Chapter 8
Harrison arrived under escort.
He carried no manuscript.
Only photographs.
Shipping labels.
Bank records.
Messages.
Adriano watched him sit.
Harrison would not look at Damian.
“Where is the Psalter?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“When I know I’m walking out alive.”
Adriano’s voice stayed low.
“You came voluntarily.”
Harrison finally met his eyes.
“That didn't answer me.”
Fair.
Adriano leaned back.
“You cooperate. You leave with counsel.”
Damian laughed.
“Listen to him.”
Harrison’s shoulders tightened.
Damian continued.
“He makes promises after he already owns the room.”
Adriano did not react.
Harrison placed the messages on the table.
Damian had approached him three months earlier.
Not for theft.
For logistics.
He wanted access to North Harbor’s dormant vehicle permits and contractor identities.
Then the request changed.
A manuscript needed temporary transport.
Then a child.
Harrison refused the child.
Damian threatened to expose old tax violations and contract fraud tied to Harrison’s previous company.
Bernadette stared at Damian.
“You blackmailed him?”
Damian shrugged.
“He owed this family.”
Harrison’s eyes flashed.
“You destroyed my company.”
“No.”
Damian smiled.
“Adriano did.”
Power shifted again.
Harrison looked toward Adriano.
That old resentment remained real.
Damian had chosen him because the hatred was useful.
But Harrison had secretly copied everything.
He expected Damian eventually to blame him.
Smart.
Adriano asked:
“Why take possession of the Psalter?”
“Insurance.”
Harrison said Damian paid him $180,000 to store it for forty-eight hours.
The real buyer had not yet received it.
“Who?”
Harrison looked toward Damian.
“A collector named Elias Grant.”
Charlotte went pale.
Grant had attended the auction tonight.
Still inside the building earlier.
Adriano remembered him.
Quiet.
Gray-haired.
Left before the lockdown.
Enzo checked exit records.
Elias Grant departed at 8:52.
Four minutes before the duplicated Theo wristband was tested.
Harrison continued.
“Damian told Grant there'd be a family emergency around nine.”
Adriano’s eyes hardened.
Grant knew before Owen—Theo—disappeared.
He was not merely buying stolen property.
He was waiting for the crisis.
Then Harrison placed one final screenshot on the table.
A text from Damian:
If Carbone does what we expect, council moves by 10:30.
Adriano looked at Damian.
“What does Grant get if I’m removed?”
Harrison answered.
“Not the library.”
A pause.
“He gets your Boston distribution contracts.”
May you like
The stolen rare book had never been the prize.
It was financing for a larger takeover.
