Chapter 3 - My Brother’s Price
Victor called the number back.
Disconnected.
Again.
Nothing.
I grabbed his arm.
“Find him.”
Victor looked down at my hand.
I released him immediately.
“My people are tracing the call.”
“He sounded scared.”
“He should be.”
“He’s still my brother.”
Victor turned toward the gray-haired man.
“Daniel, lock this floor down.”
Daniel nodded.
“No one comes upstairs?”
“No one.”
“What about Calder?”
“Shut down every Hale truck scheduled to enter a Calder facility tonight.”
“That’s going to cost millions.”
Victor didn’t blink.
“Do it.”
Daniel left.
I stared at him.
“You’re stopping your business for Arthur?”
“I’m stopping my business because Voss knows the drive exists.”
“What happens if he gets it?”
“He destroys it.”
“And Arthur?”
Victor said nothing.
I walked toward him.
“What happens to Arthur?”
“Sadie.”
“Say it.”
“He becomes unnecessary.”
I felt sick.
Victor opened the laptop again.
“We need to know what Arthur copied.”
“I thought you knew.”
“I know what he offered me. I don’t know everything on the drive.”
I looked at the evidence pouch.
“You haven’t opened it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You’ve been here forty minutes.”
“That has never stopped criminals before.”
A faint smile almost appeared.
“Apparently I have standards.”
I glared.
“Very funny.”
“It wasn’t a joke.”
He slid the drive toward a separate laptop.
“You should be the one to insert it.”
“Why?”
“Because every bad decision tonight started when men decided things for you.”
That silenced me.
I inserted the drive.
Encrypted folders filled the screen.
Victor entered a code.
“You know the password?”
“Arthur gave me half of it during negotiations.”
“And the other half?”
“He said you had it.”
I laughed once.
Painfully.
“Of course he did.”
“Think.”
I stared at the password box.
Arthur and I had grown up in a cramped apartment in Queens.
He had always used stupid passwords.
Baseball teams.
Old addresses.
Mom’s birthday.
Then I remembered something.
“When Dad died, Arthur used to say he’d get us out.”
Victor waited.
“He promised Mom a house on Sterling Street.”
“Sterling?”
“Try Sterling214.”
The drive unlocked.
Victor and I stared at each other.
Then folders appeared.
Dozens of them.
Payments.
Photographs.
Audio recordings.
Bank transfers.
And one file marked HALE.
I looked at him.
“You have your own folder.”
“I noticed.”
“Should I be worried?”
“You should always be worried.”
“That’s comforting.”
“Open it.”
Inside were transaction records.
Victor leaned closer.
Then his expression changed.
“These aren’t mine.”
“But they have your company names.”
“They’re forged.”
“How do you know?”
“Because one of these transfers occurred from an account I closed three years ago.”
My pulse quickened.
“Arthur was framing you?”
“Maybe.”
Another file was labeled PIER 19.
I opened it.
Security images appeared.
Leon Briggs.
Dominic Voss.
Together.
My mouth went dry.
Victor became silent.
One photograph showed Leon handing Voss an envelope.
Another showed them shaking hands.
I looked at Victor.
“How long has he been betraying you?”
“Apparently longer than tonight.”
A final file contained audio.
We played it.
Leon’s voice came first.
“Once Hale takes the girl, Voss gets the drive and we make it look like Victor killed her.”
I froze.
Victor’s face turned deadly.
Then Voss answered.
“And Arthur?”
Leon laughed.
“We blame him too.”
I reached for the laptop and stopped the audio.
“No.”
Victor stood.
“Sadie.”
“They were going to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“And blame you.”
“Yes.”
“And Arthur knew?”
“We don’t know.”
I stood, ignoring the pain.
“We ask him.”
Victor’s phone rang again.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Voss.”
The voice from before spoke.
“You always were quick.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Where’s Arthur?”
“Alive.”
“I want proof.”
There was movement.
Then Arthur’s voice.
“Sadie?”
I grabbed the phone.
“Arthur!”
“Don’t come for me.”
I stopped.
“What?”
Arthur sounded exhausted.
“Don’t give Voss anything.”
“You used me as insurance.”
“I know.”
“You put a target on me.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Arthur’s voice cracked.
“Because I thought I could control it.”
I closed my eyes.
“You always think that.”
“I was going to fix it.”
“How?”
“By selling the drive, paying what I owed, and disappearing.”
I opened my eyes.
“What did you owe?”
He didn’t answer.
Victor did.
“Voss.”
Arthur went quiet.
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s why you stole the files. You weren’t exposing him. You were paying him.”
Arthur whispered, “It got bigger than that.”
“How much?” I asked.
“Sadie—”
“How much?”
“Eight hundred thousand.”
I stared at the wall.
“You gambled away eight hundred thousand dollars?”
“It wasn’t all gambling.”
“Then what?”
“Bad investments. Loans. I kept borrowing to cover the last mistake.”
I nearly dropped the phone.
“You risked my life because you couldn’t admit you were broke?”
“I’m sorry.”
A new voice came onto the call.
Dominic Voss.
“Family conversations are touching, but we’re short on time.”
Victor took the phone.
“What do you want?”
“The drive.”
“You won’t get it.”
“Then Arthur dies.”
Victor looked at me.
I whispered, “No.”
Voss continued.
“And after Arthur, I start looking for Sadie.”
Victor’s voice dropped.
“If you say her name again—”
“What? You’ll kill me?”
Victor was silent.
Voss chuckled.
“You see, Victor, this is why men like us should never care about anyone.”
The call disconnected.
I looked at Victor.
“We have to save him.”
Victor shook his head.
“That’s exactly what Voss expects.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“Why?”
His answer came quietly.
“Because I won’t trade your life for your brother’s mistake.”
I stared at him.
“You barely know me.”
Victor met my gaze.
May you like
“I know enough.”
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