CHAPTER 18 #2
My father wanted me to believe she was my enemy because that was how men like him controlled powerful women.
They convinced us there could only be one.
“I know you killed Dre,” I said.
Silence.
“Shay told me.”
“Shay talks too much.”
“So it’s true?”
“Dre had become unreliable.”
“You murdered him from my car.”
“I protected you.”
“Stop using that word.”
“He sent Victor a message telling him you were on your way to the basketball court. If Dre had lived, he would’ve traded you for his freedom.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I recorded every conversation he had with Lawson.”
“Then why not warn me?”
“You wouldn’t have believed me.”
“You didn’t give me the chance.”
“Fear moves faster than trust.”
Kendrick had written the same thing.
They had all built plans around my fear.
Not my intelligence.
Not my love.
Fear.
“Did you order Deon to shoot Momma at the warehouse?”
“No.”
Deon looked toward the phone.
My father heard the silence.
“Deon fired without authorization.”
“That’s a lie,” Deon said.
“You missed.”
“You told me to make it look like Victor’s men.”
Shay closed her eyes.
Her brother had said too much.
My father’s voice changed.
“Deon, you disappoint me.”
“Join the club,” I said. “You disappoint your daughters.”
“Nesha is alive because of me.”
“Nesha was shot because of you.”
“She stepped in front of a bullet that wasn’t hers.”
“And you left her bleeding.”
“I got her medical treatment.”
“You used her.”
“I gave her seven million dollars.”
“As if money can pay for betrayal.”
“You would be surprised what people forgive for seven million.”
I looked at Shay.
Her birthday dress.
Her brother.
Her loyalty to a man who viewed both of them as tools.
“Not this.”
The church appeared ahead.
Its stone tower rose above the empty buildings surrounding it.
No lights.
No cars.
But the Circle device showed several signals beneath the property.
“We’re here,” I said.
“I know,” my father answered.
The call ended.
Dymond parked two blocks away.
Tasha checked my bandage.
Blood had begun soaking through the corner.
“You can barely stand.”
“I’ll manage.”
“You need a hospital.”
“I just escaped one.”
Meech turned the laptop toward us.
“The archive has three entrances. Front stairs, rear maintenance tunnel, and an underground passage connecting to the building across the street.”
“Which one is guarded?” Dymond asked.
“All of them.”
“How many signals?”
“Fourteen.”
“We have three guns,” Tasha said.
“Four,” Shay answered from the back.
Everybody looked at her.
She sat upright with dried blood near her temple.
“If your father kills Deon, I get nothing.”
Dymond kept her weapon aimed at Shay.
“You tried to kill us ten minutes ago.”
“And now we have a common enemy.”
“You change sides fast.”
“I never had a side. I had an agreement.”
“What agreement?” I asked.
Shay looked at me.
“My father owed the Circle two million dollars when he died. Your daddy offered to erase the debt if Deon and I worked for him.”
“You helped frame me over your dead father’s debt?”
“I thought they were going to scare you. I didn’t know about the cocaine until it was already in your car.”
“But you knew about Dre.”
“I knew he was working with Lawson.”
“You sent the message telling him to keep me at the court.”
“Your father sent it from my phone.”
That explained the last four digits.
The number belonged to Shay, but the hands behind it belonged to someone else.
“You let me believe you betrayed me.”
“I did betray you.”
At least she didn’t pretend otherwise.
“But I didn’t kill Dre,” she continued. “And I didn’t take your children.”
“You helped the people who did.”
“Yes.”
She looked toward her brother.
“And now the same man plans to kill us.”
Dymond lowered the gun slightly.
“Where’s your weapon?”
“Ankle.”
Tasha removed a small pistol from Shay’s leg and handed it to her.
“If you point this at Keyshia, I’ll kill you myself.”
Shay checked the magazine.
“Everybody in this family loves making threats.”
“That’s because nobody listens.”
Meech opened a live feed from the command device.
A camera showed Nesha lying on a table beneath the church.
Her face was pale.
Her hospital gown was covered in blood.
A tube ran from her arm to a machine beside her.
My mother stood across the room with a gun pointed at my father.
My father wore a dark suit.
No fear.
No weapon in his hands.
He didn’t need one.
Karen’s gun meant nothing while Nesha’s life was tied to his heartbeat.
“Can you disable the switch?” I asked.
“Not remotely,” Meech said. “The archive system is isolated.”
“What about the command device?”
“It can open the doors, but the dead-man switch needs a physical override.”
“Where?”
Meech enlarged the image.
A black panel sat behind my father.
“Inside that room.”
“So somebody has to get past him.”
“And keep his heart beating while we disconnect Nesha.”
Dymond smiled without humor.
“That limits our options.”
I checked my gun.
“Not as much as you think.”
???
We entered through the building across the street.
Meech stayed in the SUV with Deon, who was losing too much blood to walk. He guided us through the underground passage using the command device.
Shay went first because she knew the guard rotation.
Dymond followed.
I came next.
Tasha stayed behind me.
The pain in my chest grew worse with every step.
I ignored it.
At the end of the tunnel, Shay held up one fist.
Voices sounded above us.
Two guards.
She climbed the ladder and knocked twice against the hatch.
One guard opened it.
“Deon?”
Shay shot him before he finished the name.
Dymond grabbed the second man and pulled him into the passage. Tasha struck him with the butt of her gun.
He dropped.
We entered the church basement.
Rows of metal shelves filled the room.
Boxes carried dates going back decades.
This wasn’t just a records facility.
It was history.
Every crime the Circle had committed.
Every official it owned.
Every person it had silenced.
A printer started by itself.
One sheet of paper slid into the tray.
I picked it up.
A photograph of me leaving the hospital garage less than an hour earlier.
Beneath it were four words.
WELCOME HOME, KEYSHIA CARTER.
“He knows we’re inside,” I said.
The basement lights turned red.
Doors slammed throughout the facility.
Meech’s voice came through Dymond’s earpiece.
“The device lost access.”
My father had cut us off.
Footsteps rushed toward the archive room.
Dymond pulled me behind a shelf as gunfire tore through the boxes.
Paper exploded around us.
Shay fired from the opposite side.
Tasha crawled toward the electrical panel.
“What are you doing?” I shouted.
“Giving us darkness.”
She fired into the panel.
The lights died.
The room became black.
Gunshots flashed from both directions.
I aimed at the bursts.
One man fell.
Dymond moved through the darkness like she had been trained for it.
Maybe she had.
A body struck the floor beside me.
Another man screamed.
Then silence.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Four guards lay dead.
Shay leaned against a shelf, breathing hard.
“You people are exhausting.”
A speaker crackled above us.
My father’s voice filled the archive.
“The room containing Nesha will seal in three minutes.”
“We have the device,” I shouted.
“Not anymore.”
Dymond looked at her empty coat pocket.
The command device was gone.
Shay cursed.
One of the guards had taken it during the shooting.
My father continued.
“Bring Dymond to the sanctuary, and I will release Nesha.”
“What do you want with her?”
“The Circle needs a leader.”
“She said no.”
“Leadership has never required consent.”
Dymond stepped toward the door.
I grabbed her.
“You’re not going.”
“Nesha has three minutes.”
“He’ll kill both of you.”
“Not before he gets what he wants.”
“What if what he wants is you dead?”
“Then make sure he doesn’t get it.”
She removed the silver lock from her neck and placed it in my hand.
The device Karen had given her through Camille.
The piece that opened the empire.
“This is useless now,” I said.
“No. The gold key opened the Carter accounts. The lock carried the transfer authorization.”
“For what?”
“My pending Circle position.”
I looked at the black device.
“You can give the position to somebody else?”
“If the command device is close enough.”
“Who?”
“Anyone with Carter blood.”
I understood.
“No.”
“You said you wanted to destroy the Circle.”
“I’m not becoming its leader.”
“You don’t have to lead it.”
“What’s the difference?”
Dymond looked toward the shelves surrounding us.
“A leader controls the Circle.”
She closed my fingers around the lock.
“An owner can erase it.”
The speaker announced two minutes remaining.
Dymond walked toward the sanctuary.
I followed.
“You’re not doing this alone.”
Neither were Tasha and Shay.