Chapter 3 - The Cold Truth in the Rain
They moved Victor down the rear fire escape into an unmarked black utility van parked three blocks north. Evelyn drove, her hands steady on the worn steering wheel, while Darius knelt in the back stabilizing Victor's oxygen levels.
The Manhattan skyline slipped by through the rain-streaked windshield like giant, glowing headstones.
"The Cayman accounts," Darius said softly from the darkness behind her. "You saw eight million moving."
"Three separate wire batches," Evelyn answered without taking her eyes off the wet asphalt. "Routing through an offshore dummy named Vesper Holdings. I cross-referenced the registration date with the week your father went into cardiac arrest."
Darius went dead still. "My father?"
"Albert incorporated Vesper forty-eight hours before your father’s heart stopped," Evelyn said, her voice dropping into a somber register. "Your father didn't die of natural arrhythmia, Darius. His digital monitor log had a two-minute blackout during the night shift."
A sickening groan left Darius's throat. He pressed both hands against his temples, rocking back against the metal wall of the van.
"He sat across from me at the funeral," Darius whispered, his fingers curling into fists that dug into his scalp. "He held my hand when we threw the earth into the grave. He told me I was his son now."
"He wanted the crown without the war," Evelyn said. "He couldn't take it from your father while he lived, and he couldn't take it from you while I was standing between you and your blind spots."
"You warned me three weeks ago," Darius admitted, shame dripping from every syllable. "You told me the accounts felt wrong. I told you to stick to your charities and let the men handle business."
"Because I was just a nurse to you," she said, turning hard onto Tenth Avenue. "A pretty thing you plucked from an emergency room alley to make you feel human after a day of butchery."
"No," Darius cried out, moving up to the passenger seat, his eyes desperate for her glance. "Never that. I married you because you were the only real thing in a world made of glass and blood. I loved you so much it terrified me, Evelyn."
"You had a funny way of showing it, Darius."
"When Albert showed me those pictures of you in that booth with Romano, my brain snapped," he confessed, leaning toward her, his breath fogging the passenger glass. "I thought... I thought even the angel had taken a price. I thought if you could betray me, then God himself had turned his back on me."
"A real partner asks questions before signing an execution order," Evelyn said, stopping at a red signal on Fourteenth Street.
"I didn't order your execution!" he shouted defensively. "I sent you to London! I gave you Mayfair! I put five million in the bank for you!"
"You stripped off my guard and sent me into an open street with wolves circling," she retorted, turning her face to look dead into his eyes. "In your world, Darius, abandonment is an execution. You know that better than anyone."
He couldn't answer. He dropped his eyes, leaning his forehead against the cold dashboard.
May you like
The radio in the dashboard crackled. Victor’s handheld scanner chimed with an encrypted channel alert.
Albert’s voice echoed through the static, addressing his loyalist captains: "The nephew has gone dark. Secure the perimeter around the rail yard. When Lorenzo arrives with the bill of sale, the Costa family enters a new era."
