Chapter 7 - The Trap Derek Set for Both SistersKhloe did not let Aubrey out of her sight.
Not because she trusted her.
Not yet.
Because someone had just given Derek Pierce twenty-five million reasons for Aubrey to stop breathing.
Roman moved both sisters to a secured apartment owned through one of his legitimate real-estate companies.
Aubrey protested.
Khloe did not.
For once, pride had become less important than survival.
Federal investigators interviewed Aubrey for six hours.
She gave them everything.
Passwords.
Emails.
Bank records.
Names of shell companies.
And the most important detail of all.
Derek kept a second phone.
Not for his affair.
Not for business.
For conversations he never wanted connected to him.
Aubrey knew where he stored it.
Inside a private locker at the Metropolitan Athletic Club.
The government obtained a warrant.
The phone changed the investigation.
Messages connected Derek to forged financial statements.
Northstar transactions.
Bribes paid to a minor lending officer.
The petition attempting to declare Khloe incompetent.
And a conversation about Michael Harrison.
One message had been sent thirty minutes after Michael’s death.
M.H. problem resolved. Delay worked.
Khloe read the words three times.
Delay worked.
She felt nothing at first.
Then everything.
She sat in Roman’s office holding the printed message while Rachel explained that prosecutors were reopening questions surrounding her father’s death.
Roman remained silent.
Khloe finally asked, “Does this mean Derek killed him?”
Rachel answered carefully.
“Not necessarily.”
“He delayed the ambulance.”
“That is what investigators believe they may be able to prove.”
“How long?”
“Seventeen to nineteen minutes.”
Khloe looked at the floor.
Her father had died from cardiac arrest.
Doctors later concluded his survival chances would have been significantly higher with immediate intervention.
Derek had not needed a weapon.
He had simply needed to wait.
Khloe walked into the hallway before anyone could stop her.
Roman followed.
She turned on him.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“I don’t want someone watching me fall apart.”
“I wasn’t planning to watch.”
“What were you planning?”
“To stand here.”
“That’s watching.”
“Then I’ll face the wall.”
Despite everything, a laugh escaped her.
One broken sound.
Then the tears came.
Roman did not touch her.
He simply stood there.
Eventually, Khloe whispered, “I almost married him.”
“You didn’t.”
“I slept beside him.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I believed him.”
“That is not a crime.”
“It feels like one.”
Roman finally looked at her.
“Trusting someone does not make you responsible for what they chose to do with your trust.”
Khloe wiped her face.
“How do you know?”
A shadow crossed his expression.
“Because my father taught me the opposite.”
She looked at him.
Roman leaned against the wall.
“Salvatore believed betrayal meant you had been weak enough to trust.”
“And you?”
“I believed him for a long time.”
“What changed?”
Roman looked at her.
“You ran into my restaurant.”
Khloe’s breath caught.
His expression immediately hardened again, almost as if he regretted saying it.
She should have changed the subject.
She didn’t.
“What does that mean?”
“It means watching what Derek did to you made something obvious.”
“What?”
“You can do everything correctly and still be betrayed.”
Khloe stared at him.
“That’s strangely healthy advice for a mafia boss.”
“I’m having a difficult week.”
She smiled.
Actually smiled.
Roman looked at her mouth for half a second too long.
The air changed.
Khloe felt it.
So did he.
She stepped back.
Too soon.
Much too soon.
“I need coffee.”
Roman nodded.
“Terrible idea. You’ve had six.”
“Seven.”
“That explains your personality.”
She stared.
“You’re insulting my personality?”
“I’m cautiously observing it.”
For a few seconds, they were simply two people in a hallway.
Then Vincent appeared.
“Roman.”
Everything changed again.
“What?”
“We found Derek.”
Khloe straightened.
“Where?”
Vincent looked at her.
“Your father’s memorial warehouse.”
The Brooklyn warehouse.
FIRST PROMISE.
“Why?”
Vincent held up an image from a security camera.
Derek was carrying two gasoline containers.
Khloe’s blood froze.
“He’s destroying evidence.”
Roman was already moving.
Khloe followed.
“No.”
She ignored him.
“Khloe.”
“That building belongs to me.”
“He may be armed.”
“Then I’ll stay outside.”
Roman stopped.
“You have said that before.”
“When?”
“Never. But it sounded like something you would lie about.”
She almost argued.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Roman looked at it.
“Don’t.”
Khloe answered.
“Hello?”
Derek.
“Come alone.”
Her blood chilled.
She put the call on speaker.
Roman said nothing.
Derek continued.
“I know Aubrey talked.”
Khloe answered, “Then you know it’s over.”
“No.”
In the background, Khloe heard someone crying.
Her face changed.
“Aubrey?”
Roman’s eyes sharpened.
Khloe looked toward the secured apartment door.
Aubrey was supposed to be with two federal agents.
Derek laughed.
“Not Aubrey.”
A child’s voice.
Khloe recognized it.
Maria Chen’s grandson.
Eight-year-old Ethan.
Maria had picked him up from school that afternoon.
Derek said, “You destroyed my company. I borrowed yours.”
Khloe’s blood turned to ice.
Roman’s expression became lethal.
“Let the boy go.”
Derek laughed.
“Roman Casso.”
Roman stepped toward the phone.
“If you touch him—”
Khloe held up her hand.
Not now.
Threats would not help Ethan.
She spoke calmly.
“What do you want?”
“The original Harrison Legacy Trust documents.”
“You don’t need them.”
“I do if I’m leaving the country.”
Khloe understood.
He wanted something he could sell as leverage.
“They’re already filed.”
“The annex isn’t.”
Khloe frowned.
Rachel whispered, “Mineral and property rights attachment.”
The document proving Khloe controlled the tunnel.
Derek continued.
“Bring it to the warehouse.”
Khloe’s mind raced.
“Why should I?”
“Because if you don’t, this building catches fire.”
Ethan began crying in the background.
Derek lowered his voice.
“And the boy is locked inside.”
The call ended.
Roman was already giving orders.
Police.
Fire department.
Federal agents.
Tactical teams.
Khloe listened.
Then she noticed something on the security image.
Derek stood near the old warehouse office.
Behind him was the wall containing her father’s company motto.
Every Delivery Is a Promise.
Khloe looked closer.
The sprinkler pipe.
Her father had replaced the entire fire suppression system three years earlier.
It included remote emergency controls connected to the corporate safety network.
Khloe grabbed her phone.
Roman looked at her.
“What?”
“I can flood the warehouse.”
“What?”
“The sprinkler system.”
She logged into Harrison’s emergency management application.
Building 001.
FIRST PROMISE.
System active.
Roman understood.
“If he has gasoline…”
“The sprinklers may dilute it.”
“And create confusion.”
Khloe nodded.
Roman looked at Vincent.
“Call the teams. Tell them what she’s doing.”
Khloe’s finger hovered over the button.
Roman looked at her.
“Wait for confirmation.”
Thirty seconds.
Forty.
Then Vincent nodded.
“Teams ready.”
Khloe pressed:
EMERGENCY FIRE SUPPRESSION — ACTIVATE ALL ZONES.
Two miles away, every sprinkler inside the warehouse exploded to life.
Security cameras showed Derek spinning around.
Water hammered the floor.
The gasoline containers toppled.
Ethan screamed.
Derek ran toward the boy.
Then emergency doors automatically unlocked.
Federal agents entered from two directions.
Derek fled.
Khloe watched him disappear behind stacked pallets.
A minute later, another camera caught him climbing an exterior ladder toward the roof.
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“He’s heading for the river side.”
Khloe suddenly remembered.
The roof escape ended at an old loading crane.
There was nowhere to go.
Five minutes later, police surrounded Derek.
He stood forty feet above the pavement, soaked and furious.
Roman and Khloe arrived after the area was secured.
Derek saw her below.
“You ruined everything!”
Khloe looked up.
“No.”
His face twisted.
“My father died because of yours!”
“Your father went to prison because he stole from people.”
“Michael destroyed him!”
“My father told the truth.”
Derek laughed hysterically.
“And now he’s dead.”
Roman moved.
Khloe caught his arm.
Derek saw it.
He smiled.
“You still need men to protect you, Khloe.”
That sentence could once have broken her.
Now she simply looked up at him.
“No, Derek.”
Police officers moved closer behind him.
“I finally learned the difference between someone protecting me and someone controlling me.”
His smile vanished.
“You never loved me.”
Derek shouted, “I gave you everything!”
“You tried to take everything.”
A negotiator ordered him to step down.
Derek looked toward the river.
For one terrifying second, Khloe thought he might jump.
Instead, he raised his hands.
Police took him into custody.
As officers led him past her, he stopped.
“You think Roman Casso is different?”
Khloe said nothing.
Derek smiled.
“Ask him what he did to the man who betrayed his father.”
Roman’s expression changed.
Derek noticed.
His smile widened.
“There.”
He looked at Khloe.
“That face.”
Then police pulled him away.
Khloe slowly turned toward Roman.
“What did you do?”
Roman stared after Derek.
May you like
When he finally looked at her, his answer was quiet.
“Something I have regretted for eleven years.”
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