Chapter 66 - Boarding the Vanguard
"I'm here, sweetheart!" I yelled into the howling wind, balancing precariously on our bow as Marcus skillfully brought our fender up against the yacht’s swim platform. "Keep your eyes on me! Don't look down!"
"Bring the matriarch forward," Harlan commanded, his voice carrying over the wash of the ocean. He didn't blink against the spray, his pale, scarred face illuminated by the stark spotlight. "Step by step, David. You first, Evelyn next. Marcus stays at the wheel. If he touches the controls, everyone on this deck goes under."
I climbed up onto the wet, teak decking of the *Vanguard*, my hands raised, feeling the vibration of the yacht’s massive generators humming beneath my boots. Evelyn followed, her limbs trembling so violently she nearly slipped into the churning gap between the two hulls before I grabbed her elbow and hauled her onto the platform.
Harlan stepped back slowly toward the main salon entrance, hauling Emma with him. Her face was streaked with salt and tears, her lips slightly blue from the freezing wind, but her eyes were fixed on mine with an intensity that defied her age.
"You've been remarkably difficult to corner, David," Harlan said, his lips curling into a thin, venomous smile. "All this drama over a few Disney World tickets. Did you really think this was about an amusement park? That petty slight was just Evelyn’s clumsy attempt to assert dominance before everything fell apart."
"Let the girl go, Victor," Evelyn rasped, her voice trembling with a mixture of terror and ancient guilt. "The offshore accounts... the passphrases... I will give you everything. Just let Emma step onto that boat and go home."
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Harlan’s laugh was cold and hollow, swept away by the Atlantic wind. "You think money fixes forty years in federal prisons, Evelyn? You think paper makes up for a stolen lifetime?"
He cocked the hammer of the revolver. The mechanical *click* sounded louder than thunder.
