Chapter 9 - The Enemy Inside Graves Tower
Daniel placed his gun on the kitchen table.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Then he stepped backward.
“If you think it's me, say it.”
Nathaniel stared at him.
Twenty-two years of friendship stood between them.
Boarding school fights.
Funerals.
Business wars.
Blood.
Daniel had saved Nathaniel's life twice.
Nathaniel had carried Daniel after a shooting twelve years earlier.
Men like them didn't use the word brother easily.
But Daniel had been one.
Claire watched both men.
Ruby stood behind her.
Samuel remained seated.
Nathaniel finally spoke.
“Did you have access to the security override when Ruby disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“Could you have frozen the cameras?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Can you prove that?”
“No.”
Nathaniel's eyes hardened.
Daniel added, “But someone wants you looking at me.”
“Maybe.”
“Think.”
“I am.”
“Who benefits?”
Nathaniel's voice rose.
“Someone took my daughter from my building!”
Daniel didn't flinch.
“And returned her.”
“Dominic returned her.”
“Why?”
Nobody knew.
Daniel continued.
“He wanted you frightened, not grieving.”
Samuel nodded.
“Dominic has rules.”
Nathaniel looked at him.
“So do I. Apparently that isn't enough to make someone good.”
Samuel accepted the criticism.
Ruby pulled Claire's sleeve.
“Can I say something?”
Claire whispered, “Maybe later.”
“No.”
Nathaniel looked toward her.
“What?”
Ruby pointed toward Daniel.
“He didn't take me.”
Everyone froze.
Daniel stared.
“How do you know?”
“I saw the man.”
Nathaniel crouched.
“You said they wore masks.”
“Most did.”
“Most?”
Ruby nodded.
“The man who opened the stair door didn't.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“What did he look like?”
“Old.”
Samuel frowned.
“How old?”
“Older than Mom.”
Claire sighed.
“That's not difficult.”
Ruby thought.
“Gray hair. Glasses.”
Nathaniel's heart accelerated.
“Anything else?”
“He smelled like peppermint.”
Samuel went still.
Nathaniel noticed.
“What?”
Samuel slowly stood.
“Arthur.”
Nathaniel stared.
“Arthur Voss?”
Daniel cursed.
Claire asked, “Who?”
Nathaniel looked toward her.
“My father's accountant.”
“Still works for you?”
Samuel answered.
“Chief financial officer.”
Nathaniel's mind raced.
Arthur Voss.
Sixty-three.
Quiet.
Meticulous.
Had worked in Graves Tower since construction.
Access to executive floors.
Financial systems.
Corporate property records.
Harper Court.
The trust.
Everything.
Nathaniel whispered, “Peppermint.”
Daniel nodded.
Arthur constantly carried peppermint lozenges.
Nathaniel stood.
“Graves Tower.”
Daniel grabbed his weapon.
“I'll get teams.”
“No.”
Daniel stared.
Nathaniel continued.
“If Voss knows we're coming, he'll disappear.”
Samuel said, “He may already know.”
Nathaniel looked toward Ruby.
They couldn't leave her at Harper Court.
Not anymore.
Claire read his thoughts.
“No tower.”
“I wasn't going to suggest it.”
“Where?”
Samuel answered.
“Evelyn's house.”
Nathaniel's face changed.
His mother's estate had remained empty since her death.
Security there operated independently.
Few people knew it remained maintained.
Claire nodded.
“Ruby and I go there.”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“You remember?”
Claire's eyes softened.
“I was there once.”
Nathaniel didn't ask when.
Another memory stolen from him.
He didn't have time to mourn it.
An hour later, Nathaniel entered Graves Tower through the underground service level with Daniel and two trusted men.
No announcement.
No security alert.
Arthur Voss's office was on the forty-second floor.
Nathaniel took the private stairs.
They reached the corridor.
Empty.
Arthur's door was open.
Nathaniel entered.
Arthur sat calmly behind his desk.
Gray suit.
Silver glasses.
Peppermint wrapper beside his hand.
He smiled.
“I wondered how long the child would remember.”
Nathaniel raised his weapon.
“Stand up.”
Arthur didn't.
“You resemble Malcolm when you're angry.”
“Everyone seems interested in telling me that lately.”
“Perhaps because it's true.”
Daniel searched the room.
“No devices.”
Arthur laughed.
“Daniel. Loyal to the end.”
Daniel aimed at him.
“Try me.”
Arthur looked at Nathaniel.
“You have questions.”
“Why Ruby?”
“Because she changes everything.”
“The trust?”
“Partly.”
“Dominic?”
Arthur's smile faded.
“A complication.”
“You used him.”
“He was angry. Angry men are predictable.”
Nathaniel stepped closer.
“You ordered Adrian Rane's death.”
Arthur didn't deny it.
“My father?”
“Authorized contingencies. I executed them.”
“After he died.”
“Malcolm believed an empire required continuity.”
Nathaniel's jaw tightened.
“And when I changed things?”
“You weakened them.”
“I stopped trafficking.”
“You surrendered revenue.”
“I shut down political bribery.”
“You surrendered influence.”
“I removed men who hurt civilians.”
“You surrendered fear.”
Nathaniel stared at him.
Arthur genuinely believed this.
Not greed.
Not revenge.
Ideology.
He had spent decades serving the Graves machine and considered Nathaniel's reforms betrayal.
Arthur continued.
“Then I discovered Ruby.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
Nathaniel's pulse stopped.
“You knew for three years?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Evelyn made one error.”
“What?”
“She paid a pediatric dentist with an account I monitored.”
Nathaniel felt sick.
“You watched my daughter for three years.”
“I watched your heir.”
“She is not an asset.”
“To you, perhaps.”
Nathaniel moved so fast Daniel almost couldn't stop him.
Arthur remained seated.
“Kill me,” he said calmly. “Show everyone Malcolm Graves still lives inside you.”
Nathaniel's fist trembled.
Ruby's voice entered his mind.
Maybe everybody should stop holding the lies up.
He stepped backward.
“No.”
Arthur looked disappointed.
Nathaniel said, “You're going to prison.”
Arthur laughed.
“With what evidence?”
Samuel entered behind them.
“With mine.”
Arthur's face finally changed.
Samuel held up the flash drive from Evelyn's safe.
“We decrypted it.”
Arthur stood.
For the first time, fear appeared.
“You don't know what you're holding.”
Samuel smiled coldly.
“I drafted half the transactions.”
Arthur moved toward the desk drawer.
Daniel aimed.
“Don't.”
Arthur froze.
Nathaniel approached.
“Where is Dominic?”
Arthur smiled again.
“You think this ends with me?”
“Where?”
“He has no reason to trust you.”
“I don't need his trust.”
“You will.”
“Why?”
Arthur's smile widened.
“Because Dominic has the only copy of Malcolm's final ledger.”
Samuel's expression changed.
Nathaniel noticed.
“What is that?”
Samuel spoke slowly.
“A complete record.”
“Of?”
“Everything.”
Arthur nodded.
“Judges. Officers. Businesses. Kill orders. Shell corporations.”
Daniel said, “That could destroy half the old organization.”
“Exactly,” Arthur said.
Nathaniel frowned.
“Why would Dominic have it?”
“I gave it to him.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
Nathaniel stared.
“You were planning to destroy me.”
“No.”
Arthur adjusted his glasses.
“I was planning to restore you.”
Nathaniel almost laughed.
Arthur continued.
“Once the city saw what happened when you weakened your father's system, you would have no choice but to become what you were born to be.”
Nathaniel's face hardened.
“And Ruby?”
“An incentive.”
Nathaniel had to physically stop himself from crossing the room.
Arthur said, “She is Malcolm's granddaughter.”
“She is Claire's daughter.”
The answer surprised even Nathaniel.
Arthur's eyes narrowed.
Nathaniel continued.
“And she is herself.”
Samuel looked almost proud.
Arthur sneered.
“You think that makes you different?”
“I think what I do next will.”
Nathaniel lowered his weapon.
“Daniel. Call federal investigators.”
Daniel stared.
Nathaniel had always handled internal betrayal internally.
Nathaniel looked at him.
“You heard me.”
Daniel nodded.
Arthur laughed.
“You'll expose yourself.”
“Yes.”
“Your father.”
“Yes.”
“Your companies.”
“If necessary.”
Arthur's smile disappeared.
“You'll burn the Graves name.”
Nathaniel thought about Ruby returning nine hundred dollars.
Maybe some things deserved burning.
“Then it burns.”
Arthur suddenly lunged toward his desk.
Daniel moved.
A gunshot cracked.
Claire, miles away at Evelyn's old home, heard nothing.
Ruby was eating pancakes in a kitchen Nathaniel had played in as a child.
She looked toward the window.
A black vehicle had stopped beyond the gate.
Claire noticed.
She immediately grabbed Ruby.
“Upstairs.”
“What?”
“Now.”
The intercom rang.
Claire approached cautiously.
A camera showed Victor Hale.
His face bruised.
One arm bandaged.
Claire pressed the button.
“What happened?”
Victor looked directly into the camera.
“Open the gate.”
“Why?”
“Because Arthur Voss isn't working alone.”
Claire's stomach dropped.
“Who?”
Victor looked over his shoulder.
“We don't have time.”
The camera feed cut.
Then the house alarm began screaming.
Ruby ran back downstairs.
“Mom!”
Claire turned.
The rear glass door shattered.
A man stepped inside.
Claire shielded Ruby.
He removed his hood.
Dominic Rane.
A scar crossed his left cheek.
Claire froze.
Ruby recognized him.
“You're the man from the car.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Yes.”
Claire grabbed a kitchen knife.
“If you touch her—”
“I didn't come for her.”
“Then why are you here?”
Dominic's expression was grim.
“To save her father.”
Claire stared.
And back at Graves Tower, Nathaniel looked down at the blood spreading across the carpet.
May you like
The bullet had not struck Arthur Voss.
It had struck Daniel Mercer.
