Chapter 5 - The Truth Behind the Ambush
The photograph of my mother changed everything.
Until that moment, Victor had been Gage’s enemy.
Now he was mine too.
Curtis spread three phones, two maps, and a stack of printed call records across the diner counter while Gage stood beside him, pale but steady.
I pointed at the photograph again.
“This was taken recently.”
“Yes,” Curtis said.
“How recently?”
“Judging by the coat your mother is wearing, probably within the last week.”
My mother frowned.
“That coat is ugly.”
I stared at her.
“Mom.”
“What? It is.”
Gage looked toward Curtis.
“Who had access to Delaney’s name before last night?”
“Everyone who saw the property records after we bought the diner debt.”
I turned sharply.
“You said you erased the debt.”
“I did.”
“You also created a paper trail.”
Gage’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
Curtis continued.
“But Victor knew about her before the bank transfer finished.”
That stopped us.
I leaned forward.
“How?”
Curtis slid a phone toward me.
“This message was sent from Derek’s device three hours before the ambush.”
The screen showed a short line.
REED DINER MAY BE AN OPTION IF WEATHER CLOSES ROUTE.
I looked at Gage.
“You were planning to come here?”
“No.”
Curtis shook his head.
“The route was supposed to stay on Highway Nine.”
“Then why was my diner mentioned?”
Nobody answered.
My mother did.
“Because somebody local told them.”
We all looked at her.
She shrugged.
“What? You people keep acting like criminals invented gossip.”
Curtis looked at me.
“Who knew you stayed open during storms?”
“Everyone in Hollis Bend.”
“That’s the problem.”
I began naming people.
“Vera. Uncle Otis. Sheriff Danner. The Platts. Hank Morrison. Anyone who’s lived here more than a year.”
Gage rubbed his jaw.
“Who knew your mother slept in the back room?”
My stomach tightened.
Fewer people.
“Vera.”
My mother nodded.
“Otis.”
“And?”
I hesitated.
“Sheriff Danner.”
Curtis looked up.
“The sheriff?”
“He checks on Mom sometimes.”
“When?”
“Since her stroke.”
Gage’s eyes sharpened.
“How often?”
“Once or twice a week.”
Curtis reached for another phone.
“Full name?”
“Wesley Danner.”
He began typing.
I watched his face change.
“What?”
“Nothing yet.”
“That was not a nothing face.”
Curtis turned the screen toward Gage.
A financial report.
Transfers.
Small ones at first.
Then larger.
Gage read silently.
“How much?”
“Nearly eighty thousand over six months.”
My chest went cold.
I shook my head.
“No.”
Curtis looked at me.
“Delaney—”
“No. Sheriff Danner grew up with my father.”
“That doesn’t erase bank records.”
“He helped carry Dad’s casket.”
Gage said nothing.
I hated him for saying nothing.
Because it meant he agreed.
My mother slowly sat down.
“Wes?”
I looked at her.
She seemed smaller suddenly.
Not frightened.
Betrayed.
Gage noticed too.
“We don’t know yet.”
Curtis glanced at him.
“You think we do.”
“I think evidence is not proof.”
I looked at Gage.
“Thank you.”
His expression remained cold.
“Don’t thank me yet.”
The bell above the shattered front door rang.
Everyone reached for a weapon.
Sheriff Wesley Danner walked in.
Snow covered his shoulders.
His gray mustache was frozen at the edges.
He stopped when he saw the guns.
“Well.”
Nobody lowered them.
He looked at me.
“Delaney?”
I stepped out from behind the counter.
“Where have you been?”
“Trying to keep the roads from becoming a graveyard.”
Curtis moved slightly toward him.
Danner noticed.
“You must be Holland.”
Curtis froze.
My heart dropped.
Danner smiled faintly.
“Everybody knows Sartori’s security chief.”
Curtis did not smile back.
Gage stepped forward.
“How much is Victor paying you?”
The sheriff’s face changed.
Not much.
But enough.
My mother whispered.
“Wes.”
Danner looked at her.
“June.”
“Tell me he’s wrong.”
Silence.
That was the answer.
I felt something break inside my chest.
“How long?”
Danner removed his hat.
“Delaney…”
“How long?”
“Six months.”
My mother covered her mouth.
I stepped closer.
“You gave Victor information about us?”
“No.”
Curtis slammed a bank statement onto the counter.
“Try again.”
Danner looked at it.
Then closed his eyes.
“I gave him information about Gage’s route.”
Gage’s voice turned quiet.
“Why?”
“Because I was supposed to help redirect traffic during the storm.”
“Into the north pass?”
“Yes.”
“That ambush killed three of my men.”
Danner swallowed.
“I didn’t know that would happen.”
Gage moved toward him.
“You sold a route to a man like Victor and expected what? A traffic citation?”
I stepped between them.
“Wait.”
Gage looked at me.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Delaney.”
“I want answers.”
Danner looked ashamed.
“My wife needed treatment.”
My anger flickered.
He continued.
“Insurance denied half of it. We were drowning.”
My mother whispered.
“Why didn’t you ask us?”
Danner laughed bitterly.
“For what, June? Your diner was being foreclosed.”
He looked at me.
“I thought it would be one piece of information.”
Curtis said, “It never is.”
“I know.”
“Did you tell Victor about Delaney?”
“No.”
“Her mother?”
“No.”
Gage stepped closer.
“Then who did?”
Danner looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Gage studied his face.
I had the strange feeling he could detect lies the way other people detected smoke.
Finally, he said, “He’s telling the truth.”
Curtis frowned.
“That doesn’t absolve him.”
“I didn’t say it did.”
The sheriff lowered his head.
“I’ll turn myself in.”
Gage laughed once.
“There may not be anyone left to turn yourself in to when this is over.”
I shot him a look.
“Not helping.”
His eyes met mine.
“I’m not trying to.”
Danner reached inside his coat.
Curtis raised his gun.
“Slow.”
Danner pulled out a folded piece of paper.
“Victor contacted me again this morning.”
He placed it on the counter.
A location.
An old hydroelectric station twelve miles west.
And one line.
COME ALONE OR THE WOMAN DIES.
I stared at the paper.
“Which woman?”
Danner looked at me.
“I think he believes I can bring you.”
Gage’s face became lethal.
“No.”
I picked up the note.
“He wants me alive.”
“For now.”
“Which gives us an opening.”
Gage stepped closer.
“No.”
I folded the paper.
“You used me to find your sister.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I did not use you.”
“Fine. I helped.”
“You nearly got killed.”
“And Elena survived.”
“That was different.”
“Why?”
He stared at me.
I waited.
Curtis suddenly became very interested in the map.
Elena, who had entered quietly from the kitchen, smiled.
Gage glanced at her.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You’re about to.”
“No need.”
I crossed my arms.
“Why is it different?”
Gage lowered his voice.
“Because this time he wants you.”
Something in the way he said it shut everyone up.
I held his gaze.
“And if I don’t go?”
“He comes here again.”
“Yes.”
“To my mother.”
“Possibly.”
“To Vera. Otis. Anyone he thinks matters.”
Gage said nothing.
“So we end it.”
“No.”
“Gage.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You don’t get to command me.”
“I am trying very hard not to.”
“You’re failing.”
“I noticed.”
Despite the tension, Elena covered a smile.
Curtis cleared his throat.
“There may be another option.”
We both turned.
Curtis tapped the map.
“Victor expects Danner and Delaney.”
“Yes.”
“So we give him Danner and Delaney.”
Gage’s face hardened.
“And twenty men he doesn’t see.”
Curtis nodded.
I looked at Gage.
“See?”
He stared at Curtis.
“You’re fired.”
Curtis shrugged.
“You say that twice a year.”
My mother pointed at Gage.
“She goes with a vest.”
Gage looked at her.
“June—”
“A thick one.”
“Mom.”
“And you stay close to her.”
Gage blinked.
I had never seen a billionaire crime boss look intimidated by a seventy-year-old woman.
Finally, he nodded.
“Yes, ma’am.”
My mother smiled.
“Good.”
The hydroelectric station had been abandoned since the nineties.
Concrete walls rose from the snow beside a frozen river.
Danner drove.
I sat in the passenger seat wearing a bulletproof vest under my coat.
A microphone was taped beneath my collar.
Gage’s voice came through the tiny earpiece.
“Say something.”
I whispered, “You’re annoying.”
“Audio works.”
Danner almost smiled.
“You two always like this?”
“Yes,” we both answered.
Then neither of us spoke.
We parked.
Victor appeared on the upper platform.
He had five men with him.
Maybe more hidden.
He called down.
“Sheriff.”
Danner stepped out.
I followed.
Victor smiled when he saw me.
“There she is.”
Gage’s voice came through my ear.
“Stay behind Danner.”
I ignored him.
Victor descended the stairs.
“You caused me a great deal of inconvenience, Delaney.”
“You shot my coffee machine.”
He actually laughed.
“That bothered you?”
“It was expensive.”
Victor stopped twenty feet away.
“Where is Gage?”
“Recovering.”
“Liar.”
I smiled.
“Then why ask?”
His eyes narrowed.
Good.
Angry men made mistakes.
Victor looked at Danner.
“You failed me.”
Danner said, “I did everything you asked.”
“No. Sartori survived.”
“That wasn’t my job.”
Victor raised his pistol.
Gage’s voice hissed in my ear.
“Down.”
Before Victor could fire, Danner tackled me.
Gunfire erupted.
Windows shattered.
Curtis’s teams opened fire from both ridges.
Victor’s men scattered.
I crawled behind a concrete pillar.
Gage appeared from the lower access tunnel.
Of course he did.
I shouted, “You were supposed to stay back!”
He fired toward a gunman.
“I changed the plan!”
“You always change the plan!”
Victor ran inside.
Gage followed.
I grabbed his coat.
“No.”
“He’s getting away.”
“Curtis can take him.”
“I need answers.”
“So do I.”
We went after him together.
Inside, the station was dark.
Old turbines filled the cavernous room.
Victor’s footsteps echoed somewhere ahead.
Then his voice came over the darkness.
“Gage.”
Gage raised his weapon.
“I’m here.”
Victor laughed.
“You still think I betrayed you for money.”
“Didn’t you?”
“No.”
A light clicked on above us.
Victor stood on a metal walkway.
Beside him was someone I recognized.
Vera Pike.
My best friend.
Her hands were tied.
My blood turned to ice.
“Vera!”
Her face crumpled.
“I’m sorry.”
Victor pressed a gun against her head.
Gage whispered, “Delaney, behind me.”
I couldn’t move.
I stared at Vera.
“What did you do?”
Tears ran down her face.
Victor smiled.
“She gave me everything.”
My voice barely came out.
“The diner?”
Vera nodded.
“Your mother’s schedule.”
Another nod.
“Dad’s old roads?”
She sobbed.
“I didn’t know anyone would die.”
I laughed once.
It sounded awful.
Everyone kept saying that.
Danner.
Vera.
People handed dangerous men information and acted surprised when blood followed.
“Why?”
Vera shook her head.
“I owed money.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
Victor grabbed her hair.
“She was useful until tonight.”
Gage aimed.
“No shot,” I whispered.
Victor smiled at him.
“You see now?”
Gage said nothing.
“You weren’t betrayed by one man.”
Victor spread his arms.
“You were betrayed by everyone who thought your power made them invisible.”
Gage’s expression didn’t change.
Victor continued.
“Your accountant gave me routes. Derek gave me your body. Danner gave me the mountain. Vera gave me the woman.”
I looked at Gage.
“Accountant?”
His face changed.
That was the piece he hadn’t known.
Victor smiled.
“There it is.”
He raised the gun toward Vera.
“You never knew who really started this.”
Gage’s jaw tightened.
“Name.”
Victor laughed.
“Your uncle.”
Silence.
Elena had once told me Gage’s father was dead.
But his father’s younger brother, Dominic Sartori, had helped build the organization.
Gage whispered, “Dominic.”
Victor nodded.
“He decided the empire needed an adult in charge.”
Gage’s face went completely blank.
Victor smiled.
“He hired me to kill you.”
That was when I understood.
Victor wasn’t the mastermind.
May you like
He was only the knife.
And the hand holding it belonged to Gage’s own family.
