Chapter 11 - The Enemy Who Wasn’t
Grant Mercer waited at Dock Seventeen.
Marcus arrived twenty minutes later.
He carried a black case.
Two men accompanied him.
Victor was nowhere in sight.
Marcus stepped onto the wet concrete.
Mercer stood beneath a warehouse awning with four guards.
He was fifty-six.
Silver-haired.
Immaculately dressed.
And for eight months, Adrian had wanted him dead.
Mercer looked at the case.
“You have it?”
Marcus nodded.
“Financial records.”
“Vale routes.”
“Account structures.”
“Names.”
Mercer smiled faintly.
“And Adrian?”
“Distracted.”
“By what?”
Marcus hesitated.
Mercer noticed.
Before Marcus could answer, headlights appeared.
Adrian’s car stopped at the entrance.
He stepped out alone.
Marcus swore.
Mercer’s guards raised their weapons.
Adrian kept walking.
Mercer lifted one hand.
“Lower them.”
Marcus stared.
“What are you doing?”
Mercer looked amused.
“Allowing a grieving father to speak.”
Marcus’s face tightened.
Adrian stopped ten feet away.
“For eight months, I thought you killed Evelyn.”
Mercer nodded.
“I know.”
“You let me.”
“I tried telling you otherwise.”
“Three messengers disappeared.”
Mercer glanced at Marcus.
“Yes.”
Adrian followed his gaze.
Marcus raised his gun.
Every guard immediately aimed at him.
Marcus stopped.
Mercer smiled.
“You should understand something.”
“I never attacked Adrian’s family.”
“Business is business.”
“Children are not.”
Adrian looked at Marcus.
“You blamed Mercer because you knew I’d believe it.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“You wanted to believe it.”
“You needed an enemy.”
“I gave you one.”
Adrian’s voice hardened.
“You killed Evelyn.”
Marcus’s expression flickered.
“Victor ordered it.”
“You arranged the road.”
Marcus said nothing.
“You diverted me from the hospital.”
Silence.
“You changed the convoy route.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“You erased the cameras.”
Marcus finally shouted.
“I spent fifteen years standing beside you.”
“Fifteen years.”
“I watched you inherit everything.”
“The name.”
“The money.”
“The loyalty.”
“The fear.”
“And what did I get?”
Adrian stared at him.
“My trust.”
Marcus laughed.
“Trust doesn’t buy an empire.”
“No.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“But betrayal destroys one.”
Marcus suddenly grabbed the case and ran.
Mercer’s men moved.
Adrian raised his hand.
“Alive.”
Marcus fired toward the lights.
Darkness swallowed part of the dock.
He disappeared between shipping containers.
Adrian followed.
Rain turned the metal corridors into mirrors.
Then Marcus’s voice echoed.
“You think finding Lily changes anything?”
Adrian stopped.
Marcus laughed somewhere in the darkness.
“Ask Thomas what really happened to Evelyn after the crash.”
Adrian’s blood went cold.
“What are you talking about?”
Marcus’s answer came from behind a container.
May you like
“The explosion didn’t kill her.”
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