Chương 10 - The Night of the Exchange
Victor chose an unfinished skyscraper owned by Sterling & Vance.
Midnight.
Forty-third floor.
No cameras.
No witnesses.
Ivan and Jessi arrived with a duplicate drive.
Victor stood near the windows.
Adrian sat tied to a chair.
Alive.
Victor smiled.
“My favorite niece.”
“Let him go.”
“The drive.”
Jessi held it up.
Victor laughed.
“You always were your father's daughter.”
“And you always hated that.”
His smile vanished.
Victor admitted enough to expose himself but carefully avoided confessing to murder.
Ivan kept him talking.
Laura.
The contractor.
The accidents.
Victor's arrogance did the rest.
“You think your wife discovered something special?” Victor asked Ivan. “She discovered numbers.”
Ivan's fists tightened.
“Numbers people were willing to kill for?”
Victor smiled.
Jessi saw Ivan preparing to move.
She quietly shook her head.
Don't.
They needed more.
Victor stepped closer.
“Your father was weak,” he told Jessi. “He gave you an empire because you reminded him of himself.”
“He gave it to me because you couldn't be trusted.”
Victor's face changed.
There.
The real wound.
Then Adrian shouted.
“Behind you!”
A second man emerged.
Jessi's attorney.
Thomas Vale.
The third person she had trusted.
He held a gun.
Victor laughed.
“Blood isn't loyalty, Jessica.”
Thomas aimed at Ivan.
Everything happened at once.
Adrian threw himself sideways.
Ivan tackled Jessi.
A shot rang out.
Then police flooded the floor.
Marcus had tracked them.
Victor tried escaping.
He didn't make it.
Thomas surrendered.
Adrian survived.
And Ivan finally believed the nightmare might be ending.
Then an officer approached.
“Mr. Mercer?”
“Yes?”
“We found something in Mr. Vale's vehicle.”
A sealed evidence bag.
Inside was Laura's missing wedding ring.
Ivan stopped breathing.
May you like
Thomas hadn't merely known about Laura's death.
He had been there.
