Chapter 8 - NO MORE RUNNINGRose's hotel room was empty when police arrived.
There was blood near the bathroom.
Not much.
Enough.
The window was open.
A message had been written across the mirror in lipstick.
THE LOCKET STARTED THIS. THE LOCKET ENDS IT.
Sebastian wanted Evelyn.
Dominic refused to let her see the message at first.
She saw it anyway.
“He's done making us run,” she said.
Detective Ramos shook his head.
“He wants you emotional.”
“He succeeded.”
“That doesn't mean you give him what he wants.”
“What does he want?”
Dominic stared at the photograph of the mirror.
“Control.”
Evelyn touched the locket she still wore.
The police had returned it after photographing the key compartment.
“Why the locket?”
Rose had hidden the key inside it decades ago.
But Box 317 had already been opened.
Its evidence copied.
The locket should have been worthless.
Unless something else was hidden there.
Evelyn examined it again.
Dominic found a jeweler willing to come immediately.
Under magnification, he discovered microscopic engraving around the inner rim.
Numbers.
Coordinates.
A date.
Dominic entered the coordinates.
A location appeared.
An abandoned lakeside property in Vermont.
Owned by a company connected to Sebastian.
Rose had left one final trail.
The date matched Evelyn's fourth birthday.
Evelyn suddenly remembered something.
A cabin.
A lake.
Her mother singing.
A silver music box.
“I've been there.”
Dominic looked at her.
“When?”
“The last birthday I spent with Rose.”
Memory returned in fragments.
Candles.
A red coat.
Her mother crying after Evelyn fell asleep.
And a man arguing in another room.
Vincent Sterling.
By afternoon, federal agents surrounded the Vermont property.
Sebastian had anticipated them.
The cabin was empty.
But beneath the floorboards, agents discovered a tunnel leading toward the lake.
At its end sat a small boat.
Gone.
“Where does the lake connect?” Evelyn asked.
Ramos pointed at a map.
“River system. Several exits.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What do you remember?”
“A boathouse.”
“There isn't one here.”
“Not this cabin.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
She had been four.
Memory was unreliable.
Blue walls.
A weather vane shaped like a horse.
A bridge nearby.
She described it.
Agents searched property records.
Twenty minutes later they found a location seven miles away.
Old Sterling hunting lodge.
Dominic stared.
“My father sold that before I was born.”
“To whom?”
He checked.
A shell company.
Of course.
They approached quietly.
Evelyn remained with officers this time.
She had learned at least one lesson.
Federal agents entered.
A gunshot rang out.
Then another.
Evelyn's heart stopped.
Radio traffic exploded.
“Suspect moving east!”
“Hostage located!”
“Medic!”
Evelyn ran before anyone could stop her.
Rose was inside the boathouse tied to a railing.
Alive.
Bleeding from the forehead.
“Mom!”
Rose looked up.
“Evie?”
Evelyn dropped beside her.
For the second time in days, she faced the possibility of losing Rose immediately after finding her.
“No more disappearing.”
Rose laughed weakly.
“I'll do my best.”
“That's not good enough.”
“Bossy.”
“I learned from you.”
Dominic entered behind them.
“Sebastian?”
An agent shook his head.
“Ran into the woods.”
A helicopter moved overhead.
Dogs tracked the shoreline.
For four hours, nothing.
Then Cassandra called.
From federal detention.
She asked to speak to Evelyn.
Evelyn initially refused.
Then curiosity won.
Cassandra appeared behind thick glass.
She looked different without expensive makeup and perfect hair.
Younger.
Smaller.
“What do you want?”
“I know where Sebastian will go.”
“Tell the FBI.”
“They don't believe me.”
“Why should I?”
“Because he raised me.”
Evelyn's expression hardened.
“You said Gregory was your father.”
“He is.”
“But?”
“Sebastian trained me.”
Cassandra looked away.
“When I was fifteen, my father started taking me to meetings. Sebastian taught me how to read people.”
“And how to whip employees?”
Cassandra's face tightened.
“No.”
“That part was all you.”
“Yes.”
The admission was immediate.
Good.
Evelyn wasn't interested in redemption that erased responsibility.
“Where will he go?”
“Sterling Manor.”
Evelyn laughed.
“It's surrounded by police.”
“That's why he'll go there.”
“Why?”
“Because there's one thing he cares about more than freedom.”
“What?”
“The original Sterling ledger.”
Dominic had mentioned it.
A handwritten ledger kept by his grandfather.
Rumored to contain every transaction during the family's criminal years.
It had never been found.
“He thinks Vincent hid it inside the house,” Cassandra said.
“Did he?”
“I don't know.”
“Why tell me?”
Cassandra's eyes watered.
“Because if Sebastian gets away, my father will keep thinking everything we did had a purpose.”
“And you don't?”
“I ruined my life trying to satisfy men who would've traded me for an extra hour of freedom.”
She looked at Evelyn.
“I don't want to spend the rest of it pretending that was loyalty.”
Evelyn stood.
“That doesn't make us friends.”
“I know.”
“It doesn't erase what you did.”
“I know.”
“And I may testify against you.”
Cassandra nodded.
“You should.”
Evelyn paused.
“For whatever it's worth, telling the truth now matters.”
Cassandra's mouth trembled.
“Thank you.”
By midnight, Sterling Manor looked empty.
It wasn't.
Agents were hidden throughout the property.
Dominic and Evelyn waited in the library.
“You didn't have to be here,” he said.
“Neither did you.”
“My house.”
“My family got dragged into your family's nightmare.”
“Fair.”
He looked at her.
“You say that a lot.”
“Because you occasionally make sense.”
“High praise.”
The lights suddenly went out.
Dominic stood.
A crash came from the hall.
Then the hidden library door opened.
Sebastian stepped through.
He smiled.
“How touching.”
A gun rested in his hand.
Dominic moved in front of Evelyn.
Sebastian laughed.
“Always protecting women who don't need you to.”
Evelyn replied, “At least he's consistent.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“You have Rose's mouth.”
“So I've heard.”
“Where's the ledger?”
Dominic said, “Doesn't exist.”
“Vincent found it.”
“And burned it.”
For the first time, Sebastian looked afraid.
“You're lying.”
“My father wrote about it.”
“No.”
“He said the old ledger had become a religious object for you. Proof that Grandfather's empire had once mattered.”
Sebastian's face twisted.
“It is history.”
“No,” Dominic said. “It's a list of crimes.”
“It built everything you have!”
“And that's the problem.”
Sebastian aimed the gun.
“Where is it?”
Dominic looked directly at him.
“Gone.”
Sebastian fired.
Evelyn screamed.
Dominic fell.
Agents burst through both doors.
Sebastian turned.
He never got another shot.
Three officers tackled him.
The weapon skidded across the floor.
Evelyn dropped beside Dominic.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
“Dominic.”
He opened his eyes.
“That's embarrassing.”
“You've been shot!”
“Shoulder.”
“You're bleeding.”
“I noticed.”
She pressed both hands against the wound.
Sebastian was dragged upright.
For the first time, the legendary man looked old.
Not powerful.
Not untouchable.
Just old.
He stared at Dominic.
“You destroyed your family.”
Dominic gritted his teeth.
“No.”
He looked at Evelyn.
“We stopped letting dead men decide who we had to become.”
Sebastian was taken away.
Evelyn remained beside Dominic until paramedics arrived.
When they lifted him onto the stretcher, he caught her hand.
“You okay?”
She stared at him.
“You got shot and you're asking me?”
“Yes.”
She laughed through tears.
“Idiot.”
“Is that affection?”
May you like
“Survive and maybe I'll clarify.”
His smile stayed with him all the way to the ambulance.
