Chapter 6
Marcus Vale was caught before he reached his car.
My men brought him upstairs.
He entered smiling.
Then saw me.
The smile faded.
“Colonel.”
“Marcus.”
He looked at Ryan.
Then Linda.
Not Emily.
Not first.
That told me who mattered in their arrangement.
I held up the tracker.
“Yours?”
He shrugged.
“Looks common.”
My captain tossed his receiver onto the bed.
Marcus stopped shrugging.
Linda snapped:
“You weren’t supposed to come here.”
He looked at her.
“You weren’t supposed to lose control.”
Ryan frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Marcus laughed.
“You still don’t know?”
Ryan turned toward his mother.
She looked away.
I almost smiled.
The traitor didn’t understand the whole plan.
Good.
I looked at Marcus.
“What happens Thursday?”
“Nothing.”
Linda:
“Don’t.”
He smiled.
“You’re not my boss.”
Her face hardened.
Marcus continued.
“Thursday, Bennett convoy takes North River.”
“My daughter gave them the route.”
Emily started crying.
I squeezed her hand.
“Continue.”
Marcus did.
“Two vehicles block the convoy.”
“And?”
“You’re separated.”
“Alive?”
He hesitated.
Linda stared at him.
Ryan whispered:
“Alive.”
Marcus laughed.
“You really believe that?”
The room changed.
Ryan looked at his mother.
“You said he’d be taken.”
Linda:
“He would.”
Marcus:
“Vale never said that.”
Ryan stood.
My guards pushed him back.
“What did Vale say?”
Marcus shrugged.
“Remove the colonel.”
Ryan’s face emptied.
He had imagined promotion.
Not murder.
Linda still looked calm.
Too calm.
I stared.
“You knew.”
She smiled.
“James, men like you don’t retire.”
Emily gasped.
Ryan turned on her.
“Mom.”
Linda snapped:
“What?”
“You said we’d make him step down.”
“I said what you needed to hear.”
There.
A mother using her son exactly as she taught him to use his wife.
Ryan finally tasted the structure he had imposed on Emily.
Useful until disobedient.
Marcus laughed.
“Family.”
Then my security captain entered again.
“Colonel, you need to see something.”
He held Emily’s confiscated phone.
One hidden voice memo had started automatically the last time Ryan locked her in the room.
Linda’s voice filled the bedroom.
“Once James is gone, the baby keeps Emily obedient.”
Emily stopped breathing.
I looked at Linda.
May you like
And realized even Ryan had never been the true leverage.
My unborn granddaughter was.
