Chapter 4 - PIER SEVENTEEN
Rain turned the East River into hammered steel.
Sebastian arrived at Pier Seventeen in an armored sedan with Valerie beside him and Marcus in the vehicle behind them.
They had agreed on a plan.
Sebastian trusted none of it.
Valerie held the silver key inside her coat pocket.
“You can still stay in the car,” he said.
“You can still stop treating me like something fragile.”
“I watched a man hit you thirty minutes ago.”
“And I watched you nearly shoot him.”
“I missed deliberately.”
“That is not comforting.”
They stepped onto the empty pier.
At its far end stood a black van.
A woman sat in the passenger seat with tape over her mouth.
Valerie broke into a run.
Sebastian caught her around the waist.
“Wait.”
“That is my mother.”
“It is also a trap.”
A man emerged from behind the van.
Adrian Ward wore a navy overcoat and no expression at all.
Sebastian felt the betrayal before his brother spoke.
“You always did arrive personally when a beautiful woman was involved.”
Valerie stared at him.
“You took my mother?”
Adrian smiled.
“No.”
The passenger door opened.
Valerie’s mother removed the tape herself and stepped out.
Her name was Eleanor Bennett, but the poise in her face belonged to another life.
“Mother?”
Eleanor looked at Valerie with unbearable sadness.
“I am sorry.”
Sebastian turned to Adrian.
“What is this?”
“A family correction.”
Adrian extended his hand.
“The key.”
Valerie did not move.
Eleanor stepped closer.
“Give it to him.”
“You said the Wards killed Dad.”
“They did.”
“Then why are you helping one?”
“Because Sebastian is not the Ward we need to fear.”
Adrian’s smile disappeared.
A red laser dot appeared on Eleanor’s chest.
Sebastian saw it first.
He pushed Valerie down as the rifle cracked from a rooftop.
The bullet struck Eleanor.
Chaos erupted.
Marcus’s team returned fire.
The van exploded into motion, smashing through a security barrier and disappearing into traffic.
Sebastian crawled to Eleanor.
Blood spread beneath her coat.
She pressed a trembling hand against his wrist.
“Your father is alive,” she whispered.
May you like
Then she looked at Valerie.
“And he knows she is his daughter.”
