Chapter 7 - THE WOODEN BIRD
I froze. My son was huddled against my leg, his tiny fingers clutching the wet fabric of my pants.
I slowly dropped the knife. It clattered against the concrete.
I raised my hands and turned around.
Silas stood ten feet away, a silver revolver leveled directly at my son’s chest. He looked older than I remembered, his face scarred and weathered, but his eyes were just as dead.
“I knew you’d try a back door,” Silas sneered. “You always did think you were smarter than everyone else.”
“This is between you and me, Silas,” I said, stepping slightly to the side to shield the boy with my body. “Let them walk out that door, and you can have me. You can have the empire. Everything.”
Silas laughed. A dry, scraping sound.
“I’m already taking the empire. But I want the ledger Elias hid. Where is it?”
“Safe,” Tessa spoke up.
Silas’s eyes darted to her. She was standing now, rubbing her raw wrists. She didn't look like a terrified maid anymore. She stood tall, her chin raised, looking at the man who murdered her father with absolute defiance.
“Safe where?” Silas demanded.
“In a lockbox that only opens if I walk into the bank myself,” Tessa lied, her voice steady. “You kill me, you kill Marcus, the ledger goes to the District Attorney automatically. My dead switch.”
Silas’s jaw tightened. He knew she was bluffing, but he couldn't afford to be wrong.
I used his momentary hesitation.
I looked down at the boy. He was holding something tightly in his small, trembling hands. It wasn't his stuffed bear. It was a small, intricately carved wooden bird.
My breath hitched.
Elias used to whittle wooden birds when we were on stakeouts. He had given me one once.
“What’s your name, brave man?” I asked the boy, my voice soft, ignoring the gun pointed at us.
The boy sniffled, looking up at me with wide, tear-filled eyes.
“Leo,” he whispered.
Leo. My grandfather’s name. Tessa had named my son after my grandfather.
“Leo,” I said. “When I say go, I want you to close your eyes and hug your mom as tight as you can. Can you do that for me?”
Leo nodded slowly.
“Touching family reunion,” Silas mocked, cocking the hammer of the revolver. “But I’m out of patience. The ledger, Tessa. Now.”
Tessa looked at me. A silent communication passed between us. The same unspoken language we had shared in my house for four years, communicated through lamplight and quiet gestures.
She wasn't going to surrender. She was waiting for my move.
“Go!” I roared.
Leo squeezed his eyes shut and threw his arms around Tessa.
In a fraction of a second, I didn't reach for my gun. I reached for the heavy steel chain hanging from the crane directly beside me. I yanked it with all my body weight.
The release lever snapped.
A massive crate of rusted engine parts, suspended thirty feet above Silas’s head, plummeted.
Silas looked up, his eyes widening in terror.
He dove to the side, firing wildly.
The bullet grazed my shoulder, spinning me around as the crate smashed into the concrete floor with a deafening crash, sending shrapnel and dust flying in every direction.
The lights in the warehouse short-circuited. Plunging us into absolute darkness.
“Tessa!” I yelled over the ringing in my ears.
“We’re here!” she called back from the dark.
May you like
I drew my gun, ignoring the burning pain in my shoulder, and stepped into the blackness to finish twenty-three years of unfinished business.
But as I moved forward, a hand grabbed my ankle.
