Chapter 13 - The Fire Under the River
Mercer’s plan was simple.
If he could not own the Bennett terminals, nobody would.
Daniel had learned about the explosives weeks earlier.
He had said nothing because Mercer promised him a percentage of the insurance settlement.
Hearing that should have surprised me.
It did not.
Lucy was rushed away with Elias’s guards.
Daniel refused medical evacuation.
“Terminal One has the detonator relay.”
Elias looked at his bleeding shoulder.
“You are going nowhere.”
Daniel laughed weakly.
“You finally agree with Ava about something.”
I almost hated him for making me remember he could once be funny.
We entered the old maintenance tunnel beneath the waterfront.
Water dripped from cracked concrete.
Emergency lights glowed every fifty feet.
My mother’s stories about the Bennett property suddenly seemed impossible.
This place had been part of my family for generations.
Mercer was willing to bury it under the river.
We reached Terminal One.
A digital countdown flashed on a control panel.
Twenty-three minutes.
Daniel swore.
“He accelerated it.”
Elias contacted his demolition team.
“No signal.”
The tunnel walls blocked communications.
Daniel pointed toward a staircase.
“Main relay is upstairs.”
We climbed.
Every step hurt my still-healing body.
Elias noticed.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Ava.”
“Stop saying my name like that will make me obedient.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Elias looked irritated.
Then he continued climbing beside me.
At the relay room, the door was locked.
Daniel entered a code.
Rejected.
Again.
Rejected.
“He changed it.”
Elias stepped forward.
“Move.”
He fired into the locking mechanism and forced the door.
Inside were dozens of monitors.
One displayed the twins.
My heart stopped.
The nursery.
Elias’s penthouse nursery.
A live camera feed.
Both babies slept peacefully.
My mother sat nearby.
“How does Mercer have that?”
Daniel stared.
“He doesn’t.”
Elias’s face became deadly.
“That camera belongs to my internal security network.”
Marco.
Even captured, his betrayal continued.
A message appeared across the screen.
AVA.
YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO ME.
I stared at it.
Then a second line appeared.
YOUR MOTHER KNOWS WHAT.
The countdown continued.
Nineteen minutes.
I looked at Daniel.
“What does he mean?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Elias suddenly remembered something.
“The letter.”
“What letter?”
“Your grandfather told you never to believe you had no family left.”
My heart pounded.
My mother had said Mercer was our cousin.
But maybe the family secret went deeper.
A printer beside the console activated.
A single sheet emerged.
An old photograph.
My grandfather stood beside three young people.
My mother.
A younger Vincent Mercer.
And another man.
Elias picked up the photo.
His face changed completely.
The third man was his father.
On the back, someone had written three words.
THE ORIGINAL PARTNERS.
Daniel whispered.
“What the hell?”
Elias looked at me.
Before he could answer, the countdown suddenly dropped.
May you like
From eighteen minutes.
To five.
