CHAPTER 21 #2
“Get out.”
“This is my vehicle.”
“And this is your gun.”
He slowly stepped onto the street.
I moved behind the wheel.
“Serena is dangerous,” he said.
“So are you.”
“She wants Dymond’s blood authorization.”
“For what?”
“Ask her why your grandfather called her the key.”
“You said she controlled the empire.”
“She controls its original identity system. But Karen erased her biological access after killing their father.”
“So Serena needs another Carter woman.”
“Not just any Carter.”
“Dymond.”
“Victor’s blood and Karen’s blood. She connects the Circle to the Carter Empire.”
I started the engine.
Harris held the door.
“If you go alone, Serena will take you too.”
“Then tell me where she is.”
“I don’t know.”
“You said she operates medical facilities.”
“Three we’ve identified. She changes locations.”
My phone vibrated.
A text from Serena.
An address.
1427 WEST ORMSBY AVENUE
Beneath it was a photograph of Dymond lying on an operating table.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT YOUR SISTER TO LIVE.
I showed Harris.
“That property burned ten years ago,” he said.
“Apparently it got better.”
“Keyshia, wait for backup.”
“Whose backup? The paid police? The corrupted federal agents? The Circle members pretending to be doctors?”
“I can help you.”
“You’ve helped enough.”
I pulled away, leaving him beneath the railroad bridge.
???
The address led to an abandoned funeral home in Old Louisville.
The sign had been removed, but lighter bricks showed where the name once hung.
No ambulance.
No guards.
No lights.
I parked in the alley and entered through an unlocked back door.
The hallway smelled like bleach and old flowers.
A red trail marked the floor.
Blood.
Dymond’s.
I followed it through a preparation room.
Metal tables lined the walls.
Cabinets held surgical equipment instead of embalming tools.
This was Serena’s private hospital.
A voice came through a speaker.
“Place the gun on the table.”
I looked toward the ceiling camera.
“Show me Dymond.”
A monitor turned on.
Dymond lay unconscious beneath surgical lights.
A doctor worked near the wound in her back.
Her heart monitor beeped steadily.
“She’s alive,” Serena said.
“For now.”
“The bullet damaged her lung. My surgeon is repairing it.”
“Why?”
“Because I need her alive.”
Harris had been right.
“What do you need from her?”
“Place the gun down.”
I set it on the table.
“Now your second weapon.”
“I only have one.”
“Your mother taught all her daughters to lie poorly.”
I removed the gun strapped near my ankle.
A door unlocked at the end of the hallway.
“Come in.”
Serena waited inside an office.
She looked older than Karen but younger than I expected. The silver hair made guessing difficult. The scar across her cheek stretched from her temple to the corner of her mouth.
She had my mother’s smile.
But her eyes were mine.
Or mine were hers.
“You held my son’s hand.”
“Jayce is a remarkable child.”
“Stay away from him.”
“I wanted to meet my family.”
“You could’ve knocked on the door.”
“Karen would’ve had me killed before you opened it.”
“Why?”
Serena opened a drawer and removed an old photograph.
Three girls stood outside First Carter Bank.
Karen was the oldest.
A second girl stood beside her.
The third was Serena.
The middle girl’s face had been scratched away.
“Who is that?”
“Our sister Simone.”
“Where is she?”
“Dead.”
“Karen?”
“No.”
“Victor?”
“No.”
“Then who killed her?”
Serena touched the scar across her face.
“I did.”
I stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because Simone murdered our father.”
“Momma admitted she poisoned him.”
“Karen poured the poison.”
Serena sat behind the desk.
“Simone gave it to her.”
“Why would Momma take the blame?”
“Because Simone was the daughter our father loved.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Love rarely does.”
Serena slid another photograph toward me.
My grandfather stood beside Victor Hale.
Between them was the middle sister.
Simone.
She wore a silver circle around her neck.
“Simone was Victor’s first choice to inherit the Circle,” Serena said. “Karen believed killing our father would free all of us. Instead, it gave Simone control.”
“What happened?”
“She ordered Karen’s death.”
“The accident.”
“Yes.”
“But Momma survived.”
“Because Kendrick pulled her from the car.”
“And you?”
“I confronted Simone. She shot me.”
Serena traced the scar.
“I shot back.”
“You killed your sister.”
“I saved Karen.”
“Then why does she hate you?”
“Because I refused to give her the command device.”
“The same one Monica has?”
“Monica holds a copy. I have the original.”
Serena opened another drawer.
Inside was a gold device engraved with a silver circle.
“The empire key.”
“No. The first Circle key. Your grandfather used its network to create the Carter system.”
“Why are you called the real key to the empire?”
“Because the money Karen liquidated was only the public reserve.”
My stomach tightened.
“How much remains?”
“Not money.”
“What?”
“Information that was never stored beneath the church. The names of every founder’s child. Every hidden heir. Every account created for the next generation.”
“Children.”
“More than four hundred of them.”
The Circle had built an inheritance system from human beings.
Children raised without knowing what waited for them.
Children like Dymond.
Children like Nesha.
Children like Jayce and Amaya.
“What do you plan to do with the list?”
“Erase it.”
I studied her face.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I had thirty years to claim the empire and never did.”
“You watched my children.”
“To make sure Victor hadn’t reached them.”
“He did.”
“After Kendrick frightened you with Nesha’s photograph and pushed you into the open.”
“So Nesha took one picture and you took another.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you stop my father?”
“Because your father believed he was protecting you.”
“He killed Dre.”
“I didn’t know until it happened.”
“Everybody knows the truth after somebody dies.”
Serena nodded.
“Fair.”
A buzzer sounded.
The surgeon’s voice came through the speaker.
“We need the donor.”
Serena stood.
“What donor?”
“You.”
I backed toward the door.
“She lost too much blood.”
“Use a blood bank.”
“Dymond has a rare antibody caused by the treatments Victor ordered when she was a child.”
“What treatments?”
“Her adoptive parents believed she had childhood anemia. Victor’s doctors were altering her blood markers to make her compatible with the Circle system.”
“That’s insane.”
“That was Victor.”
“Why am I compatible?”
“Karen’s daughters carry the same marker.”
“I was already shot and donated blood yesterday.”
“Without your blood, Dymond dies.”
I looked toward the monitor.
The machine beside Dymond began alarming.
Her blood pressure was dropping.
Serena didn’t need to threaten me.
She knew what I would choose.
“Take it.”
The doctor led me into the operating room.
I lay on a second table beside Dymond.
A tube connected our arms.
My blood moved toward my sister.
Her face remained still.
Pale.
Bruised.
Alive.
I reached for her hand.
“You better not die after taking my blood.”
Her fingers didn’t move.
The surgeon worked.
Minutes passed.
My head grew light.
Serena stood behind the glass watching both of us.
A door opened behind her.
Agent Harris entered.
Gun raised.
He pressed it against the back of Serena’s head.
She didn’t look surprised.
“You came faster than expected,” she said.
Harris removed the original command device from her desk.
“Step away from the glass.”
“If you interrupt the transfusion, Dymond dies.”
“I’m not here for Dymond.”
He held up the device.
“I’m here for this.”
Serena smiled at me through the window.
“I told you he was lying.”
Harris looked toward the surgeon.
“Finish the operation.”
Then he turned toward Serena.
“Open the heir registry.”
“No.”
He cocked the gun.
“Four hundred children are worth more than every dollar Karen destroyed.”
Serena’s eyes moved toward me.
Not afraid.
Warning me.
Harris wasn’t trying to save Dymond.
He wanted the children’s identities.
He wanted the next Circle.
I tried to sit up.
The doctor pushed me down.
“You’ll tear the line.”
Harris entered the operating room.
He placed the gold device beside the computer.
“Serena’s blood won’t open it anymore.”
His eyes moved toward the tube connecting Dymond and me.
“But yours will.”
The screen turned on.
Two names appeared.
DYMOND CARTER
KEYSHIA CARTER
Harris smiled.
“Two keys are better than one.”