Chapter 4 - The Harbor Circle
Damen had spent his life believing fear was useful.
It prevented mistakes.
It kept enemies cautious.
It made negotiations shorter.
But fear was useless when the enemy already lived inside your walls.
By noon, Damen learned one of his senior captains had disappeared.
By three, another had been found dead.
By sunset, three shipping manifests had vanished.
Someone was dismantling his organization piece by piece.
Damen gathered his remaining loyal men.
"We stop all shipments."
One man objected.
"We'll lose millions."
Damen looked at him.
"I don't care."
The room went silent.
That sentence would have been impossible for him a year earlier.
Now it came easily.
Because Talia had changed the equation.
The girl was playing with blocks in the next room.
Yolanda sat nearby.
Damen had moved a crib into his bedroom.
He had no idea how a feared criminal boss had become a man arguing with a housekeeper about whether a three-year-old needed a night-light.
But somehow, that was his life now.
The phone rang.
Jacoby answered.
Then looked at Damen.
"Boss."
"What?"
"They found Mateo."
"Where?"
"On one of our cargo vessels."
Damen's expression hardened.
"Bring him here."
"Alive?"
Damen smiled without humor.
"Obviously."
Two hours later, Mateo Reyes sat across from him.
He looked older than Javier.
Scar across one cheek.
Gray hair.
Cold eyes.
The kind of man who had lived too long with secrets.
Damen sat opposite him.
"You entered my ship."
Mateo smiled.
"It was already mine."
"It belongs to me."
"You inherited what your father stole."
"My father built it."
"Your father took it."
Damen leaned forward.
"Where is Javier?"
Mateo smiled.
"Safe."
"Where?"
"You care about him now?"
"No."
Damen's eyes hardened.
"I care about Yolanda and Talia."
Mateo's smile disappeared.
"You don't understand what you've stepped into."
Damen stood.
"Then explain it."
Mateo laughed.
"The Harbor Circle is not a gang."
"I know."
"It's a system."
"I know."
"You cannot destroy it."
Damen stared.
"I can destroy my part."
Mateo shook his head.
"That's what your father thought."
Damen walked toward him.
"What killed him?"
Mateo went silent.
"Tell me."
"He refused to hand over the archive."
"Where is it?"
Mateo smiled.
"You don't know."
"No."
"Neither does Yolanda."
"Then who does?"
Mateo's eyes shifted toward the window.
"The child."
Damen stopped.
"What?"
Mateo smiled.
"Your little friend knows more than you think."
Damen's blood ran cold.
Before he could respond, a gunshot sounded downstairs.
Damen ran.
He found Yolanda holding Talia behind a kitchen island.
A man lay unconscious near the doorway.
Three more guards were down.
Damen's people were everywhere.
"Are you hurt?"
Yolanda shook her head.
Talia ran into his arms.
"Damen!"
He lifted her.
"You're okay."
She nodded.
"Mommy is okay."
Damen looked at Yolanda.
She was bleeding from one hand.
"Cut?"
"Glass."
He turned toward the guards.
"Find the others."
Then Talia whispered something in his ear.
"Daddy came."
Damen froze.
He turned.
At the window across the room, a figure disappeared into the darkness.
Damen chased him.
Outside, the figure ran toward the cliffs.
Damen followed.
The man was faster.
But Damen recognized the silver mark around his wrist.
"Javier!"
The man stopped.
Turned.
For several seconds, they stared at each other.
Javier Reyes looked exactly like the photographs.
Alive.
Cold.
Exhausted.
Damen raised his gun.
"Don't."
Javier's voice was quiet.
"If you shoot me, Yolanda loses Talia."
Damen lowered his weapon slightly.
"You've been watching my house."
"Yes."
"You threatened your own daughter."
"I protected her."
"You let her believe you were dead."
"Because dead men are difficult to blackmail."
Damen's jaw clenched.
"You used my estate."
"I used your reputation."
"You used me."
"Yes."
Damen stepped forward.
"Why should I not kill you?"
Javier looked toward the house.
"Because your father didn't."
Damen froze.
"What?"
"Your father knew I was alive."
That stopped him.
"He helped you?"
"Once."
"When?"
"Three weeks before he died."
Javier handed him a photograph.
Damen looked.
His father stood beside Javier.
And beside them was Yolanda.
She was holding a baby.
Talia.
The date was almost three years earlier.
Damen's hands tightened.
"Talia was already born."
"Yes."
"Then why did my father know?"
"Because he helped me disappear."
Damen stared.
"Why?"
Javier's face hardened.
"Because Mateo wanted the child."
"Why?"
"She inherited her mother's memory."
Damen frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"Yolanda can remember numbers after seeing them once."
Damen looked toward the house.
"And Talia?"
Javier nodded.
"She inherited it."
Damen's mind raced.
The child had seen the red box.
She remembered symbols.
Codes.
People.
Routes.
Her drawings were not random.
She had seen the archive.
Damen lowered the gun.
"What does Mateo want?"
"The child."
"No."
"He believes her memory can reconstruct the Circle's access codes."
Damen's expression became deadly.
"He won't get her."
Javier looked at him.
"That's what I hoped you'd say."
"You don't deserve her."
"I know."
"Then why are you here?"
Javier's eyes filled.
"To ask you to do what I couldn't."
"What?"
"Take her."
Damen stared.
"Take Talia."
"Protect her."
"From you?"
"From me. From Mateo. From all of us."
Damen lowered his weapon.
"I already promised her."
Javier nodded.
"Then keep it."
He turned to leave.
Damen called after him.
"Javier."
He stopped.
"Where is the red box?"
Javier looked back.
"Where your father hid it."
"Where?"
"In the room where he first learned to love someone more than power."
He disappeared into the fog.
Damen stood alone.
Then he heard Talia laughing from inside the house.
He looked at the enormous estate around him.
The ships.
The money.
The organization.
The power.
For the first time, he wondered how much of it he was willing to lose.
May you like
The answer came quickly.
Everything.
