Chapter 4 - The Betrayal Inside Blackridge
Ethan fell across me.
For one second, I thought he was dead.
Then he gasped.
“Claire…”
Blood spread across the side of his jacket.
“Ethan!”
Roman dragged us behind a concrete barrier.
Victor and the others returned fire toward the warehouse entrance.
“Stay down!” Roman shouted.
Despite the sling, he pulled Ethan farther behind cover.
I pressed both hands against Ethan’s wound.
“Look at me.”
His face had turned gray.
“Claire…”
“Don’t talk.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop.”
“I need you to know—”
“You can apologize when you’re not bleeding on me.”
Strangely, he laughed.
Roman shouted into his radio.
“East team, close the loading bay!”
Nothing.
He looked at Victor.
“Where are they?”
Victor tried again.
No response.
Roman’s expression changed.
“They switched.”
“What?” I asked.
“More of my men are with Dean.”
A crashing sound came from the rear entrance.
Victor grabbed my shoulder.
“We need to move.”
Roman helped me lift Ethan.
We reached a utility corridor.
Gunfire continued outside.
Ethan whispered, “There’s a tunnel.”
Roman looked down.
“What?”
“Old Harbor Nine smuggling route.”
“You knew about it?”
“Under the office.”
We found a steel hatch beneath a rotting desk.
Victor opened it.
Dark stairs descended underground.
Roman looked at me.
“You first.”
I helped Ethan down.
Victor followed.
Roman came last.
The tunnel smelled like salt and rust.
After several hundred feet, we emerged near the river.
A vehicle waited.
One of Roman’s drivers jumped out.
“Boss!”
Roman raised his weapon.
The driver froze.
Roman asked, “Who told you to come?”
“Victor.”
Victor nodded.
Only then did Roman lower the gun.
That was how deeply the betrayal had gone.
Nobody trusted anybody.
We drove directly to a private clinic.
Ethan went into surgery.
I stood outside the operating room with blood on my hands.
Roman approached.
“You should wash.”
I looked down.
“I hated him for three years.”
“You still can.”
“I wanted him to hurt.”
“That’s different from wanting him dead.”
I looked at Roman.
“You understand that?”
“Yes.”
There was something in his answer that made me wonder how many people he had loved and hated at the same time.
Victor entered.
“We have a bigger problem.”
Roman sighed.
“Of course we do.”
“Blackridge Estate is compromised.”
“How many?”
“Eleven guards have disappeared.”
“Dean?”
“Gone.”
“My accounts?”
“Somebody initiated transfers twenty minutes ago.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“Amounts?”
“Forty-six million.”
“To where?”
“Shell companies.”
Roman laughed without humor.
“So while Dean was trying to kill me, someone else was emptying the vault.”
I asked, “Dean?”
Roman shook his head.
“He isn’t smart enough to run both operations during a firefight.”
Victor looked grim.
“Someone above Dean.”
“Voss?”
“Maybe.”
A nurse approached.
“Ms. Bennett?”
“Yes?”
“Your husband is stable.”
“Ex-husband.”
She nodded awkwardly.
“The bullet missed major organs. He’s very lucky.”
I sat down.
Roman stood beside me.
Victor’s phone buzzed.
He checked it.
Then froze.
“Boss.”
“What?”
Victor handed him the phone.
Security footage.
Blackridge Estate.
A woman entered Roman’s office using a private code.
Elegant.
Silver-haired.
Maybe sixty.
Roman’s face drained of color.
“Who is that?” I asked.
“My mother.”
I stared.
“You told everyone she lives in Italy.”
“She does.”
“Apparently not.”
Roman watched the video.
His mother, Evelyn Hail, walked directly to his safe.
She entered the combination without hesitation.
Then removed a black ledger.
Roman whispered, “No.”
“What is it?”
Victor answered for him.
“The original shipping ledger.”
Roman took the phone back.
“That ledger contains every private contract Blackridge has handled for fifteen years.”
“Including illegal contracts?”
Roman looked at me.
“Yes.”
“If Voss gets it?”
“He can use selected pages to destroy Roman while hiding his own operation,” Victor said.
I looked at Roman.
“What do we do?”
His answer came immediately.
“We go home.”
Victor frowned.
“Blackridge is full of traitors.”
“Then it’s exactly where I need to be.”
We returned after midnight.
The estate looked different.
Same marble.
Same iron gates.
Same manicured hedges.
But now every shadow felt hostile.
Roman walked through the front doors with no sling.
He had cut it off at the clinic.
“That’s medically stupid,” I said.
“Probably.”
Lily came running from the upstairs hallway.
“Mommy!”
Mrs. Dalton was behind her.
I nearly collapsed.
I grabbed Lily.
“Oh my God.”
She wrapped herself around me.
“I had grilled cheese.”
I laughed through tears.
Roman looked at Mrs. Dalton.
“Thank you.”
She crossed her arms.
“I don’t like you.”
Victor coughed.
Roman nodded.
“Fair.”
“But that child loves you.”
Roman glanced at Lily.
“I’m beginning to notice.”
We moved everyone to the central library.
Roman’s remaining loyal guards secured the doors.
At 1:14 a.m., a black town car entered the courtyard.
Roman watched through the window.
His mother stepped out.
Evelyn Hail was beautiful in the way expensive people often are.
Controlled.
Perfect.
Untouchable.
Roman went downstairs.
I followed.
He heard me.
“You should stay with Lily.”
“I’m tired of being told where to stay.”
“Claire.”
“Also, I want to meet the woman who stole your ledger while people were trying to kill you.”
He almost smiled.
“Fine.”
Evelyn entered.
She looked at Roman’s stitches.
“You look terrible.”
“Hello, Mother.”
Her eyes moved to me.
“And you brought the maid.”
I stiffened.
Roman’s voice went cold.
“Her name is Claire.”
Evelyn removed her gloves.
“I know exactly who she is.”
I stared.
Roman did too.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn looked at me.
“Claire Bennett. Former wife of Ethan Bennett. Mother of Lily Bennett.”
“You know us?”
“Of course.”
Roman stepped closer.
“Why?”
His mother smiled sadly.
“Because Claire’s father worked for your father.”
My mouth went dry.
“My father died when I was fourteen.”
“No,” Evelyn said.
“He disappeared when you were fourteen.”
Roman looked between us.
“What was Claire’s father’s name?”
“Thomas Ward.”
Victor inhaled sharply.
Roman turned toward him.
“You know that name?”
Victor answered carefully.
“Thomas Ward was your father’s accountant.”
Evelyn placed the black ledger on the table.
“And the only man who ever stole from the Hail family and lived long enough to hide the money.”
I stared at her.
“My father wasn’t a thief.”
Evelyn’s expression softened.
“No, Claire.”
She looked directly at me.
“He was a witness.”
May you like
Then she opened the ledger.
“And everything happening now started the night he tried to expose Senator Malcolm Voss.”
