Chapter 12 - The Harbor Ledger
The map led to an abandoned customs house on the edge of the East Boston waterfront.
Gabriel Reyes had purchased the property through a shell company twenty years earlier. Victor had searched it after Gabriel’s death and found nothing.
The ledger revealed why.
The building itself was not the hiding place.
The location marked on Gabriel’s map was beneath the harbor.
A decommissioned pedestrian tunnel connected the customs house to an old inspection platform nearly seventy yards offshore. The city had sealed the tunnel after flooding damaged its electrical system.
According to the ledger, Gabriel had stored duplicate records in a waterproof vault beneath the platform.
Victor planned to retrieve them the following night at low tide.
Dominic closed the ledger.
“He believes the chapel copy no longer exists.”
“Why return now?” Norah asked.
“Because Sebastian’s arrest makes the records dangerous.”
Marco studied the map.
“He may destroy the vault.”
“Then we let him try.”
Norah looked at Dominic.
“You are planning a trap.”
“Yes.”
“Using yourself.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
He turned toward her.
“Victor will not appear if police surround the location.”
“So you will go alone again?”
“Not alone.”
“You consider armed men hidden in tunnels an acceptable version of not alone.”
“It worked at the warehouse.”
“You were shot.”
“Superficially.”
Norah stared at him.
Dominic sighed.
“I will wear armor.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“It is more than I offered last time.”
She walked toward the chapel aisle.
The hospital was quiet around them. Candlelight moved against the old walls.
“You are becoming a father,” she said. “That means you cannot treat survival like an optional detail.”
Dominic followed her.
“I do not know another way to protect people.”
“You could trust them.”
“I trust Marco.”
“You use Marco.”
The words stopped him.
Norah turned.
“You trust him with operations, weapons, and secrets. Do you trust him to protect Lily if you are not standing beside him?”
“Yes.”
“Then let him.”
Dominic looked toward Marco.
Marco wisely pretended to examine the ledger.
“And me?” Norah asked.
“What about you?”
“Do you trust me to help decide what happens?”
“You are not entering a flooded tunnel.”
“That was not my question.”
Dominic’s gaze held hers.
“Yes.”
“Then listen when I tell you Lily needs you alive more than Victor needs to see you alone.”
Dominic remained silent for a long moment.
Finally, he said, “I will not enter until Victor is contained.”
Marco looked up, surprised.
Norah nodded.
“That is a beginning.”
The operation was coordinated with a federal task force instead of local police. The ledger contained enough evidence of bribery within Boston institutions to make secrecy necessary.
Victor’s vehicle reached the customs house at eleven forty-eight the following night.
Thermal cameras showed five men entering.
Victor walked in the center.
He wore a dark overcoat and carried Gabriel’s old cane, though he did not need it.
The cane concealed a blade.
Dominic remembered seeing it at family dinners.
“Positions,” the federal commander whispered.
Dominic watched from the mobile command unit beside Norah.
Lily remained at the Reyes estate with Elena, Mrs. Keating, and enough security to defend a government building.
Victor’s men cut the seal over the tunnel entrance.
They descended.
Cameras hidden earlier by Marco followed them through the darkness.
Water covered the floor to their ankles.
Victor reached the inspection platform vault and opened the outer door with a code preserved in Gabriel’s records.
Inside, he found an empty shelf.
Marco had removed the documents six hours earlier.
Victor stared at the empty space.
Then Dominic’s recorded voice played through the tunnel speakers.
“You are late.”
Victor looked toward the camera.
“Dominic.”
“Federal agents are waiting at both exits. Place your weapons on the ground.”
Victor smiled.
“You brought law enforcement into a Reyes matter.”
“You kidnapped a child.”
“I corrected a legal complication.”
Norah felt Dominic’s body tense beside her.
He did not respond emotionally.
“Your son has agreed to testify.”
“My son is weak.”
“Your son learned from you.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“You think a ledger makes you clean?”
“No.”
“Your father built everything you possess with the same methods you now condemn.”
“My father knew what he had become.”
“And you imagine love has changed you?”
Dominic glanced at Norah.
“It has made the alternative less impressive.”
Victor struck the camera with Gabriel’s cane.
The feed went black.
At the tunnel entrance, gunfire erupted.
Victor’s men had expected the trap.
Explosives detonated beneath the inspection platform.
The command screens shook.
Water rushed into the tunnel.
“He is collapsing the structure,” Marco said.
Federal teams entered from both sides.
Dominic stood.
Norah caught his hand.
“You promised.”
“Agents are trapped.”
“You promised not to enter until Victor was contained.”
“He is flooding the tunnel.”
“And trained rescue teams are moving.”
Dominic stared at the screen.
One officer’s body camera showed water rising to his waist.
A steel beam had fallen across the passage.
Victor moved beyond it toward the customs house.
“He is escaping through the north shaft,” Marco said.
Dominic looked at the map.
“The north shaft exits behind the command unit.”
Everyone turned.
A metal cover burst upward outside.
Victor emerged from the ground less than thirty feet away.
He fired at the command vehicle.
Glass shattered.
Agents returned fire.
Victor moved behind a concrete barrier.
Dominic pushed Norah down and reached for his weapon.
“Stay inside.”
He exited before she could stop him.
Victor’s men created covering fire from the tunnel shaft.
Dominic moved between vehicles.
“Victor!”
His uncle looked over the barrier.
For one second, they faced each other across the rain.
“You brought her here,” Victor shouted. “You still use the women you claim to protect.”
Norah heard him from inside the vehicle.
Dominic answered, “She came because she is not afraid of you.”
Victor fired.
The bullet struck Dominic’s armor and knocked him backward.
Norah screamed.
Dominic rose.
He fired once, striking Victor’s cane from his hand.
Federal agents closed from both sides.
Victor retreated toward the water.
A small boat waited beneath the platform.
He reached the ladder.
Then a woman stepped from the shadows and aimed a gun at him.
Celeste Morgan.
Victor stopped.
“You,” he said.
“You killed Gabriel.”
“You helped him hide the ledger.”
“I helped him understand what you were.”
Victor looked toward the surrounding agents.
Then he smiled.
“You believe any court will hold me?”
Celeste lifted a recording device.
“You confessed to sabotaging Gabriel’s boat twelve years ago. You were drunk enough to be proud.”
Victor’s face changed.
Dominic approached, one hand pressed against the armor where the bullet had struck.
Victor looked at him.
“You will become me.”
“No.”
“You already have blood on your hands.”
“Yes.”
“You think the nurse and the child erase it?”
“No.”
Dominic stopped several feet away.
“They give me a reason to stop adding more.”
Victor suddenly drew a second weapon from his ankle.
He aimed at Norah inside the command vehicle.
Dominic fired.
The bullet struck Victor’s shoulder.
Victor fell backward over the railing.
He hit the water below.
Agents rushed to the edge.
For several seconds, Victor did not surface.
Dominic stood frozen.
Then a hand broke through the black water.
Victor was alive.
A rescue officer pulled him toward the dock.
Dominic could have turned away.
Instead, he ordered, “Save him.”
Victor was dragged onto the platform coughing and bleeding.
Handcuffs closed around his wrists.
He looked up at Dominic with hatred.
“You should have let me drown.”
Dominic looked toward Norah.
“No,” he said. “My daughter would ask what I chose.”
At the estate, Lily remained awake despite Mrs. Keating’s efforts.
She ran toward Dominic when he entered after three in the morning.
He lifted her carefully.
“Did you catch the bad grandpa?”
“The police did.”
“Is he gone?”
“He cannot come near you.”
“Did you get hurt?”
Dominic looked down at the bruise forming beneath his shirt.
“No.”
Norah raised an eyebrow.
He corrected himself.
“A little.”
Lily touched the star-shaped bandage still attached to his forehead from the courthouse attack.
“You need more stars.”
“I probably do.”
She leaned against him.
“Can you stay until morning?”
Dominic looked at Norah.
She nodded.
He carried Lily upstairs.
Halfway to her room, she whispered, “Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Mommy said families don’t have to live in castles.”
“She is right.”
“Can families live here anyway?”
Dominic looked toward Norah walking beside him.
“That depends on your mother.”
Lily reached one hand toward Norah.
May you like
Norah took it.
For the first time, the three of them climbed the staircase together.
