Chapter 4 - UNION STATION
The plan worked.
Almost.
At midnight I entered Union Station carrying a leather folder.
Adrian's people watched from a distance.
Vanessa monitored cameras.
A man approached.
Not a killer.
A teenager.
“Are you Mara?”
“Yes.”
He handed me a phone.
“Walk.”
The voice directed me through the station.
Down stairs.
Across platforms.
Onto a departing train.
Adrian's men were forced to choose between revealing themselves or losing me.
I boarded alone.
The train moved.
A man sat opposite me.
Sixty.
Gray suit.
Gentle face.
I recognized him.
Dr. Samuel Pierce.
Director of the foundation paying Owen's medical bills.
“Hello, Mara.”
My stomach turned.
“You.”
He smiled.
“I've helped keep your brother alive for nine years.”
“You kidnapped him.”
“Those statements can both be true.”
He held out his hand.
“The music.”
I gave him the folder.
He opened it.
Vanessa had created fake financial keys.
Pierce studied them.
Then smiled.
“Thomas taught you well.”
“Where's Owen?”
“Safe.”
“I want him.”
“You'll have him.”
He leaned closer.
“After Adrian Cross is dead.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“Because his father built an empire using people like me, then Adrian started cleaning it.”
“Cleaning?”
“Closing revenue streams. Removing officials. Making legitimate companies legitimate.”
Pierce almost sounded offended.
“Do you know how expensive morality becomes when a criminal discovers it late?”
I realized something.
Adrian was not being targeted because he was expanding his empire.
He was being targeted because he had quietly begun dismantling it.
Pierce stood.
“Tell Cross tomorrow night.”
“What?”
“His life for Owen's.”
He smiled.
“Let's see what the feared man values when the price becomes personal.”
Then he stepped off at the next station.
I looked down.
He had left Owen's hospital bracelet on the seat.
May you like
There was blood on it.
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