Chapter 6 - The Box
The deposit box contained no money.
It contained Victor Langford's destruction.
Ledgers.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Recorded conversations.
And a handwritten letter from Jackson's father.
Jackson read it twice.
His father had discovered a network of financial crimes involving Victor and several executives.
But one paragraph mattered more than everything else.
If you are reading this, Victor has probably already tried to silence me. Trust evidence, not appearances. And trust the person willing to risk everything when she has nothing to gain.
Jackson looked at Emily.
She had nothing to gain.
She had lost everything.
He took her hand.
“I believe you.”
Emily's composure finally broke.
For three years she had lived expecting death.
Those three words freed something inside her.
But Victor wasn't finished.
When they returned outside, Marcus was waiting.
His shirt was torn.
Blood marked his forehead.
“Victor knows about the box.”
“How?”
Marcus looked toward Evelyn.
“There's a tracker in Jackson's phone.”
Jackson destroyed it immediately.
Too late.
A vehicle appeared at the end of the road.
Then another.
Marcus said, “Move.”
They escaped through the rear property.
Evelyn went with security while Jackson, Emily, and Marcus carried the evidence.
The next objective was simple.
Get it to federal investigators.
But Victor had spent decades preparing for exactly that possibility.
By afternoon, news channels were reporting that Jackson Reed was wanted for questioning regarding financial fraud at his own company.
Victor had moved first.
He was framing Jackson.
Emily watched the television.
“He's turning everyone against you.”
Jackson almost laughed.
“He already did that three years ago.”
Then his phone—Marcus's backup phone—rang.
Victor.
Jackson answered.
“You're running out of tricks.”
Victor replied calmly.
“No, Jackson. You're running out of people.”
A photograph arrived.
Evelyn.
Victor's men had intercepted her convoy.
Jackson stared at the screen.
Victor spoke.
“Bring me the evidence.”
“Where?”
“The place where this began.”
Jackson knew immediately.
The highway.
The crash site.
Midnight.
Emily grabbed his arm.
“You can't.”
Jackson looked at the photograph of his mother.
“I have to.”
“No.”
Emily stepped in front of him.
“That's what he wants. You alone, frightened, making decisions because someone you love is in danger.”
Jackson stared at her.
She knew because Victor had done exactly that to her.
Marcus spread the documents across the table.
“Then we don't play by Victor's rules.”
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For the first time, they formed a plan together.
And at midnight, Jackson Reed returned to the place where someone had tried to kill him three years earlier.
