Chapter 6 - The Empire Falls
“No.”
Sebastian said it before Victor had finished explaining.
“No.”
We were back inside a secure room beneath St. Agnes.
Victor had received instructions through an encrypted phone.
Gabriel wanted me.
Not Sebastian.
Not Evelyn.
Me.
“He thinks Thomas encoded something in the notebook that only Valerie can identify,” Evelyn said.
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Sebastian paced.
“You’re not going.”
I crossed my arms.
“He has Sophie.”
“And he wants you.”
“Exactly.”
“No.”
“Stop saying no like it ends the conversation.”
“It does.”
“Maybe in your organization.”
“In my life too.”
“That explains why your personal life is going so well.”
Mara looked down to hide a reaction.
Sebastian stared at me.
“Valerie.”
“You said you respected my choices.”
“This is different.”
“Because you don’t like this choice?”
“Because this one could get you killed.”
“So could dating you, apparently.”
“That isn’t funny.”
“I’m not joking.”
Silence.
I stepped closer.
“Sophie is twenty-three years old. She’s somebody’s daughter. You don’t get to tell Victor we’re bringing her home and then refuse the only opportunity we have.”
“I can send someone else.”
“Gabriel knows my face.”
“We can create a diversion.”
“He has people inside your building.”
“I know my building.”
“Do you?”
That hurt.
I regretted it immediately.
But it was true.
Gabriel had been inside Sebastian’s empire for years.
Sebastian looked away.
Victor spoke.
“She’s right.”
Sebastian turned on him.
“Don’t.”
“I hate it too.”
“She is not walking into that building.”
Victor’s voice cracked.
“Then my daughter dies.”
The room became silent.
Sebastian stared at the man who had protected him for fourteen years.
Then at me.
His face showed exactly what Gabriel wanted him to feel.
A choice.
Power or a person.
Control or trust.
I walked toward Sebastian.
“He’s doing to you exactly what your father did.”
His brow furrowed.
“What?”
“He’s making you believe caring about someone is weakness.”
I lowered my voice.
“It isn’t.”
“You don’t know what he’ll do to you.”
“No. But I know what he expects you to do.”
“What?”
“Choose for me.”
That landed.
I took his hand.
“Trust me enough to let me help.”
For a long moment, Sebastian said nothing.
Then he looked at Mara.
“Build the plan.”
Crown Meridian Tower had forty-eight floors.
Gabriel controlled at least part of the security network.
But Sebastian had something Gabriel did not know about.
A second system.
After an assassination attempt six years earlier, Sebastian had installed an independent analog surveillance network disconnected from the building’s primary servers.
Victor knew about it.
Gabriel apparently didn’t.
At 10:38 p.m., I entered Crown Meridian alone.
At least, I appeared alone.
The notebook was inside my bag.
A transmitter was sewn into my coat.
Sebastian could hear everything from a command vehicle two blocks away.
My heart hammered so hard I wondered whether the microphone could hear it.
The lobby was empty.
One elevator waited.
I stepped inside.
The button for thirty-seven illuminated automatically.
“Very dramatic,” I muttered.
Sebastian’s voice came through the tiny receiver in my ear.
“Valerie.”
“I’m calming myself down.”
“By insulting the psychopath?”
“It’s a coping mechanism.”
Despite everything, I heard him breathe out something close to a laugh.
The elevator opened.
Gabriel Ward stood inside Sebastian’s office.
He was sixty-four.
Silver-haired.
Tall.
And disturbingly similar to Sebastian.
Same eyes.
Same controlled posture.
But where Sebastian’s silence felt guarded, Gabriel’s felt empty.
“Valerie Lane.”
“Gabriel Ward.”
He smiled.
“You look disappointed.”
“I expected horns.”
“You have Thomas’s sense of humor.”
“You knew him well?”
“Well enough to kill him.”
Every muscle in my body locked.
Sebastian’s voice came through my ear.
“Stay calm.”
Gabriel watched my face.
“I’ve wondered for years whether his daughter knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That her father died because he chose morality too late.”
Anger surged through me.
“He was better than you.”
“Eventually.”
Gabriel held out his hand.
“The notebook.”
“Where’s Sophie?”
“Safe.”
“I want proof.”
He lifted a tablet.
Sophie appeared on screen, tied to a chair in what looked like a warehouse office.
Alive.
Terrified.
Victor’s voice cracked through the communication channel.
“Baby.”
She couldn’t hear him.
But he could see her.
Gabriel lowered the tablet.
“The notebook.”
I removed it from my bag.
He reached.
I pulled it back.
“First tell me why my father’s numbers matter.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Because Thomas found the only account I could never move.”
“What account?”
“Insurance.”
“For what?”
“My future.”
I remembered my father’s letter.
Trust numbers before people.
I had studied the notebook for hours.
Most people saw transactions.
I saw patterns.
One repeated number had appeared beside payments spanning sixteen years.
It wasn’t an account number.
It was too short.
But it appeared beside properties in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
I had realized what it was thirty minutes before entering the building.
A corporate registration suffix.
“Janus Holdings,” I said.
Gabriel’s smile disappeared.
There.
Confirmation.
“You found it.”
“You hid your ownership through shell corporations, but Thomas linked every one of them to the same insurance policy.”
Gabriel stared.
“Smart girl.”
“Your mistake was keeping the same umbrella liability carrier.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Accountants are boring until you need one.”
“I’m not an accountant.”
“Close enough.”
I held up the notebook.
“Sophie first.”
Gabriel stepped toward me.
“No.”
“Then you don’t get this.”
His smile returned.
“Sebastian is listening, isn’t he?”
My blood chilled.
The receiver went silent.
Gabriel reached toward my ear.
I stepped back.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t scan you?”
He snapped his fingers.
A device somewhere in the office emitted a sharp electronic pulse.
My receiver died.
I was alone.
Gabriel’s men emerged from the adjoining room.
Three.
Then four.
I forced myself not to panic.
“You’ve inherited Sebastian’s worst habit,” Gabriel said.
“What’s that?”
“Believing preparation equals control.”
He took the notebook.
Then he opened it.
His smile vanished.
The pages were blank.
I smiled.
“You’ve inherited your brother’s worst habit.”
His eyes hardened.
“What?”
“Underestimating people you think are beneath you.”
The real notebook was with Mara.
The one in Gabriel’s hands was a replica.
His expression twisted.
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere you’ll never reach.”
He grabbed my arm.
I refused to scream.
“Where?”
The office lights went out.
Complete darkness.
Then Sebastian’s voice came from somewhere behind Gabriel.
“Take your hand off her.”
Everything exploded into motion.
Emergency lights flashed.
Victor’s team entered through the service corridor.
Gabriel’s men scattered.
Someone tackled me sideways just as glass shattered.
I hit the carpet.
Sebastian covered me with his body.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Stay down.”
“I’m getting tired of hearing that.”
“Humor me.”
Across the office, Victor restrained one man.
Mara’s security team blocked the elevator.
Gabriel disappeared through Sebastian’s private conference room.
“There’s a service staircase!” Sebastian shouted.
Victor ran.
Sebastian helped me stand.
“You came.”
His eyes flashed.
“You sound surprised.”
“I couldn’t hear you.”
“I could hear you until he jammed the signal.”
“You were supposed to wait.”
“I changed the plan.”
“Of course you did.”
His hands came to my face.
For one second, the chaos vanished.
“You’re okay?”
“Yes.”
His forehead touched mine.
Then Victor shouted from the hallway.
“Sebastian!”
We ran.
The service stairwell door stood open.
Gabriel was gone.
But one of his phones lay shattered on the floor.
Victor picked it up.
The screen still worked.
A map was displayed.
A location in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Victor stared.
“The warehouse.”
“Sophie?” I asked.
He nodded.
We moved.
Twenty-five minutes later, Sebastian’s vehicles surrounded the warehouse.
Police were not involved.
Not yet.
Mara had quietly contacted a federal prosecutor she trusted and arranged a controlled handoff once Sophie was safe.
Victor entered first.
I remained in the vehicle this time.
Not because Sebastian ordered me.
Because I chose to.
Ten minutes passed.
Then fifteen.
The warehouse door opened.
Victor emerged carrying a young woman.
Sophie.
She was alive.
I cried before I even realized I was crying.
Sebastian sat beside me.
He watched Victor hold his daughter.
Something shifted in his face.
Longing.
Fear.
Understanding.
I took his hand.
“You saved her.”
“We saved her.”
“Learn to accept a compliment.”
“Working on it.”
Then Mara’s phone rang.
Her expression changed as she answered.
“What?”
She listened.
“No. We have Gabriel’s shell companies. We have Evelyn’s testimony.”
Another pause.
Her face went pale.
She ended the call.
Sebastian looked at her.
“What happened?”
Mara stared at him.
“The federal warrant isn’t for Gabriel.”
Sebastian went still.
“Who is it for?”
“You.”
Police lights appeared at the far end of the street.
Dozens of them.
Mara whispered, “Gabriel released the ledger.”
May you like
Sebastian looked at me.
“And he changed the names.”
