CHAPTER 16 #2
“That’s not crew. His face matches the Circle records from the ledger. Name is Warren Pike. Former state police.”
The police inside the family.
Kendrick’s warning returned.
Maybe he hadn’t been talking about Rome.
Maybe he meant something larger.
A police organization buried inside the Carter bloodline.
I stepped behind Pike and pressed my gun against his neck.
“Don’t move.”
Rome searched him and removed two weapons.
“Where’s Victor?”
Pike smiled.
“Upper deck.”
“Where are the children?”
“What children?”
I struck him with the gun.
His nose broke.
“Try again.”
“One girl upstairs.”
“And Keyshia’s kids?” Rome asked.
Pike looked at me.
“They belong to the Circle now.”
I pressed the barrel against his kneecap.
“Say that again.”
“They were moved thirty minutes ago.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
I fired.
His scream filled the hallway.
Rome grabbed his jacket.
“Where are they?”
“Warehouse near Portland!”
“Address?”
“I only know the entrance is beneath an old church.”
My heart pounded.
“Tasha was with them.”
“Not anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
Pike laughed through the pain.
“The woman traded herself.”
“For the children?”
“She gave herself to Victor’s men so they would let the children leave with their grandparents.”
Relief and fear hit me at the same time.
Jayce and Amaya were with my parents.
But Tasha had been taken.
Again.
“Where did they take her?”
“I don’t know.”
Rome raised his gun.
Pike spoke quickly.
“Victor wants her alive! Kendrick gave her the ledger. He thinks she memorized the account codes.”
“The accounts are empty,” I said.
“Not all of them.”
I froze.
“The screen showed zero.”
“The Carter Empire showed zero. Kendrick had a separate account.”
“How much?”
“Victor believes nearly one hundred million.”
Uncle Kendrick had hidden money outside the empire.
Even while dying, he had kept one final secret.
Rome tied Pike’s hands.
“We need to move.”
I looked at the former officer.
“What should we do with him?”
“Leave him.”
Pike smiled.
“You won’t make it off this boat.”
Rome opened a maintenance closet and shoved him inside.
“Neither will you if you keep talking.”
We locked the door and continued upstairs.
???
When we reached the main deck, the lights shut off.
The boat disappeared into darkness.
Passengers would have screamed if there had been any.
But there were only killers aboard.
Meech’s voice came through the earpiece.
“They cut the power.”
“Can you turn it back on?”
“Working on it.”
Gunfire erupted above us.
Dymond.
I ran toward the stairs.
Rome followed.
A man stepped from behind a column.
I fired first.
He fell backward.
Another came from the opposite side.
Rome shot him twice in the chest.
The recoil forced Rome against the wall.
He slid toward the floor.
“Rome!”
“Keep moving.”
“You’re coming.”
“I can’t.”
I pulled his arm over my shoulder.
He was too heavy.
“You said nobody gets left behind,” he reminded me.
“I meant it.”
Footsteps rushed toward us.
Rome aimed past my head and fired.
A third man dropped at the bottom of the stairs.
“You’ll get us both killed,” he said.
“Then stop bleeding.”
“I’ll work on it.”
The lights flickered back on.
Meech’s voice filled my ear.
“Power restored. Dymond is on the upper deck. Victor has a gun against her head.”
“What about Laila?”
“Still tied to the chair.”
I dragged Rome into a dining room.
“Stay here.”
He caught my jacket.
“If you see Laila—”
“I’ll bring her back.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
I left him behind the bar with two guns and climbed toward the upper deck.
Wind struck my face as soon as I stepped outside.
The Louisville skyline was a wall of lights behind us.
Victor stood near the railing with Dymond in front of him.
Laila remained tied to the chair.
Four guards surrounded them.
I stayed hidden behind the staircase.
“There you are,” Victor called.
He knew exactly where I was.
“Come out, Keyshia.”
I stepped onto the deck.
Every weapon turned toward me.
“Drop the gun.”
I obeyed.
Victor pushed the barrel harder beneath Dymond’s chin.
“You’re becoming expensive.”
“You had eight hundred million dollars an hour ago. You can afford me.”
“I had plans for that money.”
“So did the families you stole it from.”
His face hardened.
“Where is the ledger?”
“Destroyed.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care.”
“Kendrick had accounts outside the empire.”
“So I heard.”
“Tasha knows how to access them.”
“If you already have her, why do you need me?”
Dymond looked at me.
Victor’s expression changed.
Just enough.
Pike had lied about Tasha being captured.
Or Victor had lied to Pike.
Either way, Victor didn’t have her.
“That’s what I thought,” I said. “You don’t know where Tasha is.”
Victor pulled Dymond closer.
“I can still find her.”
“Maybe. But you won’t live long enough.”
He smiled.
“Your gun is on the floor.”
“I wasn’t talking about me.”
Rome stepped onto the deck behind Victor.
His face had gone gray.
Blood soaked his clothes.
But his gun was steady.
He aimed at Victor.
“Release my daughter.”
Victor’s guards turned.
Dymond drove her heel into Victor’s foot and threw her head backward into his face.
The gun fired.
Laila screamed.
Chaos erupted.
I dove toward my weapon.
Rome fired at the nearest guard.
Dymond twisted away from Victor and pulled the blade from her boot.
She drove it into his shoulder.
Victor struck her across the face.
I grabbed my gun and shot one guard in the leg.
Another fired toward me.
The bullet tore through my jacket but missed my body.
Rome reached Laila and began cutting her restraints.
Victor grabbed Dymond by her hair and dragged her toward the railing.
“You were a mistake,” he hissed.
Dymond stabbed him again.
“Then you should’ve corrected it thirty years ago.”
He struck her wrist.
The knife flew into the river.
Victor wrapped both hands around her throat and pushed her over the railing.
Her body disappeared from the deck.
“Dymond!”
I ran toward them.
Victor turned and fired.
A bullet struck me below the collarbone.
The force knocked me backward.
I hit the deck.
Pain exploded through my chest.
I couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t move.
Victor stood over me.
“You could have inherited everything.”
I pressed one hand against the wound.
“I didn’t want it.”
“You wanted a beauty supply store.”
“I built that myself.”
He laughed.
“And now it’s destroyed.”
“Things can be rebuilt.”
“Not you.”
He aimed at my forehead.
A gunshot rang out.
Victor’s body jerked.
He looked down at the blood spreading across his chest.
Dymond climbed over the railing behind him.
Soaked.
Shivering.
Alive.
She held the gun Victor had dropped while fighting her.
Victor turned slowly.
“You shot your father.”
Dymond’s teeth chattered from the cold.
“No.”
She fired again.
The second bullet struck him in the stomach.
“I shot the man who tried to kill my sister.”
Victor fell to his knees.
The remaining guards stopped firing.
Some dropped their weapons.
Others ran toward the lower deck.
The Circle had just watched its leader fall.
Rome freed Laila.
She threw her arms around him.
He collapsed beside the chair.
“Daddy!”
I tried to sit up.
The deck tilted beneath me.
Dymond rushed over and pressed both hands against my wound.
“Stay with me.”
“Where’s Victor?”
She looked toward the railing.
He was gone.
A trail of blood led to the edge.
The river below was black.
“He went over,” she said.
“Did you see him fall?”
“No.”
I almost laughed, but the pain stopped me.
Of course not.
Nobody in this family knew how to die where people could see them.
Sirens echoed across the water.
Not police.
Coast Guard.
Meech had sent our location.
Dymond kept pressure on my wound.
“You’re going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“How?”
“Because I just found a sister. I’m not losing her on the same night.”
My vision blurred.
Behind her, I saw Laila kneeling beside Rome.
He wasn’t moving.
“Rome,” I whispered.
Dymond glanced back.
Laila placed two fingers against his neck.
“He’s alive!” she cried.
The Coast Guard boat moved closer.
Lights swept across the deck.
Men shouted orders.
My phone began ringing inside my pocket.
Dymond pulled it out.
Tasha.
She answered and placed it near my ear.
“Key?” Tasha said. “Where are you?”
“On the Belle.”
“Are you hurt?”
“A little.”
Dymond pressed harder against the gunshot wound.
I screamed.
“A little?” she said.
“Where are my children?”
“With Momma and Daddy. They’re safe.”
Relief washed over me.
“Victor lied.”
“About what?”
“The children. He never had them again.”
“Key, listen to me. I found Kendrick’s account.”
I forced my eyes open.
“How?”
“The flash drive had a second partition. He left me instructions.”
“How much?”
“Ninety-six million.”
Dymond heard her.
“Don’t touch it.”
“I didn’t. But somebody already did.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Seven million was transferred ten minutes ago.”
“To where?”
“I traced the destination.”
The Coast Guard reached the boat.
Medics ran across the deck.
The phone began slipping from Dymond’s bloody hand.
“Tasha,” I said. “Who took the money?”
Her answer came just before everything went dark.
“Nesha.”