Chapter 7 - THE BLUE LEDGER
Z
Victor had absolutely no intention of going alone.
Unfortunately, neither did Aliyah.
“You’re staying here.”
“No.”
“You are not negotiating.”
“Neither are you.”
Victor stood beside the hospital elevator, fighting an emotion he rarely experienced.
Helplessness.
“Gabriel wants me.”
“He also wants evidence my mother left behind.”
“Which makes you valuable to him.”
“Exactly.”
Victor stared.
“That was not supposed to strengthen your argument.”
Aliyah folded her arms.
“Victor, Gabriel knows you. He knows how you react. He has probably planned for every violent thing you might do.”
“You believe that is reassuring?”
“I’m saying he doesn’t know me.”
Victor hated when she was right.
An hour later, Anton led them to an abandoned maritime warehouse near the harbor.
Snow had begun falling.
Boston’s lights glowed across the water.
Gabriel waited inside.
Deputy Commissioner Thomas Reed stood beside him.
So did six armed men.
Victor stopped.
“You disappoint me, Gabriel.”
The attorney smiled.
“After thirty years, I expected something more original.”
“You betrayed my wife.”
“I protected your empire.”
“You hid her from me.”
“She was going to destroy everything.”
Victor’s hand curled into a fist.
Gabriel shook his head.
“You always had a weakness for women who believed morality mattered more than survival.”
His gaze moved toward Aliyah.
“Apparently nothing changes.”
Aliyah stepped forward.
“My mother recorded everything.”
Reed laughed.
“Your mother recorded one conversation.”
“Enough to destroy you.”
“Do you think anybody cares about twelve-year-old allegations from a dead nurse?”
Aliyah looked at him.
“No.”
Reed frowned.
She held up her phone.
“They’ll care about the deputy commissioner admitting it on a livestream.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
Victor almost smiled.
Aliyah had secretly called her nursing-school friend Jasmine before entering.
Jasmine ran a local true-crime channel with several hundred thousand followers.
The phone had been transmitting from Aliyah’s coat pocket since the warehouse door opened.
Reed lunged.
Victor moved between them.
One of Gabriel’s men raised a weapon.
Anton shouted.
Gunfire exploded.
Aliyah dropped behind a stack of shipping crates.
Victor fired twice.
Reed ran toward a side exit.
Anton tackled him.
Gabriel disappeared upstairs.
Victor followed.
“Victor!” Aliyah shouted.
He looked back.
For one second, she saw the old instinct in him.
Chase.
Punish.
Destroy.
Then he remembered.
He turned back toward Aliyah.
“You’re hurt.”
She looked down.
Glass had cut her forearm.
“I’m fine.”
Victor hesitated.
Gabriel was escaping.
Aliyah understood what that choice cost him.
“Go.”
“No.”
“What?”
“Twelve years ago I left Elena in a hospital because revenge felt more urgent than the person I loved.”
He knelt beside her.
“I will not make the same mistake twice.”
Aliyah’s throat tightened.
Police sirens approached.
Not Reed’s officers.
Federal agents.
Jasmine had sent the stream everywhere.
Victor pressed cloth against Aliyah’s arm.
“You planned this?”
She smiled weakly.
“I’m a nursing student.”
“That has nothing to do with anything.”
“I contain multitudes.”
He laughed.
Actually laughed.
In the middle of a warehouse surrounded by gunfire and federal agents, Victor Malenkov laughed for the first time in twelve years.
Then Gabriel appeared on the catwalk above.
Gun raised.
“Victor!”
Aliyah saw him first.
Victor turned.
Gabriel fired.
Anton stepped between them.
The bullet struck his chest.
Victor fired back.
Gabriel’s weapon fell.
Federal agents stormed the catwalk.
Anton collapsed.
Victor reached him.
Aliyah followed.
Anton’s breathing was shallow.
Victor pressed a hand against the wound.
“Stay awake.”
Anton smiled weakly.
“That sounds familiar.”
“Do not.”
“I owed Elena.”
“You owed me twelve years.”
“I know.”
Victor’s face twisted.
Anton reached into his coat.
The blue notebook appeared.
“I took it from Gabriel’s safe this morning.”
Victor stared.
“You had it?”
“Had to make him believe he still had leverage.”
He handed it to Aliyah.
“Your mother was brave.”
Aliyah’s eyes filled.
“So was Elena.”
Anton looked at Victor.
“She loved you.”
Victor swallowed.
“I know.”
“And she wanted you to live.”
The ambulance arrived quickly.
Anton survived.
Barely.
The blue ledger did exactly what Elena had believed it could.
It documented offshore payments.
Weapons shipments.
Bribed officers.
Judges.
Union officials.
Gabriel Stone was arrested.
Thomas Reed was indicted on corruption, conspiracy, obstruction, and charges connected to Denise Brooks’s death.
Federal investigators reopened Elena’s case.
Victor voluntarily surrendered records from several companies connected to his organization.
It stunned everyone.
Especially his own men.
“You understand what this means?” Nikolai asked from his hospital bed.
“Yes.”
“You could lose half the business.”
“Probably more.”
Nikolai stared at him.
“Good.”
Victor raised an eyebrow.
Nikolai leaned back.
“Maybe then you will become less unpleasant.”
Aliyah laughed.
Victor glared at both of them.
Three weeks later, Aliyah returned to her apartment.
The threatening message had been painted over.
The broken furniture replaced.
She knew immediately Victor had done it.
“You bought me a couch.”
He stood behind her.
“Your couch was destroyed.”
“You bought me a six-thousand-dollar couch.”
“It is comfortable.”
“You sat on it?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
Victor considered this.
“The salesman was convincing.”
Aliyah shook her head.
On the kitchen counter was her mother’s wooden box, professionally repaired.
Aliyah touched it.
“You fixed this.”
“Yes.”
Inside, every photograph had been restored.
Every hospital bracelet flattened.
Her mother’s silver necklace polished.
Aliyah turned.
Victor looked suddenly uncertain.
“Was that wrong?”
“No.”
She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around him.
Victor froze for only half a second.
Then he held her.
No panic.
No ghosts.
Just Aliyah.
She rested her cheek against his chest.
“You’re getting better at this.”
“At what?”
“Being human.”
“I dislike your tone.”
“You love my tone.”
Victor was silent.
Aliyah leaned back.
“Victor?”
His gray eyes held hers.
“I love more than your tone.”
Her smile disappeared.
His hand touched her cheek.
“I loved Elena.”
“I know.”
“I will always love her.”
“I know.”
“And I love you.”
Aliyah’s eyes filled.
Victor looked almost frightened.
The feared man of Boston could face guns without blinking.
Three words terrified him.
Aliyah smiled.
“I love you too.”
Victor exhaled.
Then she pointed toward the expensive couch.
“But I’m returning that.”
“No.”
“Victor.”
“No.”
May you like
And somehow, after twelve years of silence, grief, and punishment, their first serious argument as a couple was about furniture.
Elena probably would have approved.
