Chapter 7 - The Mafia Boss Finally Told Her His SecretRoman wanted Audrey under guard.
Audrey wanted access to Pier 19.
They compromised by doing exactly what Audrey wanted while six armed security professionals complained about it.
By Thursday morning, she had identified three suspicious structural alterations.
By Thursday afternoon, she found the fourth.
That was the one that terrified her.
She stood beneath the main ceremonial platform staring upward.
Roman joined her.
“What?”
Audrey pointed toward a junction between two support systems.
“If that connection fails, the platform doesn’t just drop.”
“What happens?”
“It rotates.”
“Toward?”
Audrey looked across the harbor.
The VIP observation section.
Roman’s section.
Exactly where he would be standing.
“This isn’t random.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t understand. Somebody modeled this.”
Roman looked at her.
“They calculated the failure.”
“Yes.”
“Can you stop it?”
Audrey hesitated.
“Yes.”
Roman heard the hesitation.
“But?”
“I need time.”
“How much?”
“Three days.”
“We have eighteen hours.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
Roman stepped closer.
“Audrey.”
“I can stabilize the platform temporarily.”
“How?”
“Additional bracing. Restricted occupancy. No heavy equipment. And nobody stands in your designated section.”
“Done.”
She looked at him.
“That easy?”
“I own the platform.”
“I thought the board ignored you.”
“They ignore me until I stop being polite.”
“Comforting.”
They spent the next six hours working.
Roman did something Audrey hadn’t expected.
He followed instructions.
No ego.
No arguing.
When Audrey told him to shut down a loading area, he shut it down.
When she demanded twenty workers stop moving materials, they stopped.
At 2:00 a.m., Audrey sat on a concrete barrier drinking terrible vending-machine coffee.
Roman appeared beside her.
“You look exhausted.”
“You look expensive.”
He glanced at his ruined coat.
“This was expensive.”
“It has concrete dust on it.”
“I noticed.”
“Tragic.”
Roman sat beside her.
For several minutes they watched harbor lights shimmer across the water.
Then Audrey asked, “Why aren’t you married?”
Roman looked at her.
“Interesting timing.”
“I’m avoiding thinking about structural failure.”
“By discussing personal failure?”
Audrey laughed softly.
“Maybe.”
Roman looked toward the harbor.
“I was engaged once.”
Audrey waited.
“She left.”
“Because of your work?”
“Because of my family.”
“Different?”
“Not then.”
Roman rubbed his hands together against the cold.
“My father believed legitimate businesses were useful covers. I believed they could become exits.”
“Exits from what?”
“Everything newspapers accuse us of.”
Audrey studied him.
“You were trying to make Vale Holdings legitimate.”
“For fifteen years.”
“And Marcus?”
“Thought legitimacy made us weak.”
“So he joined Sloane.”
“Yes.”
Audrey finally understood the depth of Roman’s betrayal.
Marcus wasn’t simply stealing money.
He was trying to preserve the world Roman wanted to leave behind.
“What happened to your fiancée?”
“She realized she didn’t want to spend her life wondering whether every strange car was dangerous.”
Audrey looked away.
“That sounds reasonable.”
“It was.”
“You loved her?”
Roman considered the question.
“I loved who I was when I thought I could give her a normal life.”
Audrey understood that answer too well.
Sometimes people loved the version of themselves a relationship allowed them to believe in.
She had done it with David.
“Do you miss her?”
“No.”
Roman turned toward Audrey.
“Not anymore.”
The air shifted.
Audrey’s heartbeat became annoyingly noticeable.
“Roman.”
“I know.”
“I’m still married.”
“I know.”
“My husband was kidnapped yesterday.”
“I’m aware.”
“I caught him with another woman two days ago.”
“I was on the porch eight hours later.”
“This is insane.”
“Yes.”
Audrey should have moved away.
She didn’t.
Roman lifted one hand.
Slowly.
Giving her every opportunity to stop him.
His fingers touched a strand of hair near her cheek.
Audrey closed her eyes for one second.
Then a gunshot shattered the harbor silence.
Roman tackled her behind the barrier.
A second shot struck metal.
Workers screamed.
Security moved.
Roman covered Audrey with his body.
“Stay down.”
“Was that Marcus?”
“Probably.”
Another shot.
Then silence.
Caleb shouted from across the site.
“Vehicle moving north!”
Roman started to rise.
Audrey grabbed him.
“Don’t.”
He looked at her.
“Let security handle it.”
For once, he listened.
Ten minutes later, Caleb returned.
“Lost them.”
Roman cursed.
Audrey looked toward the platform.
Something bothered her.
The shot had hit the support frame.
Not Roman.
She stood.
Roman caught her arm.
“What are you doing?”
“That shot wasn’t aimed at us.”
“Audrey—”
“It hit the structure.”
She walked toward the impact point.
Roman followed.
The bullet had struck a temporary cover plate.
Audrey crouched.
Then her stomach dropped.
“Get everyone out.”
Roman immediately turned.
“Clear the platform!”
Security began shouting.
Audrey pulled the damaged plate away.
Behind it was a small electronic device.
Not something she could identify technically.
But she didn’t need to.
Roman did.
His face changed.
“That’s a trigger.”
Audrey backed away.
“The gunshot wasn’t trying to kill you.”
Roman stared toward the dark road where Marcus had escaped.
“It was trying to activate something.”
A red light began blinking.
Audrey looked up at the platform.
“Run.”
They barely reached the edge of the loading area before a violent blast tore through one section beneath the stage.
Steel screamed.
Concrete cracked.
The platform dropped six inches.
Then stopped.
Audrey’s temporary bracing held.
Roman turned toward her in disbelief.
“You stopped it.”
Audrey stared at the damaged structure.
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“I delayed it.”
She pointed upward.
A fracture line was moving through the support.
“If we don’t evacuate the entire pier, the next failure could take half the deck with it.”
Roman grabbed his radio.
Then Audrey’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
Marcus Vale said:
“Excellent work, Mrs. Hayes.”
Audrey’s blood ran cold.
May you like
Marcus continued.
“But now I know exactly how good you are.”
