Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN WHO RETURNED
Lucas could not move.
Grace stood less than ten feet away.
Older.
Thinner.
Scarred.
Alive.
For three years, he had imagined her beneath dark water. He had dreamed of finding her on the riverbank, waking in a hospital, walking through the front doors of their home.
In none of those dreams had she pointed a gun at Adrian.
“Put it down,” Lucas said.
Grace kept the pistol steady.
“Step away from him.”
“Grace.”
“Lucas, please.”
Her voice was the same.
That made everything worse.
Adrian slowly raised his hands.
“I came alone.”
“No,” Grace said. “You brought them.”
“I didn’t.”
“You always bring them.”
Lucas moved between the gun and his brother.
“If you are going to shoot him, you shoot me first.”
Grace’s eyes widened.
“I spent three years trying to keep you alive.”
“By letting me believe you were dead?”
“I had no choice.”
“You had a thousand choices.”
“Not after the bridge.”
“You visited Lily.”
Grace’s face softened.
“She needed to know I hadn’t abandoned her.”
“So did I.”
The words cut through the room.
Grace lowered the pistol slightly.
“I watched you,” she whispered.
“That is not the same as coming home.”
“I couldn’t.”
“You met Vanessa. You contacted Adrian. You sent messages to my mother. Everyone knew pieces of the truth except me.”
“Because you were the only person Reed could not suspect.”
“Reed has been arrested.”
Grace looked toward the corridor.
“Reed is not in control.”
“Who is?”
“The person who gave him orders.”
“Charles Crowe?”
“No.”
“Margaret?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Grace looked at Adrian.
“Ask him what happened at the clinic.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“I woke up alone.”
“You woke up with Edmund Vale sitting beside your bed.”
Lucas stared at them.
“Our father was dead.”
Grace shook her head.
“Edmund’s funeral was eight years ago.”
“The man in the coffin was not Edmund.”
Adrian backed toward the wall.
“I was drugged. I saw someone who looked like him.”
“You called him Father,” Grace said.
“I was confused.”
“You gave him the location of my second safe house.”
“I didn’t know where it was.”
“You followed me.”
Lucas looked from one to the other.
“Enough. Tell me what is happening.”
Grace finally lowered the gun.
“Edmund created a succession plan before his public death. He selected three people who could inherit control of the network.”
“Who?”
“Charles Crowe. Samuel Reed. And one member of the Vale family.”
Lucas’s eyes moved toward Adrian.
Grace nodded.
“Adrian.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“You think I control judges and banks? I could barely control my gambling.”
“That was why Edmund chose you. Debt makes people obedient.”
“He chose Lucas for everything.”
“He chose Lucas to inherit the legitimate company. He chose you for the hidden one.”
Lucas remembered their father’s final years. Edmund had been harsh with Lucas, constantly training him for leadership. With Adrian, he had been dismissive.
Perhaps that dismissal had been another disguise.
Adrian moved toward the door.
“I am leaving.”
Grace raised the pistol again.
“No.”
A red laser appeared on her chest.
Lucas saw it first.
He tackled her as a bullet shattered the window.
Adrian dropped behind the bed frame.
More shots struck the wall.
Grace crawled toward the fireplace and pulled a lever. A section of floor opened, revealing a narrow shaft.
“Down!”
Lucas pushed Adrian toward it.
Grace fired twice through the broken window. A figure on the opposite roof disappeared.
They climbed into the shaft and descended an iron ladder.
At the bottom, a tunnel led beneath the hotel.
Grace moved quickly despite a limp.
“Where does this go?” Lucas asked.
“To the river.”
“Who is shooting at us?”
“Someone who tracked Adrian.”
“I was not followed,” Adrian said.
Grace turned.
“Then explain the device in your shoulder.”
Adrian froze.
“What device?”
“The bullet from three years ago was never removed. It contains a transmitter.”
“That’s impossible.”
“The clinic was part of Edmund’s system.”
Adrian touched his shoulder.
A distant explosion shook the tunnel.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Grace grabbed Lucas’s hand and pulled him forward.
Behind them, the floor collapsed.
They reached a steel door near the riverbank. Grace entered a code, but the lock flashed red.
“Someone changed it.”
Water began pouring into the tunnel through cracks in the wall.
Adrian searched the frame.
“There’s a manual release.”
Another explosion sounded.
The tunnel tilted.
Lucas struck the release with a stone. The door opened, and all three fell onto the muddy riverbank.
Across the water, the ruins of Blackwater Bridge rose through the rain.
Grace looked upstream.
A small boat waited near the reeds.
A man stood inside it.
Even at a distance, Lucas recognized the shape of his father’s shoulders.
The man lifted one hand.
May you like
Then he called across the water:
“Welcome back, son.”
