Chapter 17 - The Bluff at the Docks
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Dante and Delaney exchanged a razor-sharp look across the steel table. Fifty feet down the hallway, behind two locked steel doors, Noel was asleep under heavy guard.
"Viktor lied to him," Delaney mouthed silently to Dante. "When Viktor’s ambush failed at the conservatory, he realized Preston wouldn't pay him the two million—so he told Preston they successfully grabbed Noel and are holding her at the pier."
Dante’s eyes gleamed with cold, predatory satisfaction. He leaned down toward the speakerphone, letting a convincing tremor of controlled fury enter his voice.
"Put my sister on the phone, Preston," Dante demanded.
"She’s gagged in the back of Viktor’s van right now," Preston bluffed, his voice cracking with desperate arrogance. "You come to Pier 9 alone at six o'clock. Bring the signed release revoking the audit on my father’s banks, and bring the bartender who broke my arm. I want to watch Viktor put a bullet in her kneecaps before I get on the boat. If I see a single one of your Escalades within half a mile, Viktor drops the van into the harbor."
The line went dead.
Dante straightened up and immediately reached for his holster.
"Tell the sniper team to take the cranes above Berth 4," Dante ordered his lieutenant at the door. "I’m going down there to tear his heart out."
"Wait," Delaney said, stepping in front of him and catching his lapel with her good hand. "Preston has Marcus with him. Marcus worked counter-surveillance for twelve years before the Meridian hired him—he’ll spot your cars the second you pass the harbor gate, and Preston will bolt to the coast guard cutter before you get within range."
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"Then what do you suggest?" Dante asked narrowly.
"Give him what he asked for," Delaney said, a fierce, cold smile touching the corner of her mouth. "Send me in through the front gate alone with my hands tied. While Marcus and Preston are busy gloating over me, your snipers take the high ground from the water side."
