Chapter 10 - The Declaration of War
The taillights of the town cars faded into the gray curtain of the rain,
leaving the estate in an uneasy,
reverberating silence.
Frank lowered the shotgun,
his face unreadable as he watched the wrought-iron gates close automatically at the foot of the hill.
“He’ll go to Vance,”
Frank said quietly,
turning to me.
“Raymond is desperate now.
When a cornered dog realizes his teeth can’t reach your throat,
he hires a rat to chew through the floorboards.”
“I know,”
I said.
I turned my chair to face Megan.
She was still standing in the cold air,
her sweater damp around the shoulders,
holding Noah with a grip so fierce the child was beginning to squirm against her ribs.
She wasn’t crying anymore.
Her jaw was set,
her chin held high,
her eyes shining with the savage,
uncompromising resolve of a mother who had just stared down the executioner of her child’s father.
“You lied to him,”
Megan said,
her voice steady as stone.
“About what?”
“You don’t have Julian’s journals.
Julian never wrote anything down.
He was too afraid Raymond would find them.”
A tiny,
faint ghost of a smile touched the corner of my lips.
“A good general doesn’t need real ammunition if the enemy believes the cannon is already aimed at his chest.”
Megan looked down at Noah,
running her thumb across the crescent mark above his brow.
“Is it true?”
she asked,
her voice softening into something raw and fragile.
“Julian was your son?”
“Yes,”
I said.
“My first and only child.
Conceived when I was seventeen,
taken from me by my father before I could even hold him.
I spent twenty-two years believing he died hating me.
I spent twenty-two years building this empire out of pure,
unfiltered spite because I had nothing else left to live for.”
She stepped closer,
stopping right beside my chair,
her gaze searching my face,
stripping away the cold,
ruthless reputation of Dominic Mason until there was only an injured man sitting in a titanium frame.
“Then Noah is your grandson,”
she whispered.
“He is my blood,”
I replied,
looking directly into the toddler’s eyes.
“He is the rightful heir to every square foot of land,
every shipping container,
and every dollar that bears the Mason name.
And as long as there is air in my lungs,
no man in this city will touch either of you.”
The front door opened again.
Nancy stepped onto the portico,
holding a cordless telephone with a trembling hand.
“Mr. Mason,”
she said,
her voice tight with panic.
“The Fulton County annex just called your private office.”
I looked at her sharply.
“What happened?”
“Tyler Vance was released early,”
Nancy whispered,
her eyes darting toward Megan.
“An administrative error,
they claimed.
His bail was posted by a blind trust two hours ago.
He left the facility in an unmarked black sedan.”
Megan’s breath caught in her throat.
Her body stiffened,
a look of pure dread flashing across her features.
“Raymond bought him out,”
she said,
her voice cracking.
“He bought Tyler to come after Noah.”
I reached up and took Megan’s cold,
trembling hand into mine,
the exact same way she had held my hand while the fever burned through my veins before dawn.
“Let him come,”
I said,
my voice echoing into the gathering storm with the finality of an iron gavel.
May you like
“Tyler Vance thinks he’s coming to collect a debt from a defenseless woman.
He’s about to find out that the woman has an army.”
