Chapter 16 - Lucas Had One Final Card to Play
The estate locked down.
Guests were moved to interior rooms.
Roadblocks activated.
Helicopters searched the surrounding hills.
Lucas had escaped during a staged collision involving his prison transport.
Two guards injured.
No deaths.
Someone had helped him.
The Mercer network was collapsing but not gone.
Lucas had one final card.
S-17.
The antique desk.
Federal investigators found the Geneva vault after his cooperation session.
Empty.
Lucas had lied.
Of course.
He never gave away his only leverage.
At 1:14 a.m., he called me.
This time everyone listened.
“Hi, wife.”
His voice was breathless.
“Where are you?”
“You sound worried.”
“Lucas.”
“I watched the gala.”
Of course.
Alexander's stream had leaked online before authorities shut it down.
“You looked beautiful.”
“You're running out of road.”
He laughed.
“I have S-17.”
Dad closed his eyes.
There it was.
“What do you want?”
“A car.”
“No.”
“Ten million dollars.”
“No.”
“Private jet.”
“No.”
Lucas's tone changed.
“You don't negotiate well.”
“You tried to kill me. We're past negotiation.”
“I also have someone.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
A second voice came through the line.
Rebecca.
“I'm sorry.”
My blood ran cold.
Lucas had taken her.
“How?”
“Doesn't matter.”
“Let her go.”
“Meet me.”
“Where?”
Dad shook his head violently.
Agent Kim wrote: KEEP HIM TALKING.
Lucas gave an address.
An abandoned marina twenty miles north.
“Come alone.”
“No.”
“Then Rebecca goes back into the ocean.”
The line ended.
Everyone objected.
Again.
I was getting tired of rooms full of people telling me not to go places.
But this time I agreed.
I would not walk alone into Lucas's trap.
Instead, we created another.
The marina sat beneath fog.
Old warehouses.
Empty docks.
Federal teams surrounded it invisibly.
I wore a wire.
Elena moved through the water in a tactical dive suit.
Agent Kim positioned snipers.
Dad stayed in command vehicle under protest.
I walked toward Warehouse Three.
Door open.
Lucas stood inside.
Rebecca tied to a chair.
Alive.
Lucas looked exhausted.
Dirty.
Bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow.
He held no visible weapon.
A metal case sat beside him.
“S-17?” I asked.
He kicked the case.
“Maybe.”
“Let Rebecca go.”
“You first.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come inside.”
I stepped in.
“Close the door.”
I didn't.
Lucas laughed.
“You really have changed.”
“You tried to murder the old version.”
His expression flickered.
Almost regret.
Almost.
“I didn't want it to become this.”
“You chose every step.”
“Did I?”
“Yes.”
“My father raised me inside Mercer.”
“You were an adult when you drugged me.”
“Yes.”
“You were an adult when you planned my parents' deaths.”
“I never planned to kill them.”
“You said it.”
“I said what Roderick needed to hear.”
“Why?”
“To make him think I was committed.”
“For what?”
“Getting S-17 before Alexander did.”
I stared.
“You expect me to believe you were secretly fighting Mercer?”
“No.”
He smiled bitterly.
“I was trying to steal from them.”
That I believed.
“I wanted the index. The accounts. The leverage.”
“Then disappear with Sabrina?”
He laughed.
“Sabrina talks too much.”
“You promised her.”
“I promised everyone everything.”
At least he finally understood himself.
“Rebecca?”
“She was supposed to stay hidden.”
Rebecca glared at him.
“You pushed me into the ocean.”
Lucas shrugged.
“You survived.”
Rage flashed through me.
“Open the case.”
Lucas did.
Inside was a small metal box.
Old.
Scratched.
S-17 printed on the side.
My grandfather's package.
“Hand it over.”
“Money first.”
“You have no route out.”
“I do.”
Then I heard engines outside.
A boat.
Fast.
Someone was coming.
Not federal.
Lucas smiled.
“My ride.”
Agent Kim's voice whispered through my earpiece.
UNKNOWN VESSEL APPROACHING.
Lucas pulled a gun.
“Now we negotiate.”
I froze.
Federal teams prepared to enter.
Lucas grabbed the case.
“Tell them to stay back.”
“I can't.”
“You're wired.”
Of course he knew.
He stepped closer.
“Tell them.”
I whispered, “Stay back.”
Kim heard.
Lucas smiled.
“Good girl.”
I hated those words.
The boat reached the dock.
A woman stepped inside.
Vanessa.
My jaw dropped.
She wasn't in custody.
“How?”
Vanessa looked at Lucas.
“You always were predictable.”
Lucas pointed the gun at her.
“You set me up.”
“Yes.”
“Alexander?”
“Finished.”
“I know.”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Rebecca?”
“Alive.”
Rebecca stared.
“You used me again.”
Vanessa's face softened.
“I know.”
Lucas shouted.
“Enough!”
He held the gun toward me.
“Boat. Now.”
Vanessa raised her hands.
“You don't want S-17.”
Lucas laughed.
“That's the only thing I want.”
“No.”
She looked at the metal case.
“You want what's inside.”
“Same thing.”
“It isn't the index.”
Silence.
Lucas opened the box.
Inside were letters.
Photographs.
A cassette tape.
No account ledger.
His face collapsed.
“What is this?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Samuel Bennett was smarter than all of you.”
My grandfather had removed the financial index years ago.
S-17 contained evidence explaining where the real index had gone.
Lucas tore through papers.
Then stopped.
He held up one envelope.
My name written across it.
Not my mother's.
Mine.
The handwriting was my grandfather's.
FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER, WHEN SHE IS OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW WHY.
My hands trembled.
Lucas stared at me.
Then at the letter.
Something changed in his face.
He lifted the gun.
“If I can't have it—”
A shot cracked.
Lucas collapsed.
The gun skidded across the floor.
No one had shot him.
Rebecca had.
She had slipped one hand free from the restraints and grabbed a small backup weapon Lucas had left within reach on a table.
He was alive.
Hit in the shoulder.
Federal agents stormed in.
Lucas screamed as they restrained him.
Rebecca sobbed.
Vanessa dropped to her knees.
I stood staring at the letter.
Everything had led to this.
My grandfather.
Mercer.
My marriage.
The murders.
Thirty years of secrets.
I opened the envelope.
The first sentence changed everything again.
May you like
IF YOU ARE READING THIS, DANIEL HAS FAILED TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH ABOUT WHO YOU REALLY ARE.
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