Chapter 12 - The Last Loose End
The breach came from inside law enforcement.
That made it dangerous.
We changed locations again.
Ruiz investigated quietly.
Twenty-four hours later, she found the connection.
Marcus Vane.
Our former security chief had a brother.
Ethan.
A police systems contractor.
He had accessed the database.
Why?
Money.
Sloane had created emergency payments for several people in case of arrest.
Ethan was one.
His assignment was simple.
Destroy remaining evidence.
Silence witnesses.
He had my address because I was first on the list.
Rebecca was second.
We reached her in time.
Then Ethan disappeared.
For two days, nothing.
On the third evening, Daniel called.
I had not seen him since the investigation began.
“Someone broke into the yacht.”
“What?”
“The police released part of it back to your father's company for repairs.”
“What did they take?”
“Nothing.”
That made no sense.
Then Daniel said, “They left something.”
We went to the marina with police.
Inside my former honeymoon cabin was a white pill.
One pill.
Placed carefully on my pillow.
A message.
Ruiz examined the room.
“He wants you afraid.”
I looked at the pill.
“No.”
I understood.
“He wants me here.”
The yacht was bait.
Ethan believed fear would make me run.
Instead, I stayed.
Police searched the vessel.
Nothing.
Then Daniel noticed the tender was missing.
Again.
History repeating itself.
We looked toward the water.
A small boat moved toward another pier.
Ethan.
Officers pursued.
He abandoned the boat and ran into the marina warehouse.
Ruiz ordered me to remain behind.
This time I listened.
Ten minutes later, Ethan emerged in handcuffs.
It ended that simply.
No gunfight.
No cliff edge.
No dramatic speech.
Just a frightened man realizing money was not worth dying for.
The final loose end was gone.
When Ruiz returned, she looked exhausted.
“Now,” she said, “I think you can finally sleep.”
I almost laughed.
“I've forgotten how.”
“You'll remember.”
That night I returned home.
My own home.
Not Flynn's.
Not my parents'.
Mine.
I locked the door.
Then deliberately unlocked it.
Fear had turned every locked door into a symbol.
I wanted my house to become a home again.
I sat beside the window.
The ocean was far away.
But I could still hear it in memory.
Flynn's voice.
“One push.”
I closed my eyes.
Then another memory replaced it.
My father's arms around me on the dock.
My mother's hand in mine.
Daniel saying, I know.
People had betrayed me.
People had also saved me.
That mattered.
Spring arrived.
May you like
And with it came the trial.
I had survived the ocean, the drugs and the men who wanted my fortune. Now I had to stand in a courtroom and tell them exactly what they had failed to destroy.
