CHAPTER 15 #3
“You already saved my life once. Save my daughter now.”
Tasha looked toward the office.
Then she hugged me.
“Bring Jayce back.”
“I will.”
Dymond picked up her weapon.
“I’m going with you.”
“That man is your father.”
“Biologically.”
The word sounded empty.
“Victor made his choice,” she continued. “Now I’m making mine.”
Meech spoke through her phone.
“I can guide you to the plant. But you need to move. Victor has three vehicles leaving the property.”
“Which one has Jayce?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Then track Rome’s phone.”
A pause.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because Rome’s signal is here.”
A location appeared on the computer.
It wasn’t at the meatpacking plant.
It was inside my beauty supply store.
We all turned slowly.
Footsteps came from the basement.
Tasha moved in front of the office where Amaya was hiding.
Dymond aimed toward the tunnel entrance.
A shadow climbed the stairs.
Rome appeared first.
Jayce was in his arms.
I ran toward them.
“Momma!”
Rome lowered him, and Jayce crashed into me.
I dropped to my knees and wrapped both arms around my son.
I kissed his face over and over.
“You’re okay. You’re okay.”
He buried his head against my neck.
“I knew you would come.”
My eyes filled with tears.
“I’ll always come.”
Amaya ran from the office.
“Jayce!”
The children hugged each other.
For a few seconds, nobody spoke.
Nothing mattered except the fact that both of my babies were alive.
Then Rome closed the tunnel hatch behind him.
“You need to leave.”
“Where’s Laila?” I asked.
His face hardened.
“Victor still has her.”
“Then why did he release you?”
“He didn’t.”
Rome opened his jacket.
Blood covered his side.
“I took Jayce and ran.”
Tasha rushed forward to help him sit.
“What happened to Victor?”
“Alive.”
“Where is he going?” Dymond asked.
Rome looked at her.
“To get the only thing more valuable than the empire.”
“What?”
“You.”
Dymond’s gun lifted slightly.
“Why?”
“Victor’s money is gone, but the Circle still exists. Its leaders won’t follow him after losing eight hundred million dollars.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“He plans to blame you.”
“For what?”
“The liquidation. The bank explosion. Lawson’s death. Everything.”
“He doesn’t have proof.”
“He doesn’t need proof. He has the people who create it.”
Rome looked toward me.
“Within the next hour, every agency in the country will receive evidence showing Dymond ordered the destruction of the Carter Empire.”
Dymond’s face remained calm.
But I saw the fear return to her eyes.
“What does Victor gain?”
“He becomes the man who captures her.”
Rome’s phone rang.
Victor.
He answered on speaker.
“Where is my daughter?” Rome demanded.
Victor ignored him.
“Dymond, I know you can hear me.”
She stepped closer.
“I’m here.”
“You destroyed something that took me forty years to build.”
“Keyshia pushed the button.”
“But you gave her the lock.”
“What do you want?”
“You.”
“In exchange for Laila?”
“And the charges against Keyshia disappear.”
I laughed.
“You can’t make that happen anymore.”
“Detective Lawson sent a scheduled confession before he died.”
The computer screen turned on by itself.
A video began playing.
Lawson sat inside an office, wearing his badge.
“My name is Detective Aaron Lawson. Keyshia Carter ordered the murder of Andre Williams. She directed the shooting at the basketball court and later murdered me after I uncovered evidence connecting her to the Carter criminal organization.”
Tasha stared at the screen.
“He recorded that before any of it happened.”
Victor’s voice returned.
“The video goes to every news station in six minutes unless Dymond comes alone.”
“Where?” Dymond asked.
“The Belle of Louisville.”
“The steamboat?”
“Midnight cruise. Be on the upper deck at eleven forty-five.”
“And Laila?”
“You’ll see her.”
The call ended.
I looked at Dymond.
“You’re not going.”
“Yes, I am.”
“It’s a trap.”
“Of course it is.”
“Then why walk into it?”
She glanced toward my children.
“Because Victor taught me something tonight.”
“What?”
“Family isn’t the people who give you their blood.”
Her eyes moved toward Rome.
Then Tasha.
Then me.
“It’s the people whose children you refuse to sacrifice.”
She placed her gun beneath her jacket.
“We have forty-five minutes to reach the river.”
Rome tried to stand.
“You’re not going alone.”
“You can barely walk.”
“That’s my daughter.”
“And he’s my father.”
I looked around at the people inside my destroyed beauty supply store.
My cousin.
My sisters.
My children.
A family that hadn’t existed yesterday.
A family Victor believed he could control by threatening one person at a time.
He still didn’t understand us.
I kissed Jayce and Amaya, then handed them to Tasha.
“Call Momma and Daddy. Tell them to send everybody they trust.”
Tasha grabbed my arm.
“Where are you going?”
I checked the magazine in my gun.
“To take Dymond to meet her father.”
Dymond smiled.
Rome forced himself upright.
“And when Victor sees all of us coming?” Tasha asked.
I looked toward the Louisville riverfront glowing beyond the broken windows.
“Then he’ll finally understand why you never threaten a Carter child.”