Chapter 12 - The Midnight Exchange
Pier Nine was surrounded by abandoned shipping containers.
Wind rolled off the Hudson like knives.
I hated the cold now.
Every gust brought me back beneath the overpass.
Back to the blood.
Back to two tiny bodies pressed beneath my coat.
Elias noticed my hands shaking.
“We can turn around.”
“No.”
“You do not owe Lucy your life.”
“She’s nine.”
“That is not what I said.”
I looked at him.
“Someone stopped for my daughters.”
“Someone has to stop for her.”
Elias did not argue again.
That was something I had begun to understand about him.
He was dangerous.
Controlling when frightened.
Accustomed to being obeyed.
But when I truly chose something, he eventually respected it.
Daniel rode in another vehicle.
Caleb had begged to come.
Elias refused.
Losing one father would not help Lucy.
At 11:58 p.m., we entered the pier.
Mercer stood beneath a warehouse light.
Lucy sat inside an SUV behind him.
She looked terrified but alive.
Daniel stepped forward carrying a case.
Mercer smiled.
“My faithful boy.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Let her go.”
“First, the drive.”
Daniel opened the case.
The hard drive was inside.
Mercer looked toward me.
“And Ava Bennett.”
Elias moved closer.
“She was not part of the deal.”
Mercer laughed.
“She has always been the deal.”
I stepped beside Daniel.
Mercer studied me.
“You look like Catherine.”
“I know where she is.”
His expression changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
“You took her.”
“She was never yours to keep.”
Mercer’s eyes became cold.
“That woman destroyed this family.”
“You mean she stopped you from stealing from it.”
He smiled again.
“You still believe this is about money.”
My stomach tightened.
“What else is there?”
Mercer looked toward the river.
“Power lasts longer than money.”
“The Bennett terminals connect rail, highway, and shipping access.”
“Control the land and you control what enters New York through half this corridor.”
Elias spoke.
“And you promised that access to people overseas.”
Mercer’s eyes flicked toward him.
“Very perceptive.”
Daniel lifted the case.
“Lucy.”
Mercer raised one finger.
The SUV door opened.
Lucy stumbled out.
She ran toward us.
Daniel moved to meet her.
Then Mercer’s voice changed.
“Now.”
A gunshot cracked.
Daniel jerked.
Lucy screamed.
Daniel fell to his knees.
I rushed forward before Elias could stop me.
Blood spread across Daniel’s shoulder.
He was alive.
Mercer’s men emerged from behind containers.
Elias’s security answered instantly.
Chaos exploded across the pier.
I pulled Lucy behind a concrete barrier.
Daniel crawled toward us.
“Take her.”
I grabbed his arm.
“You’re coming too.”
He stared at me.
After everything, I was helping him.
“I don’t deserve that.”
“No.”
I dragged him harder.
“You don’t.”
Another shot struck the barrier.
Mercer disappeared toward the warehouse.
Elias appeared beside us.
“Get Lucy out.”
I looked toward the warehouse.
“Mercer?”
His expression hardened.
“He’s heading for the river tunnel.”
Daniel grabbed Elias’s sleeve.
“Don’t let him reach Terminal One.”
“Why?”
May you like
Daniel’s face went white.
“Because he planted explosives beneath the Bennett warehouses.”
