Chapter 5 - Her Father’s Voice
Grand Central at sunrise looked like a cathedral built for people in a hurry.
Mave had passed through it hundreds of times.
Never once had she imagined her father’s secrets were sleeping beneath the marble.
Vincent refused to storm the station with armed men.
Too many cameras. Too many civilians. Too many officers Donovan might own.
So they went quietly.
Vincent in a dark overcoat.
Mave in borrowed trousers and a sweater from the penthouse.
Leo and Felix thirty yards behind.
Marco stayed outside coordinating exits.
Frank Delaney had disappeared from the security cameras six minutes before they arrived.
Donovan too.
But the brass key fit a private records room operated by an old storage company beneath the east concourse.
The attendant looked at the account number Mave found in her father’s papers.
“Been paid every year,” he said.
“By who?” Mave asked.
“Cashier’s checks.”
“Name?”
He squinted at the screen.
“Northstar Relief Foundation.”
Vincent and Mave exchanged a look.
The attendant unlocked a steel gate.
Unit 317 contained only one object.
A small safe.
The key opened it.
Inside lay a ledger wrapped in oilcloth.
Mave almost touched it.
Vincent stopped her.
“Photograph everything first.”
She nodded.
Page after page contained names, dates, payments, shipping routes, motel addresses, police badge numbers, court docket numbers.
The infrastructure of an entire hidden criminal network.
Then Mave found her father’s name.
DANIEL SULLIVAN — INTERNAL AUDIT.
Beside it:
COOPERATING.
Then another entry.
D. SULLIVAN RELOCATED 10/14.
STATUS: LIVING.
The last update was only eight months old.
Mave pressed her hand over her mouth.
“He’s alive.”
Vincent said nothing.
He simply stood beside her while she cried.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Nineteen years left her in silence.
Finally she looked at him.
“You knew he might be.”
“I hoped.”
“You kept paying Delaney because he knew where my father was.”
“Yes.”
“Did Delaney ever tell you?”
“No. He said the promise was to Daniel, not to me.”
Mave looked at the ledger again.
“Then Donovan took him because he needs that location.”
Felix appeared at the entrance.
“We have company.”
Vincent closed the ledger.
“How many?”
“Two men. Maybe three.”
Mave tucked the ledger into a canvas document bag.
Vincent looked at her.
“That stays with me.”
“No.”
“Mave.”
“This is why everyone keeps losing. The powerful men take the evidence, make decisions, and tell everyone else they’re protecting them.”
“This isn’t a philosophical seminar.”
“Good. Because I’m leaving with my father’s ledger.”
A gunshot sounded above them.
Vincent stared at her for half a second.
Then he nodded once.
“Stay on my left.”
They moved through the service corridor.
A man appeared at the far end.
Vincent shoved Mave behind a steel column.
Leo tackled the attacker before he could aim.
Felix kicked the weapon away.
They reached a freight elevator.
Inside, Mave’s phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
She answered.
“Hello?”
Breathing.
Then Daniel.
“Mave.”
Tears filled her eyes instantly.
“Dad.”
Vincent watched her face.
Daniel sounded weak but conscious.
“You found the ledger.”
“How do you know?”
“Because William is furious.”
Mave gripped the phone.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Dad, please.”
“Listen to me. Delaney gave him the wrong address. He bought me time.”
“Is Frank alive?”
“For now.”
“Where are you?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Do you remember Lake Carmel?”
Mave’s heart stopped.
A lake cabin.
Summer weekends when she was little.
Her father teaching her to skip stones badly.
Her mother burning pancakes on a portable stove.
“Yes.”
“There’s a church north of the lake. White siding. Green roof.”
Vincent was already signaling Leo to write it down.
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“Don’t come unless Costa comes with you.”
Mave looked at Vincent.
“Why?”
“Because Anthony made him promise something.”
“What?”
The line crackled.
Then Daniel said, “That you would never have to choose between the truth and staying alive.”
Mave closed her eyes.
“Dad, I need to see you.”
“I know.”
“Please.”
A pause.
“I’m sorry, baby.”
The word shattered something inside her.
She had been thirty years old for months.
In his voice, she was ten again.
“I should have come home,” Daniel whispered. “Every day I told myself tomorrow would be safer. Then tomorrow became nineteen years.”
Mave wiped her face.
“Then make today different.”
Silence.
Then Daniel breathed, “Come before dark.”
The call ended.
Vincent took her shoulders gently.
“We go together.”
She nodded.
“Frank?”
Felix checked his phone.
“Nothing.”
The freight elevator opened into a loading bay.
They were almost outside when a black sedan screeched across the exit.
Donovan stepped out.
He looked older than Mave remembered from the office.
Not weaker.
Just exposed.
The gold Costa ring flashed on his hand.
“Give me the ledger.”
Vincent moved in front of Mave.
“You betrayed my father.”
Donovan smiled sadly.
“Your father betrayed himself. Too sentimental.”
“You killed my mother.”
“I arranged an accident.”
Vincent’s entire body changed.
Mave grabbed his sleeve before he could move.
“Vincent.”
His eyes never left Donovan.
Donovan saw the gesture and laughed.
“There it is. The Costa weakness. Always a woman.”
Vincent’s voice was quiet.
“My mother was not weakness.”
“No. She was leverage.”
Mave felt Vincent’s rage like heat.
Donovan lifted one hand.
Two men emerged behind the sedan.
“We can finish this without noise.”
Mave stepped beside Vincent.
“No.”
Donovan frowned.
She held up the document bag.
“You want this?”
His eyes fixed on it.
“Then tell me why Harborline is still paying Delaney.”
Donovan’s expression flickered.
Mave saw it.
Fear.
Not of Vincent.
Of the answer.
“You don’t know,” she said.
Donovan’s smile disappeared.
“You took Frank because you still don’t know where my father is.”
Nobody moved.
Mave understood.
“That means Frank lied to you.”
A phone rang inside Donovan’s coat.
He glanced down involuntarily.
That was enough.
Vincent moved.
Not toward Donovan.
Toward Mave.
He pulled her behind cover as Marco’s SUV crashed through the side gate.
Leo dragged Felix toward it.
Chaos erupted.
No prolonged gunfight.
Only seconds.
They escaped.
As Grand Central disappeared behind them, Mave clutched the ledger to her chest.
Vincent sat beside her.
He had chosen her over revenge.
She knew what it had cost him.
May you like
And for the first time, she reached for his hand.
He held on.
