Chapter 11 - Dawson’s Last Bargain
They reached the cemetery before sunrise.
Louis brought security.
Corrine insisted on coming.
His father’s mausoleum stood beneath ancient trees.
Behind it, beneath a loose stone, they found a metal box.
Inside were financial records.
Photographs.
A recorder.
And enough evidence to destroy Victor Sloane.
Louis stared at it.
His mother had beaten Victor from the grave.
Then Corrine’s phone rang.
Dawson.
Louis reached for it.
Corrine stopped him.
“My choice.”
He nodded.
She answered.
“What?”
Dawson sounded desperate.
“Corrine, listen to me.”
“I listened for two years.”
“Victor’s going to kill me.”
“That sounds like your problem.”
“He’ll kill you too.”
Louis watched her.
Dawson continued.
“I can give you Sloane.”
Corrine’s expression changed.
“How?”
“I know where he is.”
“What do you want?”
“Protection.”
Corrine almost laughed.
“You want Louis to protect you?”
“I want to live.”
For several seconds, Corrine said nothing.
Then she looked at Louis.
He didn’t tell her what to choose.
That mattered.
“Send the location,” she said.
Dawson did.
An abandoned hotel on the river.
Louis immediately recognized the trap.
“He wants us there.”
“Yes.”
“You’re staying behind.”
Corrine raised an eyebrow.
Louis corrected himself.
“I would strongly prefer you stayed behind.”
“Better.”
“Will you?”
“No.”
Louis sighed.
They drove toward the river.
But when they arrived, Dawson was waiting alone.
Blood stained his shirt.
He collapsed before reaching them.
Corrine instinctively moved forward.
Louis stopped her.
Dawson looked up.
“He knows about the box.”
Louis froze.
“How?”
Dawson laughed weakly.
“Because your mother wasn’t the only person who knew.”
Then a red laser appeared on Corrine’s chest.
Louis saw it.
“DOWN!”
He threw her behind a concrete barrier.
A gunshot cracked across the river.
May you like
Dawson fell.
And from somewhere inside the abandoned hotel, Victor Sloane finally stepped out of the shadows.
