Chapter 6 - The Man They Thought Was Dead
The exchange was scheduled for midnight.
Vincent wanted armed men everywhere.
Fay refused.
“My mother is the priority.”
“Exactly.”
“You're coming with me.”
“Yes.”
“You said come alone.”
“I don't care.”
They drove to an abandoned rail yard.
The place was dark.
Silent.
Cold.
Fay held the ledger.
Vincent held nothing.
No gun.
No visible weapon.
But Fay knew better.
Vincent Cross never entered a room unprepared.
A spotlight flickered on.
Anthony stepped forward.
Fay's mother stood beside him.
But there was another man.
Older.
Thinner.
His face scarred.
He stepped into the light.
Fay dropped the ledger.
“Dad?”
Michael Miller looked at her.
His eyes filled with tears.
“Fay.”
She could not move.
Seventeen years.
Seventeen years of believing he had abandoned them.
“He's alive,” she whispered.
Vincent stared at Michael.
“You knew.”
Michael looked at him.
“I had to.”
“Why?”
“To keep my daughter alive.”
Fay ran to him.
He hugged her.
She cried against his chest.
“You left us.”
“I know.”
“Mom thought you were dead.”
“I couldn't come back.”
“Why?”
“Because every time I tried, someone died.”
Michael looked at Vincent.
“Your family was never the real problem.”
“Then who?”
“Elias.”
Vincent's face hardened.
“I thought he was dead.”
“He wanted everyone to think that.”
Anthony laughed.
“Your father knew.”
Michael ignored him.
“The ledger wasn't just a record of money.”
“What was it?”
“Names.”
“Whose names?”
“People who were being protected.”
“Protected from what?”
“An international trafficking network that had infiltrated several crime families.”
Fay stared.
Her father explained.
Years earlier, he had discovered containers moving people instead of merchandise.
He had secretly documented everything.
The Cross syndicate had been used as cover.
Vincent's father had discovered it.
Anthony had betrayed him.
Elias had taken over part of the network.
Michael had stolen the ledger and disappeared.
“Then why did the records say I was protected?”
“Because Elias wanted you.”
“Why?”
“Because you were the last living person connected to the ledger.”
Fay's blood ran cold.
Vincent asked:
“What did Elias want?”
Michael looked at him.
“Control of the organization.”
“Why use Fay?”
“Because he believed you would protect her.”
Vincent looked at Fay.
“I would.”
Michael smiled sadly.
“That is why he chose her.”
A gunshot rang out.
Anthony fell.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Someone screamed from the shadows.
“Elias.”
Vincent grabbed Fay and pulled her behind cover.
Gunfire exploded across the rail yard.
Security returned fire.
Michael shoved Fay down.
“Stay there!”
Vincent moved like a machine.
He shot two attackers.
Then the lights died.
Darkness.
A man's voice echoed.
“You've inherited your father's mistakes, Vincent.”
Vincent shouted:
“Come out!”
A laugh.
“You still don't understand.”
Then another voice came through a speaker.
Female.
Evelyn.
“Vincent.”
He froze.
His mother's voice.
“Listen to me.”
The speaker crackled.
“Your father was trying to protect you.”
Vincent stared into the darkness.
“Mom?”
A final message came.
“Don't trust the man standing beside you.”
Vincent turned.
Michael was gone.
Fay was gone.
Only the ledger remained.
He picked it up.
On the final page was one handwritten sentence.
Your father wasn't the first Cross man to betray the family.
Vincent looked up.
His worst fear became reality.
May you like
There was a traitor inside his own inner circle.
And he had no idea who.
