Chapter 16 - HARBOR NINE
Dominic entered through the side loading door.
Luca followed three steps behind.
The warehouse smelled of salt, oil, wet wood, and smoke.
Stacks of file boxes filled the main floor.
Some were burning in metal trash drums.
Others had been ripped open.
Paper floated across the concrete like dirty snow.
A man lay near the stairs holding his shoulder and groaning.
Mason.
Dominic crouched beside him.
“Who shot you?”
Mason laughed weakly. “Your bride.”
“Where are they?”
“Upstairs.”
“Anyone else?”
“Adrian brought two guys.”
Luca looked toward the mezzanine.
“Police are three minutes out.”
Dominic heard shouting above them.
Brooke.
“You lied to me!”
Adrian answered, “You were useful. Don’t confuse that with important.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
He and Luca moved upstairs.
At the top, they found a long office lined with filing cabinets.
Brooke stood near a broken window, holding a small handgun with both hands.
Adrian stood ten feet away.
Between them sat three open banker’s boxes.
Grant’s original trust files.
Harbor Nine ledgers.
Photographs.
Bank statements.
Everything.
Brooke saw Dominic first.
Her face crumpled for half a second.
“Dom.”
Adrian turned.
“Of course.”
Dominic stopped in the doorway.
“Put the gun down, Brooke.”
“Tell him.”
“Tell me what?”
She pointed the gun at Adrian.
“Tell him what you said about Saturday.”
Adrian smiled. “She’s upset.”
Brooke’s hands shook.
“You said after the wedding, Dominic would sign the consolidation papers. Then six months later, I’d file for divorce and we’d split what we could move.”
Adrian shrugged. “That was one plan.”
“One?”
“Brooke—”
“What was the other plan?”
Adrian said nothing.
She screamed, “What was the other plan?”
Dominic watched Adrian’s face.
For the first time, he saw fear.
Not of the gun.
Of the answer.
Brooke understood.
Her voice fell to a whisper.
“You were going to leave me holding it.”
Adrian’s silence confirmed it.
“All the accounts in my name,” she said. “Bellweather. The reimbursements. The wedding transfers.”
“Insurance.”
“You were framing me too.”
“I was protecting myself.”
Brooke laughed. It sounded broken.
“You told me we were together.”
Adrian’s expression was almost bored.
“We were useful together.”
She flinched as if he had struck her.
Dominic said, “Brooke. Gun down.”
She looked at him.
Tears mixed with rain blown through the broken window.
“You want to know the worst part?”
“No.”
“I do.”
“Brooke.”
“I almost loved you.”
Dominic’s face did not change.
“That doesn’t help you now.”
“No. It doesn’t.”
Sirens grew louder outside.
Adrian moved one step toward the boxes.
Brooke swung the gun back toward him.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Dominic saw a red metal can near Adrian’s foot.
Fuel.
A lighter lay on the desk.
“You started the cottage fire,” Dominic said.
Adrian looked at him. “You needed motivation.”
Natalie’s burned memories flashed through Dominic’s head.
He did not move.
Adrian smiled faintly.
“Your mother always said you had self-control.”
“You talked to my mother the night she died?”
Brooke’s eyes snapped toward Adrian.
He answered too slowly.
“Yes.”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“Were you there?”
Adrian looked at Brooke.
Brooke went white.
Dominic understood before anyone spoke.
“You both were.”
Brooke began shaking her head.
“Dom—”
Adrian said, “Catherine made her choice.”
Brooke screamed, “Shut up!”
The gun fired.
Adrian jerked sideways.
The bullet struck the filing cabinet behind him.
Then one of Adrian’s men rushed from the adjoining office and grabbed Brooke from behind.
The gun skidded across the floor.
Luca moved.
Dominic moved faster.
And the red fuel can tipped over beside the burning papers.
Flame ran across the floor.
—
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