Chapter 9 - THE PRICE OF A CHILD
Z
Claire did not remember leaving the bank.
She remembered Marco taking the phone away.
Daniel shouting orders.
SUV doors slamming.
Then she was moving through Manhattan traffic at ninety miles per hour while every terrible possibility played inside her head.
“Call the house.”
“No response,” Daniel said.
“Again.”
“I am.”
“Again!”
Marco reached for Claire’s hand.
She pulled away.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“This happened because of you.”
“Yes.”
The answer stunned her.
No defense.
No excuse.
Marco looked at her.
“This is my war.”
“My daughter is in it.”
“Yes.”
“If anything happens to her—”
“It won’t.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No.”
His voice broke slightly.
“But I can promise I will give everything I have before I let Victor touch her.”
Claire looked out the window because believing him hurt too much.
The safe house had been breached through the eastern service road.
Two guards were injured.
Luca was found unconscious but alive.
Evan was gone.
So was Lily.
Claire entered Lily’s bedroom.
Peanut lay on the floor.
She picked up the stuffed elephant and pressed it against her face.
For one terrible second, she smelled Lily’s shampoo.
Her knees collapsed.
Marco caught her before she hit the floor.
This time she did not push him away.
“I should have taken her home.”
“You couldn’t.”
“I should never have warned you.”
Marco went still.
Claire regretted it immediately.
But grief was cruel.
“I know,” he said.
She looked up.
His face held no anger.
Only pain.
“If you had walked away that night, none of this would have touched you.”
“And you’d be dead.”
“Yes.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Marco crouched beside her.
“I cannot change the fact that you warned me.”
He gently took Peanut from her shaking hands.
“But I can bring Lily home.”
Daniel entered.
“We found footage.”
Claire stood instantly.
A camera had captured a dark SUV leaving the service road.
Evan was driving.
Lily sat in the back.
Alive.
Claire gripped the desk.
“He took her.”
Daniel nodded.
“Victor’s people intercepted them twenty minutes later.”
“So Evan delivered her.”
“We don’t know.”
“I know.”
Claire’s voice became ice.
“He left her once.”
Marco looked at the screen.
“Maybe.”
Claire turned.
“What does that mean?”
“Look at his hands.”
Daniel zoomed in.
Evan’s wrists appeared dark.
Bound?
“He was tied to the wheel?” Claire whispered.
“Looks like zip ties cut loose at the front.”
Marco studied the footage.
“He may not have had a choice.”
Claire hated that possibility because it complicated her anger.
The black phone rang.
Marco answered.
Victor spoke.
“Midnight. Pier 46.”
“You want the ledger?”
“And the drive.”
Marco’s expression didn’t change.
“You release Lily first.”
Victor laughed.
“No.”
“Then no deal.”
Claire grabbed Marco’s arm.
He looked at her.
Victor continued.
“You were always better at business than your father. Try thinking like him now.”
Marco’s eyes turned cold.
“My father would kill everyone you love.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not my father.”
“That’s your weakness.”
Victor hung up.
Claire whispered, “We give him everything.”
Marco looked at her.
“Yes.”
Daniel objected.
“Marco.”
“We give him everything.”
“He’ll destroy the evidence.”
“I don’t care.”
“This takes down his entire network.”
“I said I don’t care.”
Claire stared at Marco.
He had spent his life holding power with both hands.
Now he was willing to burn the only evidence capable of destroying his enemy for a four-year-old girl he had known for two days.
“Why?”
Marco’s gaze found hers.
“Because she gave me Peanut.”
Claire almost broke again.
Daniel prepared duplicate drives without telling Victor.
The original evidence was copied to encrypted servers.
At eleven-twenty, Luca woke.
His first words were not about his injuries.
“The ferry.”
Claire leaned close.
“What?”
“Victor’s father used an old ferry terminal.”
“Where?”
“Red Hook. Pier seventeen.”
Marco frowned.
“Victor said Pier 46.”
Luca shook his head.
“Decoy.”
Claire remembered one of Mara’s recipe codes.
The numbers.
4-6.
She ran to the papers.
One final recipe had not been decoded.
They had assumed it was meaningless.
4-6-17.
Claire worked feverishly.
Page 46.
Line 17.
The words appeared:
WHERE THE FERRY SLEEPS.
She looked at Marco.
“My mother knew.”
Marco grabbed his coat.
“Daniel, send half the team to Pier 46. Quietly.”
“And the rest?”
Marco looked at Claire.
“Red Hook.”
Claire stood.
“You’re not coming,” Marco said.
“Yes, I am.”
“No.”
“She is my daughter.”
“And she needs one parent alive.”
Claire stepped toward him.
“She has one.”
Marco flinched slightly.
Claire softened.
“That’s why I’m going.”
He stared at her for several seconds.
Then handed her a bulletproof vest.
“If I tell you to run—”
“I run.”
“If I tell you to stay—”
“I stay.”
“If I tell you—”
“Marco.”
“Yes?”
“Bring me my daughter.”
May you like
His face hardened into the expression that made entire rooms nervous.
“I will.”
