Chapter 4 - The Last Betrayal
The Vale terminal stood beside the harbor, empty except for rows of shipping containers and a warehouse surrounded by floodlights.
Carter’s decoy team approached the hospital while he and Marcus entered the terminal through a drainage tunnel.
Emma and Lily were supposed to remain with federal agents at the bank.
They did not.
Carter discovered them crouched behind Marcus in the tunnel.
His voice dropped.
“You disobeyed me.”
Emma lifted her chin. “Our parents are inside.”
“You are children.”
“They are our family.”
Carter wanted to order Marcus to take them back.
Then he remembered Lily standing in front of Derek’s gun.
He knelt.
“You stay behind us. You do exactly what I say. If anything happens, you run.”
Lily shook her head. “We don’t run from family.”
Carter almost smiled.
They entered the warehouse through a maintenance door.
Nathan and Rachel were being held in a glass office above the loading floor. Nathan was thin and weak, but conscious. Rachel stood beside him with one arm around his shoulders.
Victor waited below.
He had at least twenty guards.
“You were always stubborn, Carter,” Victor called. “That is why I chose you.”
Carter stepped into the open.
“You didn’t choose me.”
“I created the conditions that made you. Every rival you defeated, every official you purchased, every territory you gained—I allowed it.”
“You poisoned your own son.”
Victor’s expression remained calm.
“Nathan lacked vision.”
A second figure emerged from behind a container.
Derek.
He wore no restraints.
Marcus stared at him. “The police had you.”
Victor smiled. “The police had a man wearing Derek’s jacket. Confusion is easy when the right officers control the room.”
Derek raised his weapon toward Carter.
“This time,” he said, “there will be no alley.”
Emma stepped forward before Carter could stop her.
“Grandfather!”
Victor’s confidence cracked.
“Emma?”
Lily ran to stand beside her sister.
Victor motioned for his guards to lower their weapons.
“Come here, girls.”
Emma looked up at the glass office where her parents were held.
“You told us they abandoned us.”
Victor extended one hand.
“I protected you.”
“You killed Dad.”
“He is alive.”
“You tried to kill him.”
Victor’s voice sharpened. “Come to me.”
Emma reached into her backpack.
Carter prepared to move.
Instead of a weapon, she removed the small video camera from the safe-deposit box.
A red light blinked on its side.
Victor stared at it.
Emma said, “Everything you just said is being sent to the police.”
For the first time, Victor Vale lost control.
“Take it from her!”
The warehouse exploded into motion.
Marcus pulled the twins behind a steel barrier. Carter fired at the overhead lights, plunging half the floor into darkness. Victor’s guards scattered as Carter’s men breached the loading doors.
Derek pursued Carter between the containers.
They met in a narrow passage.
Derek attacked first.
Carter blocked the blow, drove him against the metal wall, and knocked the weapon from his hand.
Derek struck him across the jaw.
“You were going to replace me with Nathan,” he shouted.
Carter understood at last.
Victor had shown Derek forged documents claiming Nathan would return and take control of the empire. Derek had betrayed Carter because he believed he was about to lose the only family he had left.
“You could have asked me,” Carter said.
Derek swung again.
Carter caught his arm.
“Fifteen years, and you believed him instead of me.”
“You never trusted anyone.”
“I trusted you.”
Those three words stopped Derek more effectively than any weapon.
Then a gunshot echoed from the loading floor.
Derek flinched.
Carter knocked him down and ran toward the sound.
Victor had seized Lily.
One arm held her against his chest while a pistol pressed near her shoulder.
Emma stood several feet away, frozen.
“Open the exit,” Victor ordered.
Carter lowered his weapon.
“Let her go.”
Victor backed toward the harbor doors.
“She belongs to me.”
“No,” Nathan’s voice called from above.
Rachel had broken the office window with a chair. Nathan stood beside her, holding the broken frame for support.
“They never belonged to you.”
Victor looked up.
That moment of distraction was enough.
Lily bit his hand.
Victor released her.
Carter crossed the distance before Victor could aim again. He struck the weapon aside and forced the old man to the floor.
Police and federal agents flooded the warehouse.
Victor stared up at Carter.
“You think this changes what you are?”
May you like
Carter looked toward Nathan, Rachel, Emma, and Lily.
“No,” he said. “But they do.”
