Chapter 8 - The Woman the Raven Club Feared
The evidence destroyed the Raven Club.
Within forty-eight hours, arrests began.
Judges resigned.
Bank accounts were frozen.
Businesses collapsed.
Politicians denied everything.
But one person remained missing.
The club's leader.
A woman named Evelyn Vale.
Margaret's daughter.
Elias had never heard her name.
Nakia had.
The memory returned suddenly.
She was the woman standing beside her father in the photograph.
Evelyn had been Daniel's partner.
She had betrayed him.
And she was alive.
She kidnapped Nakia three days later.
Elias received a call.
"Come alone."
He ignored the instruction.
He brought fifty men.
Evelyn laughed when she saw them.
"Still hiding behind armies, Elias?"
"Where is she?"
"Nakia is safe."
"You have five seconds."
"You still sound like Gabriel."
Elias tightened his jaw.
Evelyn continued.
"The girl was always the key."
"What do you want?"
"Control."
"You don't have it."
"Not yet."
Evelyn revealed the final truth.
Daniel had not simply hidden evidence.
He had hidden access to a fortune.
Money accumulated by the Raven Club over decades.
Hundreds of millions.
Enough to rebuild the organization.
The brass key could access it.
Evelyn wanted Nakia's cooperation.
Nakia refused.
She was tied to a chair but still smiling.
"You know what's funny?"
Evelyn frowned.
"What?"
"You kidnapped the wrong woman."
Evelyn stepped closer.
Nakia looked into her eyes.
"You assumed I was scared because I'm a maid."
Evelyn smiled.
"You are a maid."
"No."
Nakia's expression changed.
"I'm the daughter of Daniel King."
She kicked the chair sideways.
The restraints loosened.
She grabbed the hidden pin she'd kept in her hair.
Seconds later, she was free.
Elias entered.
Gunfire erupted.
He moved between Nakia and the shooters.
Marcus eliminated the remaining guards.
Evelyn escaped through a tunnel.
But she left one final message.
YOU CAN'T ESCAPE WHAT YOUR FATHER BUILT.
Elias looked at Nakia.
"She's wrong."
"How?"
"Because I don't intend to keep it."
They found the financial accounts.
Elias transferred the legitimate money into a foundation.
The rest went to victims.
People whose lives had been destroyed by the empire.
It was the first clean decision Elias had made in years.
Nakia watched him sign the papers.
"You really mean it."
"Yes."
"What will you do now?"
He looked at her.
"I don't know."
For once, the uncertainty didn't scare him.
He had spent his entire life believing control was survival.
Now he understood that love required something else.
Trust.
Three months later, Elias closed Mercer Holdings.
He sold most of the remaining assets.
He kept one logistics company.
Legitimate.
Fully audited.
No weapons.
No smuggling.
No secrets.
Nakia returned to Chicago.
She moved into an apartment.
But Elias no longer lived in the penthouse.
He bought a house near the lake.
One morning, he knocked on her door.
She opened it wearing pajamas.
"You look strange."
"How?"
"Normal."
"I'm trying."
She smiled.
"Why are you here?"
He held up a paper bag.
"Breakfast."
She opened it.
Pancakes.
She laughed.
"You cooked?"
"Marcus helped."
"That explains why they're edible."
Elias smiled.
"Will you go out with me tonight?"
Nakia raised an eyebrow.
"Is this a date?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Anywhere you choose."
She looked at him for a long moment.
Then smiled.
"Okay."
His phone rang.
May you like
He ignored it.
For the first time in his life, Elias Mercer chose not to answer.
