CHAPTER 13 #3
“And you’re still just their errand boy.”
His face twisted.
I drove my elbow into his ribs.
He released me.
I grabbed a metal box from the shelf and struck him across the face. He stumbled backward, blood spilling from his nose.
We reached for the gun at the same time.
His hand closed around it first.
He pointed it at my forehead.
“You should have stayed at your beauty supply store.”
A gunshot exploded.
Lawson’s body jerked.
He collapsed beside me.
Tasha stood in the doorway holding his gun.
Smoke curled from the barrel.
Her hands shook violently.
“I told you,” she whispered. “Nobody hurts my baby sister.”
I stared at Lawson.
Blood spread beneath his body.
His eyes remained open.
Just like Dre’s.
Tasha dropped the weapon.
“I killed a cop.”
“You saved my life.”
“They’re going to bury me.”
“Not if that vault tells the truth.”
We ran back to the lobby.
Kendrick was still alive.
Dymond pressed a hand against the wound in his side while one of her men guarded the entrance.
“The scanner,” Kendrick gasped. “Do it now.”
I placed my palm against the glass.
The cut from the fake key reopened.
Blood touched the scanner.
For three seconds, nothing happened.
Then the vault groaned.
Steel locks released one after another.
The sound shook the entire building.
The door slowly opened.
Cold air poured from inside.
Lights flickered on.
There was no cash.
No gold.
No stacks of drugs.
Only shelves.
Thousands of files.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
Video tapes.
Records stretching back more than forty years.
In the center of the vault sat a black table with a single computer.
Its screen turned on.
A man appeared.
He was older, wearing a dark suit, seated in front of a wall covered with a silver circle.
Dymond stopped breathing.
“You know him?” I asked.
Her face lost all color.
“I’ve seen him before.”
“Where?”
“At Terrence’s funeral.”
The man on the screen smiled.
“Hello, Dymond.”
Her eyes widened.
The recording wasn’t a recording.
It was live.
“Hello, Keyshia,” he continued. “Tasha. Kendrick.”
My uncle dragged himself upright.
“You were never supposed to find this place.”
The man laughed softly.
“You built the vault with my money. Did you truly believe I wouldn’t know when it opened?”
Dymond stepped closer to the screen.
“Are you my father?”
The man’s smile disappeared.
“Yes.”
Nobody moved.
Dymond stared at the face of the man whose name had been hidden from her since birth.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Victor Hale.”
Kendrick cursed under his breath.
Victor leaned toward the camera.
“But my name is the least important thing you’ll learn tonight.”
Red lights began flashing inside the vault.
A countdown appeared on the computer.
04:59
04:58
04:57
“What is that?” Tasha asked.
Kendrick tried to stand.
“He activated the destruction protocol.”
Dymond looked around at the files.
“All the evidence—”
“Will burn,” Victor said. “Along with everyone inside the building.”
The vault door began closing.
I grabbed Tasha and ran.
Dymond followed.
Kendrick remained on the floor.
I stopped.
“Uncle Kendrick!”
“Go!”
“You’ll die!”
He looked at Tasha.
For the first time, the coldness left his face.
“Get my daughter out.”
Tasha shook her head.
“No.”
Kendrick reached into his jacket and threw a flash drive toward her.
She caught it.
“The master ledger,” he said. “Every name. Every account. Everything Victor believes is inside this vault.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“You don’t have the ledger.”
Kendrick smiled.
“I’ve been dead for twenty years. I had plenty of time to make a copy.”
The vault door continued closing.
Dymond pulled Tasha through the narrowing space.
I followed, but Kendrick stayed behind.
“Come on!”
He looked at me.
“Keyshia, your mother didn’t build the empire for you.”
The opening narrowed to less than two feet.
“She built you to destroy it.”
The steel door slammed shut.
Locks engaged.
Tasha screamed and beat both hands against it.
“Daddy!”
It was the first time she had called him that.
The countdown continued on the panel outside.
03:41
Dymond grabbed Tasha.
“We have to move.”
We ran toward the front entrance.
Sirens surrounded the building.
Not one or two police cars.
Dozens.
Red and blue lights poured through every broken window.
A voice boomed from outside.
“KEYSHIA CARTER, EXIT THE BUILDING WITH YOUR HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD.”
Tasha looked at the flash drive.
Dymond looked toward the rear hallway.
I looked at Lawson’s dead body.
We had less than four minutes before the building exploded, an army of police waiting outside, and the only proof of the Carter Empire clutched in my sister’s hand.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Victor Hale’s voice came through the line.
“Bring me Dymond and the ledger, and I’ll make every charge against you disappear.”
I stared at the sister I had only just discovered.
Then at the sister who had lied to me for most of my life.
“What about my children?”
“They’ll live.”
“And my family?”
“You can’t save everybody, Keyshia.”
The countdown dropped below three minutes.
Victor lowered his voice.
“So choose which sister you’re willing to sacrifice.”