Chapter 7 - The Price of My Sister
The note arrived eleven minutes later.
Bring the original Black Meridian ledger.
No police.
No agents.
No husband.
Or Mara dies.
I stared at the page.
Dorian stood across from me.
“No.”
“What?”
“You are not going.”
“You don't get to decide.”
“I do when your life is the condition.”
“I am going.”
He stepped closer.
“Alina.”
“You can't tell me to sit in a room while my sister is being held.”
“I am not asking you to.”
“Then what are you asking?”
“Trust me.”
I looked into his eyes.
“That's what I've been doing.”
He took the note.
“We're not giving them the ledger.”
“Then what?”
“We give them what they think is the ledger.”
He had a plan.
He would create a false copy.
The real evidence would be transmitted to federal authorities.
The fake ledger would lead Marcel to a controlled location.
I hated the plan.
But it worked.
The exchange was arranged at an abandoned train depot.
I wore a hidden communication device.
Dorian was not supposed to be there.
I knew he would be.
Marcel stood on the platform.
Mara was beside him.
Her hands were tied, but she looked furious rather than afraid.
“Alina!”
I ran toward her.
Marcel raised a gun.
“Stop.”
I stopped.
“You look tired.”
“I am pregnant.”
“I know.”
He smiled.
“That makes this so much more interesting.”
I held up the case.
“Let her go.”
“Open it.”
I opened the case.
The fake ledger lay inside.
Marcel looked pleased.
“Dorian taught you well.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“What?”
“You taught him wrong.”
Marcel's smile disappeared.
“You think you know him?”
“I know he spent three years pretending not to love me because he thought that would keep me safe.”
Marcel's eyes narrowed.
“He was always weak.”
“No.”
I looked directly at him.
“He was afraid.”
Marcel laughed.
“Afraid of what?”
“Becoming you.”
The silence was immediate.
Mara looked at me in surprise.
Marcel lifted the gun.
Then Dorian stepped from the shadows.
“I was hoping she would say that.”
Marcel turned.
“You.”
Dorian held no weapon.
“You don't need one.”
Marcel smiled.
“Always dramatic.”
Dorian stepped forward.
“You have nowhere to go.”
“I have Alina.”
“No.”
Dorian looked at him.
“You have nothing.”
Marcel glanced around.
Federal lights flashed in the distance.
He realized the trap.
“You think they're saving you?”
“They're not.”
Dorian's eyes hardened.
“They're saving the people you hurt.”
Marcel raised his gun.
A shot rang out.
Dorian dropped.
I screamed.
He had been hit in the shoulder.
Security swarmed the platform.
Mara was pulled away.
Marcel ran.
I rushed to Dorian.
“Dorian!”
He grabbed my hand.
“I'm okay.”
“You're bleeding.”
“I've had worse.”
“You always say that.”
“And it's usually true.”
I began crying.
He touched my face.
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Cry like I'm leaving.”
“I thought you were.”
He smiled faintly.
“Not before meeting this kid.”
He was transported to the hospital.
The surgery took two hours.
I sat outside the operating room with Mara.
When the doctor finally emerged, he said Dorian would recover.
I cried with relief.
Then the doctor said something I had not expected.
“There was a fragment.”
“What kind?”
“From the bullet.”
He handed it to federal investigators.
Later, forensic testing revealed the bullet came from a weapon connected to a murder years earlier.
My mother's murder.
The evidence linked Marcel directly to the crime.
But there was one more piece.
The gun had been registered to someone in Dorian's company.
Luca.
Again.
I felt sick.
“He said he was forced.”
Dorian, still weak from surgery, looked at the evidence.
Luca was called into the room.
He broke down.
“I didn't know what the gun was for.”
“You gave it to Marcel,” Dorian said.
“Yes.”
“And my mother's murder happened days later.”
“Yes.”
“But you didn't know.”
“No.”
Dorian looked at him.
Then he said something unexpected.
“I believe you.”
Everyone froze.
Luca began crying.
Dorian continued.
“But believing you isn't the same as letting you walk away.”
Luca nodded.
“I understand.”
The police took him into custody to cooperate with the investigation.
That night, I sat beside Dorian's hospital bed.
“You almost died.”
“Yes.”
“I hate you.”
He smiled.
“That sounds familiar.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
“Why do you keep doing this?”
He looked at me.
“Because you're worth coming back for.”
I touched his face.
“I don't need you to die for me.”
“I don't plan to.”
“Good.”
He smiled.
I leaned closer.
“You know what I need?”
“What?”
“A husband who survives long enough to be annoying.”
He laughed.
“I can do that.”
I kissed him.
Outside the window, the city glowed under the midnight sky.
For the first time, the danger seemed to be shrinking.
Then Dorian's phone rang.
An investigator spoke on speaker.
“Mr. Cross.”
Dorian answered.
“We found Marcel.”
Everyone froze.
“Where?”
The investigator gave the location.
Then he added:
“He's asking for you.”
Dorian looked at me.
May you like
The final confrontation was coming.
And this time, there would be nowhere left to run.
