Chapter 4 - The Blackfin Dock
The cold rain turned into a stinging sleet as we tied off our launch at an abandoned fuel dock two miles south of Blackfin. Owen had stabilized Lily; her color was returning, and her breathing was no longer rattling. I wrapped her in three dry blankets, tucking her into a hidden compartment inside the boat's utility cabin.
"Stay with her," I told Owen, tying his hands together with heavy zip-ties, leaving just enough slack so he could adjust her oxygen valve. "If anything happens to her, you don't leave this boat alive."
"Daniel, wait," Owen pleaded, his voice ragged. "Vanessa... she’s not working alone. There’s a silent partner. Someone who funded her entire buyout of Mercer logistics. Claire found the wire transfers."
"Who?"
"I don't know a name! Claire only called him 'The Architect.' Be careful, Daniel. They aren't just trying to rob you—they’re trying to erase you."
I left the boat, slipping into the black timberline lining the marsh. The smell of diesel and low tide hung thick in the air.
Ahead, through the skeletal trees, the halogen lights of the Blackfin Marina hummed in the mist. A luxury Sikorsky helicopter sat idling on the tarmac, its rotors slowly spinning down.
I crouched behind a rusted shipping container, my shotgun low against my hip.
Fifty feet away, on the private pier, two figures stood under the yellow glare of a sodium floodlight. Vanessa was wrapped in a designer cashmere trench coat, her diamond earrings catching the light. Opposite her stood Grant Cole, clutching Lily’s red canvas backpack.
"Did you get it?" Vanessa snapped. Her voice was sharp, devoid of the soft, doting persona she put on for the Mercer society circles.
"I got the star," Grant said, holding up Claire's silver pendant. "The drive is intact. But Keller screwed up. Daniel pulled the brat out of the water. He took out Keller's boat."
Vanessa didn't even flinch. She let out a low, disgusted scoff. "Daniel always was an annoying Boy Scout. It doesn't matter. Without this drive, Marcus Vance can't file the whistleblower report. And Owen will take care of Lily."
"What about Daniel?" Grant asked, stepping closer. "He knows, Vanessa. He saw your face."
"Daniel is a grieving, unstable father whose daughter suffered a tragic accident," Vanessa purred, a cold, venomous smile spreading across her lips. "By morning, the media will report that he had a psychotic break, attacked his security team, and fled. Keller will hunt him down and put a bullet in his skull."
"And my payment?" Grant demanded, his hand tightening around the pendant. "Five million. Liquid crypto. You promised it the second the drive was in my hands."
Vanessa stepped forward, placing a gentle, seductive hand against Grant’s chest. "Of course, Grant. You did beautifully."
She tilted her head up as if to kiss him.
Then she pulled a suppressed pistol from her coat pocket and shot Grant twice in the center of his chest.
Grant gasped, his eyes bulging in shock. He collapsed backward onto the wooden planks, blood pooling into the cracks.
Vanessa looked down at his twitching body with absolute indifference. She bent over, pried the silver star from his dying fingers, and tossed Lily’s backpack into the black water below.
"Loose ends," she murmured.
She turned toward the helicopter. But as she raised her phone to her ear, she stopped dead in her tracks.
"Daniel?" she said into the phone, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness.
In my pocket, my phone was dead silent. She wasn't calling me.
She was listening to someone else.
"Yes, Julian," Vanessa said softly to the caller. "Grant is dead. The drive is secure. Bring the paperwork to the penthouse. Tomorrow morning, Mercer Global belongs to us."
*Julian.*
May you like
My brother.
***
