Chapter 6 - MY BROTHER
The address led to an abandoned yacht repair warehouse near the marina.
Chief Reed wanted tactical officers.
Tom had warned against it.
Daniel wanted to come.
I wanted him thirty miles away.
We compromised badly.
Daniel stayed in an unmarked police SUV three blocks from the warehouse while I went inside wearing a concealed transmitter.
The building smelled like salt, diesel, and rust.
“Tom?”
A light came on.
My brother stood beside an old workbench.
Peter Sloan sat tied to a chair.
His face was bruised.
Tom held no gun that I could see.
“You look good,” he said.
“You look dead.”
He almost smiled.
“Missed you too.”
I stared at him.
Seven years of grief hit me all at once.
My mother crying into my shoulder.
An empty coffin.
A memorial photograph.
Birthdays I spent pretending I wasn’t still waiting for him to walk through the door.
“You let us bury you.”
His face changed.
“I had to.”
“No.”
“Elena—”
“You let Mom die believing her son was dead.”
Pain flickered across his face.
“She died?”
My anger cracked.
He genuinely didn’t know.
“Two years ago.”
Tom looked away.
For a moment, he was my brother again.
Then Peter Sloan groaned.
Reality returned.
“Untie him,” I said.
Tom shook his head.
“He’s safer like this.”
“From who?”
Tom looked toward the warehouse door.
“Your husband’s family.”
“Vanessa?”
“She’s a spoiled idiot with access to dangerous people. She thinks she’s running the game because they let her move money.”
“Who are they?”
Tom hesitated.
Then he said a name I had not heard in seven years.
“Arthur Voss.”
My blood went cold.
Arthur Voss had been deputy mayor during the original investigation.
Publicly clean.
Privately untouchable.
He had later become one of the most powerful property developers on the East Coast.
“He ordered the ambush?”
Tom nodded.
“And Richard Vale discovered it.”
“Daniel’s father?”
“Richard was feeding us records.”
I stared at him.
“Then why did Richard die?”
“Because someone inside the task force gave Voss his name.”
I felt sick.
“Who?”
Tom looked directly at the transmitter hidden beneath my jacket.
Then he stepped forward and ripped it away.
“Ask your beloved Police Chief.”
The warehouse doors exploded open.
Tactical officers poured inside.
Tom grabbed Sloan and shoved him behind a steel pillar.
Chief Reed entered with his weapon raised.
“Thomas Cross!”
Tom laughed.
“There he is.”
Reed froze.
His face looked as if he had seen a ghost.
“Tom?”
Tom raised his hands.
Then said the sentence that shattered the last seven years of my life.
May you like
“Tell Elena why you gave Voss her brother’s location.”
---
