Chapter 13 - The Choice Willa Refused To Make
“Jared!”
Willa hit the floor beside him.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Roman barked wildly.
Security shouted from the hallway.
Willa pressed both hands against Jared's chest.
Warm blood.
Too much.
“No. No, no, no.”
Jared opened his eyes.
“Shoulder.”
“What?”
“Hit my shoulder.”
Relief almost made her dizzy.
“You idiot.”
“Not my fault.”
“Still an idiot.”
Emergency lights flickered on.
Miles reached them.
“Shooter?”
“Gone.”
Roman stood near the shattered window.
A metal object lay beside his paw.
Not a bullet.
A tiny capsule.
Willa picked it up with a towel.
“Dart.”
Jared looked at it.
“Sedative?”
“For Roman.”
The actual bullet had hit Jared only because he moved into its path.
The shooter wanted the dog disabled.
Why?
Willa understood.
“Sebastian knows Roman can identify him.”
Miles nodded.
“And Brendan.”
“Brendan's already arrested.”
“But Sebastian was in Elena's room that night too.”
Jared looked at Roman.
“He's a witness.”
A canine witness couldn't testify.
But he could find.
Track.
React.
And perhaps lead them somewhere.
Willa remembered the photograph of Maria.
“Where was she taken?”
Miles enlarged the image.
Old concrete wall.
Metal pipes.
A faded symbol behind the chair.
Jared recognized it.
“My father's shipping terminal.”
Federal agents wanted to raid immediately.
Willa insisted on going.
Jared, arm bandaged, argued.
Then argued more.
Then lost.
The shipping terminal sat along the river, abandoned for years.
Agents surrounded the property quietly.
Willa brought Roman.
“This is insane,” Jared muttered.
“You were shot three hours ago.”
“It missed anything important.”
“Your personality?”
He looked at her.
“Apparently.”
Roman found Maria's scent on a scarf provided by her hotel.
Then moved toward the eastern warehouse.
Slowly.
Purposefully.
His strength had returned enough that Willa struggled to keep pace.
Inside, they found Maria.
Alive.
Untied.
Waiting.
Willa stopped.
“Maria?”
Maria looked ashamed.
“I'm sorry.”
Jared's expression became hard.
“You helped him.”
“He has my son.”
Willa froze.
“Your son?”
Maria's eyes filled.
“Sebastian took him two weeks ago.”
“Why didn't you tell us?”
“He said he'd kill Luca.”
“How old?”
“Sixteen.”
Willa's anger vanished.
Fear made people do terrible math.
Maria had chosen the one life she couldn't sacrifice.
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
A speaker crackled overhead.
Sebastian.
“Very touching.”
Jared looked around.
“Come out.”
“No.”
His laugh echoed.
“Willa brought what I need?”
“I know where it is,” she shouted.
“Good.”
“Release Luca.”
“You're negotiating?”
“Yes.”
“You mop floors.”
“And you're hiding behind a speaker.”
Silence.
Jared looked almost impressed.
Sebastian answered coldly.
“Bring the ledger to Pier Nine at midnight.”
“I don't have it.”
“Then retrieve it.”
“And Luca?”
“You'll see him.”
The speaker died.
Maria broke down.
Willa held her.
Jared watched.
Later, at Willa's apartment, they found the broken music box exactly where she'd left it.
Inside the base, beneath a layer of felt, was a microfilm strip.
Miles examined it.
“Names.”
Dozens.
Judges.
Union leaders.
Police.
Business executives.
Sebastian's protection network.
Some were still alive.
Some still powerful.
“This could destroy people,” Willa whispered.
Jared nodded.
“People who deserve it.”
“And others?”
“Maybe.”
She looked at him.
“You can't give Sebastian the original.”
“We don't need to.”
They copied everything.
Federal agents prepared a decoy.
At eleven fifty-eight, Willa reached Pier Nine.
Alone in appearance.
Microfilm in her pocket.
Roman hidden nearby with Miles.
Jared wasn't supposed to be there.
She knew he was.
Sebastian stepped from the shadows with Luca beside him.
The teenager looked terrified but unharmed.
“Give it to me.”
“Release him first.”
“You don't make terms.”
“Then shoot me.”
Sebastian frowned.
Willa's heart hammered.
“You've spent eighteen years killing people because you're afraid of what they know.”
She took one step closer.
“I'm done being afraid of men who confuse fear with power.”
Sebastian raised his gun.
“Your mother said something similar.”
Willa's stomach twisted.
“She screamed your name before the car hit her.”
Everything inside Willa went silent.
Sebastian smiled.
He wanted pain.
Wanted her reaction.
She refused him.
“Liar.”
His smile vanished.
“She never gave you that satisfaction.”
“You don't know.”
“Yes, I do.”
Willa's voice steadied.
“My mother protected a stranger at nineteen. She protected me after death.”
She pointed at him.
“She was braver on her worst day than you've been your entire life.”
Sebastian's face twisted.
He grabbed Luca.
Roman exploded from the darkness.
The Mastiff hit Sebastian like a truck.
The gun flew.
Federal agents surged from both sides.
Luca ran.
Jared came from behind a container.
Sebastian reached for a backup weapon.
Roman pinned his arm.
Willa shouted:
“Roman! Enough!”
The dog froze.
That word again.
Enough.
Roman stepped backward.
Sebastian looked up.
Handcuffs snapped around his wrists.
May you like
For eighteen years people had died because Sebastian Vale thought nobody could stop him.
In the end, he was brought down by a schoolteacher's daughter, a grieving dog, and the one word that had first given both of them permission to stop being afraid.
