Chapter 7 - THE TRAITOR IN THE FAMILY
Barrett's recorded smile was almost relaxed.
"I gave you everything."
Kendrick stared at the monitor.
"A name. Protection. An empire your father was too weak to manage."
Evelyn stood beside him.
Penny had been taken downstairs with Titan and six guards.
Barrett continued.
"And you repaid me by turning against me for a waitress."
Kendrick's jaw flexed.
"You always were sentimental beneath all that ice."
Barrett lifted a gun into view.
The nanny sobbed behind him.
"Bring Evelyn Mercer to Pier 19 before four a.m."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"No."
Kendrick looked at her.
"No what?"
"I'm going."
"No."
"He wants me."
"And he tried to burn you alive."
"Exactly."
Kendrick stepped closer.
"You don't decide this."
She laughed bitterly.
"I've spent six years waiting for this man."
"And I've spent my entire life trusting him."
That silenced her.
Kendrick stared at Barrett on the screen.
"He taught me to shoot."
His voice lowered.
"He stood beside me at my father's funeral. He held Penny after Celeste died."
Evelyn's anger softened.
Kendrick looked at her.
"If what your father recorded is true, Barrett didn't just betray the organization."
"He destroyed your family."
"He destroyed both of ours."
For the first time, they weren't mafia boss and infiltrator.
They were two people standing in the wreckage created by the same man.
Evelyn opened one flash drive.
Encrypted folders appeared.
"I can break this."
"How long?"
"I don't know."
"You have forty minutes."
"Then stop talking."
Kendrick actually smiled.
She noticed.
"Why are you smiling?"
"You order me around a lot."
"Someone should."
Thirty minutes later, Evelyn cracked the first directory.
Photographs appeared.
Judges accepting envelopes.
Police officers meeting Barrett.
Warehouse manifests.
Weapons shipments.
Then one folder.
CELESTE.
Kendrick's hand stopped beside the keyboard.
Evelyn opened it.
Surveillance photographs of his wife.
Celeste leaving restaurants.
Celeste dropping Penny at preschool.
Celeste meeting a private investigator.
Then a scanned page.
Contract: C. Ashford.
Payment upon confirmation.
Kendrick turned away.
Evelyn didn't speak.
He punched the wall once.
Blood appeared across his knuckles.
"Kendrick."
He breathed.
"I sent her out that night."
"What?"
"Celeste didn't want to attend the charity dinner."
His voice broke for the first time.
"We argued. I told her she couldn't hide inside the house forever because she was worried about Barrett."
Evelyn looked at him.
"She knew?"
"Not everything. She said he frightened her."
He laughed bitterly.
"I told her Barrett was family."
Evelyn stepped closer.
"He manipulated everyone."
"I should've listened."
"Yes."
He looked at her sharply.
She didn't retreat.
"You should have."
Silence.
Then she added quietly:
"But that doesn't mean you killed her."
Kendrick looked away.
The computer beeped.
A second decrypted file appeared.
Audio.
They played it.
Barrett's voice.
"Take Celeste off the road. Keep the child alive if possible. Kendrick is easier to control with something left to lose."
Kendrick became perfectly still.
Then another voice answered.
A voice Evelyn recognized immediately.
She grabbed the desk.
"No."
Kendrick turned.
"Who is that?"
Evelyn stared at the speaker.
The man's voice continued.
"Understood. What about Mercer?"
Barrett responded.
"His daughter survived. Find her."
Evelyn's face crumpled.
Because the second voice belonged to someone she'd trusted for six years.
Someone who had helped create her new identity.
Someone who knew exactly where she lived.
Detective Samuel Cross.
The retired police officer who claimed he'd saved her from Barrett.
The man she had called Uncle Sam.
And if he worked for Barrett...
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Then Barrett had known where she was the entire time.
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