Chapter 7 - The Boy Who Refused to Be a Blackwood
“ADRIAN!”
I reached him before the train cleared the platform.
Blood spread across his side.
Agent Shaw and two officers rushed forward.
“Pressure on the wound!”
I dropped beside him.
“No. No, no, no.”
Adrian grabbed my wrist.
“Train.”
“They’ll stop it.”
“Train, Lena.”
Shaw shouted into her radio.
“Lock down every rail corridor! I want that train stopped!”
Adrian tried to stand.
I pushed him down.
“You were shot.”
“It went through.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’ve been shot before.”
“That is not comforting!”
He almost smiled.
Then his face twisted with pain.
“Ethan saw me fall.”
My anger broke into tears.
“He’ll think you’re dead.”
“Then go tell him I’m not.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Go.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Lena.”
He pressed his hand against mine over the wound.
“Get our son.”
Our son.
This time I did not flinch.
I stood.
Agent Shaw looked at me.
“Come with me.”
The train never left Los Angeles County.
Federal authorities redirected it onto a maintenance line near Commerce.
When tactical units boarded, Roman was gone.
So was Ethan.
They found the conductor unconscious.
A maintenance hatch open.
A bloodstained handkerchief.
Not Ethan’s blood.
Roman’s people had transferred vehicles beneath an overpass.
But Ethan had left something behind.
His stuffed dinosaur.
I held it against my chest.
Inside its zippered back pocket, we found a folded piece of paper.
Ethan’s handwriting.
MOM
BIG WHITE TRUCK
BAD MAN SAYS WE GO TO BOATS
HE DOESN’T KNOW I CAN SPELL MARINA
I started crying.
Agent Shaw smiled.
“Smart kid.”
“He corrected his teacher’s spelling last month.”
“What marina?”
I looked at the note again.
Ethan had drawn something beneath the words.
Three stacked circles.
A tower.
Adrian would know.
I called the ambulance.
He answered on the second ring.
“You found him?”
“He left a note.”
I described the drawing.
Adrian immediately said, “Cabrillo.”
“What?”
“Cabrillo Marina. There’s a lighthouse-shaped restaurant sign near the private slips.”
Shaw was already moving.
We reached San Pedro fourteen minutes later.
Police surrounded the marina.
Adrian’s security arrived separately.
And to my fury, an ambulance pulled up.
Adrian climbed out.
I stared.
“You left the hospital?”
“I wasn’t admitted.”
“You were shot!”
“Technically grazed.”
“Your shirt is full of blood.”
“Most of it is dry.”
I wanted to hit him.
Instead, I hugged him.
Hard.
He froze.
Then wrapped both arms around me.
“Don’t ever do that again,” I whispered.
“Get shot?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll add it to the list.”
Shaw cleared her throat.
“We have movement.”
A private yacht had left six minutes earlier.
Registered to a shell company.
Heading south.
Coast Guard units moved to intercept.
Roman was aboard.
So was Ethan.
I thought the nightmare would end there.
I was wrong.
Roman anticipated the Coast Guard.
The yacht turned back toward shore, then deliberately rammed a fuel dock.
Smoke erupted.
People screamed.
Adrian ran toward the water.
“Ethan!”
A man emerged from the yacht carrying him.
Roman.
Flames rose behind them.
Roman held a gun against Ethan’s head.
Every weapon on the dock lifted.
Ethan was crying.
But standing.
Alive.
“Dad!”
The word tore through the marina.
Adrian stopped.
I stopped.
Even Roman looked surprised.
Ethan stared at Adrian.
“Dad, he’s crazy!”
Despite everything, someone behind us made a strangled sound that might have been laughter.
Adrian’s face broke.
“Yeah, buddy.”
His voice shook.
“I know.”
Roman tightened his grip.
“Interesting.”
“Let him go,” Adrian said.
Roman looked at him.
“You finally have an heir.”
“I have a son.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Roman smiled.
“That woman made you weak.”
Adrian glanced at me.
“No.”
Then looked at Ethan.
“She reminded me I had been weak for years.”
Roman’s smile vanished.
“You abandoned your duty.”
“I abandoned yours.”
“You inherited an empire.”
“I inherited a disease.”
Roman’s face hardened.
Ethan looked confused.
“I thought I had the disease.”
Adrian almost laughed.
“Different disease, buddy.”
Roman shoved the gun harder against Ethan’s temple.
“Enough.”
Adrian became still.
“What do you want?”
“Transfer control of the family trust to Julian.”
“No.”
“Then the boy dies.”
My heart stopped.
Adrian did not hesitate.
“Do it.”
Roman blinked.
So did I.
Adrian looked at Shaw.
“Get the documents.”
Roman narrowed his eyes.
“You would give up everything?”
Adrian stared at Ethan.
“Yes.”
“Eleven billion dollars?”
“Yes.”
“Companies your grandfather built?”
“Yes.”
“Your name?”
Adrian’s voice softened.
“For him, yes.”
Ethan began crying harder.
“Dad, don’t give him your house.”
Adrian smiled.
“I’ll find another one.”
“I like this one.”
“We’ll discuss real estate later.”
Roman shouted.
“STOP!”
Everyone froze.
Roman looked furious.
Because his test had failed.
He expected Adrian to choose power.
That was what Roman would have done.
What every Blackwood before Adrian might have done.
But Adrian chose Ethan.
Roman had no weapon left except the gun.
And Ethan realized it.
My son looked down.
Then suddenly bit Roman’s hand.
Hard.
Roman screamed.
Ethan ducked.
Adrian lunged.
Three shots exploded.
I hit the dock.
When I looked up, Roman was on the ground.
Adrian had Ethan beneath him.
Protecting him.
Alive.
“ETHAN!”
I ran.
He threw himself into me.
“Mom!”
I held him so tightly he complained.
“I can’t breathe.”
“Too bad.”
Adrian sat beside us.
Ethan reached for him.
“You got shot again?”
“Not this time.”
“Good.”
Then Ethan wrapped one arm around each of us.
For several seconds, the entire world disappeared.
Police.
Fire.
Sirens.
Blackwoods.
Money.
Blood.
Only three people remained.
A mother.
A father.
A little boy who had survived people far more powerful than him.
Roman survived too.
One bullet struck his shoulder.
Another his thigh.
Federal agents loaded him into an ambulance under heavy guard.
As they passed us, Roman opened his eyes.
He looked at Ethan.
“You are a Blackwood.”
Ethan buried his face against Adrian.
Then looked back.
“No.”
Roman smiled faintly.
“You can’t change your blood.”
Ethan frowned.
“I know.”
He looked at me.
Then Adrian.
“My mom says blood tells you where you came from.”
His little hand tightened around mine.
“But you choose who you become.”
Roman’s smile vanished.
Adrian stared at Ethan.
I recognized the words.
I had told Ethan that after a classmate once teased another child for being adopted.
I never imagined they would become the sentence that defeated Roman Blackwood.
Roman was carried away.
I thought it was over.
Then Agent Shaw approached.
Her expression was grim.
“Adrian.”
“What?”
“We have a problem.”
She held out Roman’s phone.
“There’s a scheduled message.”
“To who?”
“We don’t know.”
“What does it say?”
Shaw read aloud.
“If I fail, activate Gabriel.”
Adrian went pale.
I stared at him.
“What is Gabriel?”
He looked toward the ambulance carrying his father.
“Not what.”
His voice dropped.
“Who.”
I remembered the brother Adrian said had died when he was nineteen.
Gabriel Blackwood.
May you like
The dead brother.
Apparently, in this family, graves meant almost nothing.
