
Octavio whispered,
“He called me that night.”
“What did he say?”
Octavio struggled.
“Proof.”
Gabriel leaned closer.
“He had proof?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Octavio shook his head.
“Can't remember.”
A knock sounded.
One of Gabriel’s men entered.
He handed Gabriel an envelope.
“No return address. Delivered downstairs.”
Gabriel inspected it before opening.
Inside was a photograph.
Daniel Kessler.
Alive.
Standing beside a window.
Holding a newspaper dated three days earlier.
On the back were six words.
HE REMEMBERS WHERE THE LEDGER IS.
Octavio stared.
Mina looked at Gabriel.
“Who sent this?”
“No idea.”
Octavio’s face changed.
Another fragment of memory had surfaced.
“Ledger,” he said.
“What ledger?”
He looked toward Mina.
“The thing Victor took.”
“The flash drive?”
Octavio shook his head.
“No.”
Then his eyes widened.
“Not a flash drive.”
Mina remembered Lauren’s description.
Small object removed from his coat.
She had assumed flash drive.
“What was it?”
Octavio whispered,
“A key.”
“To what?”
He looked at the photograph of Daniel Kessler.
“A storage vault.”
Gabriel exhaled.
“Where?”
Octavio looked toward Chicago.
“That's the part I can't remember.”
But someone believed he could.
And if Daniel Kessler was still alive after seven months, then the conspiracy was keeping him alive for one reason.
They needed Octavio Rain to remember where he had hidden the evidence.
And Mina suddenly understood something terrifying.
The syringe had not necessarily been meant to kill him.
It might have been meant to silence him only after someone discovered what he remembered.
The failed assassination inside Room 1208 was only one move in a much larger game.
A game Octavio had started before the crash.
May you like
And the next clue was buried somewhere inside a memory his damaged brain had not yet given back.
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