Chapter 10 - The Price of Loyalty
Caleb did not answer the phone.
It rang until the screen went dark.
Nobody moved.
Elise finally whispered, “Your father?”
Caleb stared at Mason.
“My father died in a private hospital in Switzerland.”
Mason smiled.
“Did you see the body?”
Silence.
Caleb hadn't.
He had been told Silas Rowan died after complications from heart surgery.
Closed coffin.
Private burial.
Very Rowan.
Jonah seized Mason by the jacket.
“Where is Adrian?”
Mason laughed.
“Ask the dead man.”
Jonah hit him.
Caleb stopped him.
“No.”
Jonah stared.
“He tried to kill Martha.”
“And he wants you angry.”
Caleb looked at Mason.
“He wants us reacting.”
Elise recognized the strategy.
Victor—or Silas—had manipulated every step.
The marble.
The chair.
Her employment.
The attacks.
Even suspicion inside the house.
They wanted Caleb isolated.
Angry.
Uncertain.
Exactly like the father who had raised him.
Caleb looked toward Elise.
She saw something in his expression.
A decision.
“I need you to leave.”
Her heart sank.
“We already discussed this.”
“Not Rowan House.”
“Then where?”
“Bellgrave.”
“No.”
“Elise.”
“No.”
He moved closer.
“Silas Rowan, if alive, is worse than Victor.”
“Then you'll need somebody who notices floors.”
“This isn't funny.”
“I wasn't joking.”
His expression broke.
“Please.”
That stopped her.
Caleb Rowan rarely said please.
She crouched so their eyes were level.
“What are you really asking?”
He answered quietly.
“Stay alive.”
Her anger disappeared.
“You think I won't if I stay?”
“I don't know.”
“Neither do I.”
“Elise—”
“You don't get to protect me by deciding my life without me.”
He closed his eyes.
“Then what do you want?”
There was the question again.
“I want a choice.”
He nodded.
“Fine.”
“I choose to stay.”
His eyes opened.
“That's a terrible choice.”
“Probably.”
“You could die.”
“So could you.”
“That bothers me less.”
“It bothers me.”
Silence.
Something vulnerable passed between them.
Then Caleb did something she never expected.
He touched her face.
Carefully.
His fingertips brushed a loose strand of hair away from her cheek.
“You shouldn't care.”
“Probably not.”
“I'm not a good man.”
“I haven't decided what you are.”
“That isn't reassuring.”
“It wasn't supposed to be.”
Their faces were close.
Too close.
Caleb whispered, “Elise.”
Jonah entered.
“Sorry.”
They moved apart immediately.
Jonah looked like a man deeply regretting his timing.
“We traced the call.”
Caleb regained control.
“Where?”
“Blackwater Industrial District.”
“Specific?”
“Warehouse seventeen.”
Caleb frowned.
“That belongs to Victor.”
“Not anymore.”
“To who?”
Jonah placed ownership records on the table.
Silas Rowan.
Elise stared.
“Recent?”
“Property taxes paid last month.”
Caleb rolled back slightly.
Proof.
Not definitive.
But close.
His father might actually be alive.
“Why pretend to die?” Elise asked.
Caleb stared at the records.
“To disappear from investigations.”
“And from you?”
“Maybe.”
Jonah added, “There is something else.”
He displayed a photograph captured outside the warehouse that morning.
Adrian.
Alive.
Walking without restraints.
Caleb's face hardened.
“So the kidnapping was staged.”
“Looks like it.”
Elise shook her head.
“Not necessarily.”
Both men looked at her.
“Look at him.”
Adrian's jacket was buttoned incorrectly.
One side higher.
His hands remained close to his body.
His face turned slightly away.
“He looks stiff.”
Jonah zoomed in.
There, beneath Adrian's jacket, a slight rectangular bulge.
A device.
“Bomb vest?” Jonah asked.
“Could be.”
Caleb's voice became quiet.
“They're using him.”
The phone rang again.
This time Caleb answered.
“Father?”
Silence.
Then an older voice.
“Hello, son.”
Caleb closed his eyes.
Elise felt the room change.
Silas Rowan was alive.
“Where is Adrian?”
“Still impatient.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why disappear?”
Silas laughed.
“Because I wanted to see what you would become without me.”
Caleb's hand tightened.
“And?”
“A disappointment.”
Elise saw anger flash.
Silas continued.
“You weakened the businesses. Closed profitable routes. Paid restitution to people who should've stayed silent.”
“I stopped selling people.”
“You stopped being a Rowan.”
Caleb's face became ice.
“Then why come back?”
“Because Victor has become ambitious.”
“Is Victor working for you?”
“He believes I work for him.”
A twisted smile touched Caleb's lips.
“So everyone betrays everyone.”
“That is power.”
“No.”
Silence.
Caleb looked toward Elise.
“That is fear.”
Silas's voice hardened.
“You've become sentimental.”
“Apparently.”
“The housekeeper?”
Elise's blood chilled.
Silas laughed.
“You always did inherit your mother's weakness.”
Caleb's expression changed.
“Don't mention her.”
“She chose strangers over family.”
“She tried to save me from you.”
Silence.
Now Caleb had hit something.
Silas replied, “Come to Blackwater tonight.”
“Why?”
“If you want Adrian alive.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then your cousin becomes a very expensive red stain.”
The call ended.
Jonah said immediately, “You're not going.”
Caleb looked at Elise.
She knew before he said anything.
“Yes, you are.”
Jonah stared at her.
“You're agreeing?”
“No.”
She looked at Caleb.
“But telling him no won't work.”
Caleb almost smiled.
Elise continued.
“So we make them believe he's coming on their terms.”
“While?”
“We go on ours.”
Jonah shook his head.
“You've been here four days.”
“Longest week of my life.”
They built a plan.
Decoy vehicles.
Drone surveillance.
A hidden extraction team.
Elise was not supposed to go inside.
Caleb made her promise.
She crossed her fingers.
At eleven that night, the convoy entered Blackwater.
The warehouse stood beside the river.
Caleb rolled through the main entrance alone.
Silas waited inside.
Old.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
Very much alive.
Beside him stood Victor Sloane.
And between them stood Adrian wearing what appeared to be an explosive vest.
Caleb stopped.
His father smiled.
“There he is.”
Caleb's voice was steady.
“Release Adrian.”
Silas looked toward the wheelchair.
“I heard you nearly died on a polished floor.”
“You always preferred accidents.”
Silas laughed.
Victor didn't.
Elise watched from a maintenance passage above.
Something felt wrong.
Victor was nervous.
Silas wasn't.
Then she noticed the wires on Adrian's vest.
They ran beneath the jacket.
But there was no detonator.
No receiver.
Fake.
The real threat was elsewhere.
She scanned the warehouse.
Above Caleb hung an industrial cargo platform loaded with steel drums.
One support cable had been partially cut.
“Elise to Jonah.”
Her whisper traveled through the earpiece.
“What?”
“The vest is fake.”
“You sure?”
“The platform above Caleb isn't.”
At that exact moment Victor looked upward.
Elise understood.
“MOVE HIM!”
The cable snapped.
Caleb looked up.
Tons of steel began falling.
And Elise broke the only promise she had made him that night.
May you like
She ran directly toward him.
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