Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN HE SHOULD HAVE BELIEVED
“Elias!”
Serena shouted his name into the phone.
Nothing.
Then coughing.
A car alarm.
Someone screaming.
“Elias!”
A voice finally came through.
Not his.
Marcus.
“We’re alive.”
Serena grabbed the edge of the table.
“Where is he?”
“On the ground.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Is he conscious?”
“I don’t know.”
Damiano was already giving orders.
“Two vehicles. Medical team. Now.”
Serena barely heard him.
“Marcus.”
“I’m here.”
“Put the phone near Elias.”
A moment later she heard breathing.
Ragged.
Then a groan.
“Elias?”
He coughed.
“That was… dramatic.”
Her knees nearly gave out.
“You idiot.”
A weak laugh.
“I got out.”
“Because I told you to.”
“I know.”
The words carried more weight than they should have.
Because for four years, Serena had tried to warn Elias.
About Leonard.
About Claudia.
About lenders.
About deals.
About people.
And Elias had always believed listening was something he did merely because he heard sound.
This time he had listened.
It saved his life.
The bomb had been planted beneath the rear wheel of his company sedan.
Police later said the blast was designed to kill whoever sat in the back seat.
Elias and Marcus had made it twelve yards away.
Marcus suffered a cut across his shoulder.
Elias took flying glass along his back and a fractured rib when the blast knocked him into a stone planter.
By the time Serena reached the hospital, three Moretti SUVs had sealed the emergency entrance.
Damiano objected to her going.
She went anyway.
He objected to her entering Elias’s room alone.
She ignored that too.
Elias lay propped against white pillows.
Bandage across his forehead.
Bruising along one side of his face.
His shirt had been replaced by a hospital gown.
For once he did not look like the billionaire CEO who commanded rooms.
He looked tired.
Human.
He looked at her bandaged arm.
His expression changed.
“You said graze.”
“It is.”
“That’s a lot of bandage.”
“The doctor is Italian.”
He blinked.
“What does that mean?”
“They enjoy drama.”
From the hallway, Damiano said,
“I heard that.”
Serena closed the door.
Elias almost smiled.
Then the smile faded.
They were alone.
The silence between them contained four years.
Elias looked at her.
“Princess.”
She stiffened.
“Don’t.”
“I wasn’t mocking you.”
“That makes it worse.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
She remained near the door.
He noticed.
“You can sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“Of course you are.”
Her eyes sharpened.
He exhaled.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“How did you mean it?”
“I mean you always say you’re fine.”
“And you always believed me.”
That landed.
Elias looked away.
“I deserved that.”
“Yes.”
No softness.
No rescue.
He looked back.
“Did you marry me because of Pier Nine?”
Serena had known the question was coming.
It still hurt.
“I met you because of Pier Nine.”
His jaw tightened.
“That isn’t the same answer.”
“No.”
She walked toward the window.
“When I came to Charleston, I was following the last trace of a transfer that began after my parents died.”
“What transfer?”
“Control of a terminal my father helped build.”
“Pier Nine.”
“Yes.”
Elias stared.
“My father bought it.”
“Your father believed he bought it.”
“From whom?”
“Men representing a private investment consortium.”
“He had lawyers.”
“Leonard Voss was one of them.”
Elias closed his eyes.
Of course.
Serena continued.
“The consortium did not own the controlling rights. My family did.”
“How much was it worth?”
“That wasn’t why I came.”
“How much?”
“Then? Maybe eight hundred million.”
Elias looked stunned.
“Now?”
“Closer to three billion.”
He let out a breath.
“And you came here alone?”
“I didn’t want Moretti soldiers flooding Charleston.”
“Damiano would have come?”
“Damiano would have arrived with enough security to make the Coast Guard nervous.”
A brief silence.
“He did that anyway.”
Despite herself, Serena smiled.
It disappeared quickly.
“I planned to stay six weeks. I rented an apartment. Took a consulting position. Watched Mercer Group.”
“And then?”
“I met you.”
His face changed.
Serena looked away.
“You asked me to dinner.”
“You said no.”
“Three times.”
“Four.”
She remembered.
A tiny thing.
He remembered too.
“That stupid seafood place near Shem Creek,” she said.
“You ordered a cheeseburger.”
“I hate oysters.”
“You told me that after I ordered two dozen.”
“You were trying too hard.”
“I was.”
Silence returned.
Elias’s voice softened.
“So when did the investigation become marriage?”
“It didn’t.”
He frowned.
“I stopped investigating.”
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“Because I fell in love with you.”
He swallowed.
“I thought if I continued digging, sooner or later I would have to tell you who I was. And if I told you who I was, I would lose the one place in my life where nobody expected me to be anything.”
“Serena…”
“I chose you.”
Her voice remained calm.
“That is what makes what happened hurt.”
He looked down.
“I chose you over my family’s answers.”
She continued.
“I chose your townhouse instead of estates with twenty bedrooms.”
His face tightened.
“I chose grocery shopping and burnt Sunday pancakes and watching you fall asleep on the sofa with spreadsheets on your chest.”
A tear gathered in her eye.
She refused to let it fall.
“I chose being Serena Vale because I loved who I was when I was with you.”
Elias looked destroyed.
“And then I made you feel ashamed of her.”
“Yes.”
The answer was quiet.
He covered his eyes for a moment.
“I am sorry.”
Serena’s expression didn’t change.
“That is not enough.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
He lowered his hand.
“I spent years thinking your quietness meant you needed me to define the room for you.”
He swallowed.
“I thought Claudia made me look powerful because everyone noticed us.”
Serena said nothing.
“And I thought you made me feel small because you saw through me.”
He gave a bitter laugh.
“Turns out being seen was the thing I should have been grateful for.”
Serena looked at him for a long time.
There was truth in his face.
But regret was not transformation.
Not yet.
A knock came.
Damiano entered without waiting.
His expression was grim.
“We have a problem.”
Elias looked at him.
“Another one?”
“The sniper is dead.”
Serena turned.
“What?”
“In police custody.”
“How?”
“Cardiac arrest.”
Serena stared.
“Poison?”
“Likely.”
Elias’s expression hardened.
“He was silenced.”
“Yes.”
Damiano set a small plastic evidence bag on the table.
Inside was the fake Mercer badge.
“Our people photographed it before police took everything.”
He pointed to the back.
A tiny serial stamp.
Serena leaned closer.
Elias frowned.
“What is that?”
She recognized it.
“Voss Strategic Security.”
Elias looked at her.
Damiano nodded.
“One of Leonard’s private firms.”
The room changed.
Elias swung his legs toward the side of the bed.
Serena stopped him.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding Leonard.”
“You have a fractured rib.”
“I also have a company on fire and someone putting my ID beside sniper rifles.”
Damiano looked unimpressed.
“You are more useful alive.”
Elias glared.
“I didn’t ask.”
“No one ever does.”
Serena stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Both men stopped.
Damiano looked at her.
“Leonard is missing.”
Elias froze.
“What?”
“His residence is empty. Office cleared. Driver gone.”
Serena’s mind raced.
“Claudia?”
Damiano’s expression shifted.
“No answer.”
Elias reached for his phone.
Three missed calls from Claudia.
All from before the car bombing.
One voicemail.
He played it.
Claudia’s voice filled the room.
She was crying.
“Elias, I know you hate me right now. You should. But my uncle lied to both of us. I found something at the house. Something he kept from me.”
A sound in the background.
A door.
Her breathing changed.
“Oh God.”
The message became hurried.
“If anything happens, go to the old Voss warehouse near Cooper River. Locker seventeen. The code is Serena’s birthday.”
Serena went completely still.
Elias looked at her.
The recording continued.
“And Elias…”
Claudia began sobbing.
“I’m sorry. I knew who she was. I didn’t know why she was here.”
A man’s voice sounded faintly behind her.
Claudia whispered,
“He knows I found it.”
The message ended.
Nobody spoke.
Then Serena asked,
“When was that?”
Elias checked.
“Twenty-six minutes before the bomb.”
Damiano already had his phone out.
“Send teams to the warehouse.”
Serena turned toward the door.
Elias stood.
Pain immediately hit him.
He caught the bed rail.
Serena looked at him.
“You are not coming.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No.”
“Claudia may know where Leonard is.”
“And you can barely stand.”
He straightened.
“Then I’ll stand badly.”
Damiano almost looked amused.
Serena did not.
“Elias.”
He met her eyes.
“If Leonard did what I think he did, my family put him close enough to hurt yours.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
“But everything after I took control of Mercer was.”
His face hardened.
“I ignored you. I trusted him. I gave him access.”
He grabbed his clothes.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
Then he looked at her.
“But I am done making you fight people I helped put in the room.”
For once, Serena had no immediate response.
Forty minutes later, three black SUVs moved through the industrial district toward Cooper River.
Elias sat in the second vehicle, pale from pain.
Serena sat beside him.
Damiano sat opposite them.
No one spoke until the lights of the abandoned Voss warehouse appeared ahead.
The gate stood open.
Locker seventeen was located in a row of rusting storage units behind the main structure.
The code worked.
Serena’s birthday.
Inside they found no boxes.
No files.
No money.
One chair.
One broken heel.
And blood on the concrete.
Claudia’s blood.
Then a television mounted on the far wall turned on by itself.
Leonard Voss appeared on the screen.
He was sitting somewhere dark.
Calm again.
Perfect suit.
Perfect silver cuff links.
“Serena,” he said.
She stepped forward.
Leonard smiled.
“I wondered how long it would take you to come home.”
Then the camera widened.
Claudia sat tied to a chair behind him.
Her face was bruised.
And Leonard rested one hand on her shoulder.
“My niece made the unfortunate mistake of discovering what your husband never bothered to look for.”
Elias moved toward the screen.
Leonard’s smile disappeared.
May you like
“And now we are finally going to discuss what your father died protecting.”
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