Chapter 16 - The Shot
Caroline fired before anyone else could.
One shot.
Marcus jerked backward.
His ankle pistol went off into the ceiling.
Then he went still.
Tactical officers swarmed him.
Nathan stood frozen, staring at Caroline.
She dropped her weapon immediately and raised both hands.
“I warned you,” she said to Marcus, though I’m not sure he could hear her. “Fourteen years ago, I warned you.”
Paramedics rushed to Evan.
The bullet had entered his side and missed his spine, but he was losing blood fast.
He grabbed my wrist while they loaded him onto a stretcher.
“The drive,” he whispered.
“I have it.”
“Don’t give it to Richard.”
“I won’t.”
“Or Nathan.”
Nathan heard.
His face tightened, but he said nothing.
Evan was wheeled away.
Marcus was alive too. Barely.
Richard was handcuffed.
Not for shooting anyone.
For the fraud evidence already recovered and for leaving police custody.
He looked at me as Ortiz read him his rights.
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
I almost laughed.
“You keep saying that like it erases what you did.”
His eyes dropped.
For once, Richard Vale had no answer.
Nathan came toward me.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Caroline sat on the floor while an agent secured her weapon. Nathan looked at her, then away, then back again.
“You’re really alive.”
She gave a tired smile. “Mostly.”
He crouched several feet from her.
“Why didn’t you contact me?”
“I did. Twice. Your father intercepted both attempts.”
Richard closed his eyes.
Nathan looked at him with pure hatred.
Caroline continued. “By the time I could reach you safely, you were already deep inside the family business. I didn’t know if you were one of them.”
Nathan looked wounded.
I understood her.
Trust had become expensive.
Ortiz walked over. “Emma, we need that USB.”
I handed it to her.
She placed it in an evidence bag.
“What’s on it?” Nathan asked.
I looked at Richard.
“Something Evan thought could bury Marcus.”
Richard’s face changed.
“No.”
Ortiz noticed. “What is it?”
Richard pulled against the handcuffs.
“You cannot play that file.”
“Why?”
His voice dropped to a whisper.
“Because it proves Caroline’s crash wasn’t Marcus’s idea.”
Nathan stared at his father.
May you like
Richard looked at Victoria’s absent place in the family nightmare and said,
“It was mine.”
