Chapter 16 - noah’s courage
Dominic did not come alone.
That was the first rule of surviving men who demanded solitude.
He let them believe he did.
That was the second.
The note named a place Catherine would have remembered: Mercer Pier, an abandoned boathouse below the old shipping road, once used by Dominic’s father for legitimate cargo before legitimate became a costume. The pier had been sealed years earlier. Officially, it was unsafe.
Unofficially, unsafe places were useful.
Dominic drove himself.
Marco followed three minutes behind with no headlights.
Emma stayed with Natalie because someone had to hold her together and because Natalie had reached the dangerous stage of fear where she might try to follow.
Noah’s absence had hollowed the mansion.
Every room felt accused.
At the pier, fog moved low over the water.
Dominic stepped from the car with his hands visible. Wind pulled at his coat. The old boathouse stood ahead, gray and rotting, its doors chained but not locked.
He pushed inside.
“Noah.”
A small voice answered, “Uncle Dom?”
Dominic’s heart slammed.
The boy sat on an old wooden bench near the center of the boathouse. His hands were free. His face was wet with tears, but he was alive.
Beside him stood the man from the hearing.
Eli.
In person, the resemblance was worse.
He had Catherine’s eyes.
Dominic stopped ten feet away.
“Step away from him.”
Eli did not move.
“I didn’t hurt him.”
“You took him.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice became lethal. “Careful.”
Noah spoke quickly.
“He didn’t take me.”
Dominic looked at him.
Noah swallowed.
“I followed him.”
The words made no sense.
Then too much sense.
Dominic looked at Eli.
Eli’s expression was grim.
“I came to the property to leave another message. Your security is good, but not against someone who grew up learning service tunnels from the man who built them.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Noah saw you.”
“Yes.”
Noah whispered, “He looked like the picture.”
Dominic closed his eyes for one second.
The photograph.
Of course Noah had seen it.
“I asked if he was Elijah,” Noah said. “He told me to go back inside. I didn’t.”
Dominic looked at his nephew.
Later, there would be fear.
Later, anger.
Now, relief was too large.
Eli said, “I brought him here because Rane has someone inside your house.”
Dominic went still.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Convenient.”
“I know how it sounds.”
“No,” Dominic said. “You don’t.”
Eli stepped away from Noah, palms open.
“I didn’t file that petition to hurt him. I filed because Rane was going to file through a fake if I didn’t. I wanted the court to see my face before he buried me again.”
Dominic studied him.
“Why leave the threat note?”
“I didn’t.”
“The wooden horse?”
“That was mine. Rane used it to prove he could reach both of us.”
“Both?”
Eli’s mouth tightened.
“He left the same horse outside my apartment three days ago.”
Noah looked up at his uncle.
“He’s scared too.”
Dominic did not want that to matter.
It did.
A floorboard creaked above them.
All three looked up.
Eli moved first, pulling Noah down behind the bench as a shot shattered the window.
Dominic drew his weapon and fired toward the loft. A shadow dropped behind crates. Marco burst through the side door with two men, silent and fast.
The boathouse erupted.
Not into chaos.
Into precision.
Within twenty seconds, Marco’s team had the shooter pinned behind an old winch.
“Alive!” Dominic shouted.
The shooter tried to run.
Eli caught him with a tackle that sent both men crashing into stacked rope. Marco’s guard cuffed him.
Dominic pulled Noah into his arms.
The boy shook violently.
“I’m sorry,” Noah sobbed. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to help.”
Dominic held him tighter.
“You are never doing that again.”
“I know.”
“Say it.”
“I am never doing that again.”
“Good.”
Eli stood slowly, breathing hard. Blood trickled from a cut near his eyebrow.
Dominic looked at him.
“Why protect him?”
Eli’s answer came quietly.
“Because nobody protected me.”
The shooter was dragged into the light.
Dominic recognized him.
Peter.
The footman.
Emma’s ally.
The man who had slipped her the note about Brooke.
Noah whispered, “Peter?”
Peter would not meet his eyes.
Marco looked stunned.
Dominic’s grief turned sharp.
“Who paid you?”
Peter’s face crumpled.
“My sister needed surgery.”
Dominic stared.
“Who paid you?”
“Rane.”
“How long?”
Peter shook his head. “Not Brooke. I swear. I hated what Brooke did. The note I gave Emma was real. But Rane came after. He knew my family. He knew everything.”
Marco grabbed Peter by the collar.
“You let a child walk into danger.”
Peter sobbed. “I was supposed to scare them, not shoot. Rane’s man fired. I didn’t.”
Dominic looked at the loft.
Marco’s second guard called down, “There’s another body up here. Armed. Wounded, alive.”
Eli looked at Dominic.
“Rane is cleaning loose ends.”
Dominic’s phone rang.
Natalie.
He answered immediately.
“I have him.”
Her cry of relief nearly broke him.
“He’s safe?” she gasped.
“Yes. I’m bringing him home.”
Noah leaned toward the phone.
“Mom, I’m sorry!”
Natalie sobbed something unintelligible.
Dominic closed his eyes.
Then he looked at Eli.
The man who might be his brother stood in the ruin of their father’s world with blood on his face and loneliness in his eyes.
Dominic said, “You’re coming too.”
Eli gave a humorless smile.
May you like
“To the mansion?”
“To the truth.”
