Chapter 5 - The Dinner Boyd Mercer Never Finished
Boyd Mercer called at 6:12 p.m.
“I want a meeting.”
“No.”
“Tessa.”
“No.”
“Ember Room. Table fourteen.”
I laughed.
“You cannot possibly think I’m that stupid.”
“I have Dana Ruiz.”
My blood froze.
Gray saw my face.
“What?”
I put the call on speaker.
“Let me speak to her.”
Dana came on.
“Tess, don’t—”
Mercer took the phone back.
“Eight o’clock.”
The call ended.
Gray was already moving.
“No.”
“She’s there because of me.”
“She’s there because Mercer is desperate.”
“I’m going.”
“Absolutely not.”
I stepped in front of him.
“You don’t get to decide.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“And I’m trying to keep Dana alive.”
Gray stared at me.
Finally:
“We go together.”
At 8:00 p.m., Ember Room was closed.
Mercer sat at table fourteen.
Dana sat several feet away.
Victor Donovan stood beside the windows.
I looked at Gray.
“That’s your uncle?”
“Yes.”
Victor smiled.
“You look like your mother.”
“Don’t talk about her.”
“Evelyn caused enormous inconvenience.”
Gray’s voice cut through the room.
“Release Dana.”
Mercer shook his head.
“First the evidence.”
“There are copies.”
“Then retract it.”
“You can’t retract bank records,” I said.
Mercer looked irritated.
“You should have stayed a waitress.”
“My mother was a cook.”
“Look how that ended.”
Gray moved one step forward.
Victor’s men shifted.
Gray stopped.
“Careful,” Victor warned.
I looked at Dana.
She looked terrified.
But then I noticed her hand.
Two fingers resting against her knee.
Pointing downward.
Her phone.
She was recording.
Smart girl.
I looked at Mercer.
“You killed Elias Reyes?”
Mercer smiled.
“No.”
“Victor did?”
Victor laughed.
“Elias was always weak.”
“So you kidnapped him?”
Victor shrugged.
“We contained a liability.”
Gray’s gaze sharpened.
I continued.
“And my mother?”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“She became inconvenient.”
Gray went completely still.
“What did you do?”
Victor looked at him.
“Nothing you can prove.”
I lifted my phone.
“Maybe.”
Victor frowned.
Dana suddenly stood.
“Actually, we can.”
Everyone looked at her.
Dana held up her phone.
“Live stream.”
Mercer’s face drained.
“To who?”
“Three reporters and a federal investigator.”
Mercer lunged toward her.
Gray stepped between them.
No punch.
No gun.
He simply stood there.
Mercer stopped.
Gray’s voice was quiet.
“Don’t.”
Sirens rose below.
Victor looked toward the windows.
“You brought police?”
I shook my head.
“Dana did.”
Dana smiled nervously.
“I multitask.”
Mercer looked at Gray.
“You’re going to let them take me?”
“Yes.”
“You’re Grayson Donovan.”
“Yes.”
“You think cooperating makes you clean?”
“No.”
Gray’s answer surprised everyone.
“I know exactly what I am.”
He glanced at me.
“But I also know what I refuse to become.”
The elevator doors opened.
Federal agents entered.
Victor backed toward the window.
Gray watched his uncle being handcuffed.
Victor stared at him.
“You’re destroying your own family.”
Gray’s expression never changed.
“No.”
“You’re choosing a waitress over blood.”
Gray looked at me.
Then back at Victor.
“I’m choosing the line you crossed seventeen years ago.”
Mercer was led past me.
He stopped.
“This isn’t over.”
I smiled.
“Yes, Boyd.”
I repeated the words Gray had said the night before.
May you like
“It is.”
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