Chapter 18 - The Meeting at Pier 18

Nico recognized the shell company immediately. He had created it years earlier to acquire distressed properties. After stepping back, he had allowed Gideon to retain signing authority.

"He plans to make you the owner of the mess at closing," Dahlia said. "Then he'll claim he sold to an independent business."

"It isn't independent."

"Exactly."

Simone and the task force secured emergency orders to preserve the records and freeze the planned sale. Gideon was informed through counsel that the closing could not proceed.

That night he called Nico directly.

"You always wanted to be the respectable one," Gideon said. "Come to Pier 18. Tell me how respectability is working out."

Simone nodded toward the recorder.

"I'm coming," he replied. "But we're finished hiding things for each other."

He arrived at the pier with a wire and no weapon. Officers watched from positions around the warehouse. The old shipping office smelled of rust, wet rope, and stale coffee.

Gideon stood by a table stacked with ledgers.

"Father would've laughed at you," he said. "All this guilt over a cleaner."

"Her name is Mara Reed."

"I know her name. That's the problem. She learned all the others."

"The missing workers?"

Gideon poured himself a drink with a hand that shook slightly. "They signed contracts. Nobody forced them to take jobs."

"You kept their documents and trapped them with debts."

"I managed what you signed. Don't pretend you stood outside it."

"I'm not pretending." Nico moved closer. "I gave you the system. You used it to hurt people. Both things can be true."

For the first time, Gideon seemed unsure what to say.

"You would testify against me?"

"Yes."

Gideon laughed, a small broken sound. "Then you don't know what loyalty means."

"I think I finally do."

A siren rose in the distance. Gideon glanced toward the warehouse door and realized what the wire beneath Nico's collar meant.

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He reached under the table, pulled a flare from a metal box, and struck it against the wall.

The stacks of ledgers caught fire before Nico could reach him.