Chapter 11 - What Titan Refused to Do)
Victor pressed the remote again.
Titan's muscles tightened.
But he did not move.
Victor looked genuinely confused.
For months he had treated fear as certainty.
Press a button.
Create pain.
Control behavior.
Emma had spent less than three days showing Titan something Victor had never understood.
Choice could be stronger.
Victor's thumb pressed the control.
Nothing.
Titan remained beside Emma.
Roman looked at Victor.
"It's over."
Victor laughed.
"No."
He lifted the folder.
"This is the only copy tying Malcolm to Nora."
Grace moved forward.
Victor stepped back.
"I wouldn't."
"Victor."
"You want evidence, Roman?"
He looked directly at him.
"Send everyone out."
Roman shook his head.
"No."
Victor smiled.
"Then your sister dies in an accident forever."
Roman's expression darkened.
Emma watched him.
This was the trap.
Not the building.
Not Titan.
Nora.
Victor believed Roman would sacrifice everything for certainty about his sister.
Roman surprised him.
"Keep it."
Victor stared.
Roman repeated.
"Keep the folder."
"What?"
"Nora left enough."
Victor's smile disappeared.
Roman stepped forward.
"She left financial records. Vehicle logs. photographs. Her recording. Malcolm's route. Your payments."
"Not enough for murder."
"Maybe not."
Roman looked at Emma.
Then Titan.
"She told me not to destroy myself chasing the first person I blamed."
Victor's eyes narrowed.
Roman continued.
"So I'm done letting you choose the game."
For the first time, Victor looked uncertain.
Grace moved closer.
Victor backed toward a side door.
Then he raised the remote.
Not toward Titan.
Toward the wall.
Emma saw a second button.
"Roman!"
Victor pressed it.
A metal alarm screamed.
Smoke poured from vents.
Emergency shutters began opening.
Victor ran.
Grace chased him.
Elias followed.
Roman started after them.
Titan barked.
Emma looked down.
Titan was not looking at Victor.
He was looking at the folder on the floor.
Victor had dropped it.
Emma grabbed it.
Inside were bank records.
Emails.
A mechanic's confession.
And one audio transcript.
Malcolm Voss authorizing the sabotage of Nora's vehicle.
Roman stared at the page.
He finally had it.
The truth.
Outside, Victor reached the shipyard pier.
Grace shouted for him to stop.
Victor climbed over a barrier toward an old service boat.
Elias blocked the dock.
Victor turned.
Roman emerged from the building.
For several seconds the two men faced each other.
Victor looked exhausted.
"You should have listened to Nora."
Roman's voice was quiet.
"Yes."
Victor almost smiled.
"She was smarter than you."
"Yes."
That answer angered Victor.
"You think admitting that makes you noble?"
"No."
Roman walked closer.
"It makes her right."
Grace approached.
Victor glanced toward the water.
Then at the boat.
Then at Titan.
The Cane Corso stood beside Emma twenty feet away.
Victor raised the remote again.
Emma's heart stopped.
"Don't."
Victor pressed the button repeatedly.
Titan growled.
But instead of attacking Roman, he stepped in front of Emma.
A barrier.
Protection.
His choice.
Victor stared.
Roman looked at him.
"Looks like he made his choice."
Victor's face collapsed.
Not with fear.
With defeat.
Grace ordered him to drop the remote.
This time he did.
It struck the concrete.
Elias kicked it away.
Grace placed Victor in restraints.
Roman did not touch him.
He did not strike him.
He did not shout.
He simply stood beside the man who had hidden the truth about his sister for three years and asked one final question.
"Why did you protect Malcolm?"
Victor looked at him.
"Money at first."
Roman waited.
"Then fear."
Victor glanced toward Titan.
"Funny thing about fear."
Emma knew what he was going to say.
"After a while, you forget there was ever another choice."
Emma looked down at Titan.
"No."
Victor turned toward her.
She rested a hand on Titan's back.
"You forgot."
Victor was taken away.
Roman remained on the pier after everyone else began moving.
Emma approached.
He held Nora's evidence folder.
"You got the answer."
Roman stared at the water.
"No."
Emma waited.
"I got facts."
He looked at her.
"I don't think answers are the same thing."
Emma nodded.
"No."
Roman looked at Titan.
"But maybe they're enough."
Titan walked over.
He sat directly on Roman's foot.
Emma laughed.
Roman looked down.
"Seriously?"
Emma smiled.
"He does that when he's decided you're staying."
Roman looked at her.
"And if I don't want to?"
"Then you're about to learn how heavy one hundred and thirty pounds can be."
For the first time Emma heard Roman Calder laugh.
Not politely.
Not briefly.
May you like
Really laugh.
Titan leaned harder against his leg.
