Chapter 10 - Brothers
The Harbor Point sales office overlooked the unfinished towers.
At night they looked skeletal.
Concrete columns.
Dark windows.
Steel rising against the sky.
Daniel entered wearing a concealed wire.
Federal agents surrounded the site.
Ryan stood near the glass wall.
He looked ten years older.
No suit jacket.
No tie.
Bruise beneath one eye.
Daniel stopped.
“What happened to you?”
“Voss.”
“Where is Evelyn?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Because you need the truth.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“You had several chances.”
Ryan looked toward the towers.
“Dad always chose you.”
Daniel stiffened.
Ryan continued.
“You were smarter.”
“More careful.”
“The one people trusted.”
“This is about Dad?”
“No.”
“It started there.”
Ryan turned.
“When he died and split control fifty-fifty, I felt like he was still judging me.”
“So you stole.”
“I made compromises.”
“You put families inside buildings you knew might fail.”
“I didn’t know at first.”
“Then when you knew?”
Ryan said nothing.
Daniel stared.
“That’s what I thought.”
Ryan walked to a desk.
“Voss came to me two years ago.”
“He offered steel at twenty percent below market.”
“He handled inspectors.”
“He handled testing.”
“I told myself everyone did it.”
“They don’t.”
“I know.”
“Now.”
Ryan looked ashamed.
“By the time I realized how deep his network went, he owned me.”
Daniel’s expression remained hard.
“You still chose what you did to me.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
That surprised Daniel.
Ryan continued.
“When your car crashed, Voss called me before the hospital did.”
Daniel felt cold.
“How?”
“He was watching you.”
“He said the problem had solved itself.”
“But you survived.”
“Yes.”
“And I saw an opportunity.”
Ryan looked sick.
“I hate myself for what I did next.”
“You should.”
“I called Vale.”
“I created the legal death.”
“I planned to hide you at Blackwood.”
“Why keep me alive?”
“Insurance.”
“Against Voss.”
Daniel frowned.
“If Voss turned on me, I could reveal you were alive and tell authorities he arranged the crash.”
“You were going to use me as leverage.”
“Yes.”
Daniel wanted to hit him.
He was still too weak.
Perhaps that was fortunate.
“Evelyn?”
“She found out.”
“I threatened her.”
“She helped alter your blood.”
“Then she learned Voss caused the crash.”
“How?”
“Vale told her.”
“Vale knew?”
“He recognized one of Voss’s men at the hospital.”
Daniel thought of the man Claire had described.
“Who cut my brakes?”
Ryan looked toward the door.
“A man named Aaron Pike.”
Brooks heard the name through the wire.
Agents began searching immediately.
“Where is Pike?”
“Dead.”
Daniel stared.
“When?”
“Three days after your crash.”
“Voss cleans up.”
Ryan nodded.
“So Peter?”
“I don’t know.”
“Vale?”
“I think Voss killed him.”
“Peter?”
“Probably.”
“Why frame you?”
Ryan smiled bitterly.
“Because I’m useful guilty.”
The phrase stayed with Daniel.
Useful guilty.
Ryan had committed enough crimes that no one needed to invent much.
Voss could hide behind him.
“Where is Evelyn?”
Ryan took out a folded map.
“Voss owns a private medical recovery center through another company.”
“North of Frederick.”
“He moved assets there yesterday.”
“How do you know?”
“I still have someone inside his network.”
“Who?”
Ryan hesitated.
Then the office lights went out.
Brooks’s voice exploded in Daniel’s earpiece.
“DOWN!”
Glass shattered.
Daniel dropped.
A bullet tore through the window.
Ryan tackled him behind the desk.
Another shot struck the wall.
Federal agents stormed the exterior.
Ryan yelled, “Back stairs!”
Daniel crawled toward the hallway.
Ryan followed.
Then stopped.
Blood appeared on his shirt.
Daniel stared.
“Ryan.”
His brother looked down.
A bullet had entered his side.
Daniel grabbed him.
“Move.”
Ryan almost laughed.
“You’re helping me?”
“I haven’t decided whether to kill you myself.”
They stumbled down the service stairs.
Outside, agents chased the shooter.
A vehicle escaped through a construction gate.
Daniel lowered Ryan onto the pavement.
Brooks ran toward them.
“Ambulance!”
Ryan grabbed Daniel’s sleeve.
“The center.”
“What?”
“Evelyn.”
His grip tightened.
“Voss knows she recorded him.”
“How?”
Ryan coughed.
“Because she called me.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“What did she say?”
Ryan looked at Daniel.
“She said she hid the original Harbor Point contracts.”
“Where?”
Ryan whispered, “With Madison.”
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“What?”
“She mailed them to your house disguised as something for Madison.”
“When?”
“Before she disappeared.”
Daniel stared.
Their house had been searched.
Madison’s room destroyed.
But perhaps the package had arrived later.
“What was it?”
Ryan’s eyes began closing.
“A children’s book.”
“What book?”
Ryan fought to stay conscious.
“The one about…”
His voice faded.
“Ryan!”
The paramedics reached him.
As they pulled Daniel back, Ryan whispered one final word.
“Rabbit.”
Daniel knew immediately.
Madison’s favorite book.
The Velveteen Rabbit.
May you like
And that copy was not at their house.
Madison had brought it with her to the safe house.
