Chapter 4 - SOUTH STATION
“Down!”
Renick slammed Belle behind a concrete pillar as the first shot cracked through the station.
Glass exploded.
Belle screamed.
Renick drew a handgun from beneath his coat.
She had never seen anyone move like him.
One second he was beside her.
The next he was returning fire.
“Stay down!”
Another shot struck the locker.
Belle clutched Daniel’s letter against her chest.
Sully and two security men rushed from the corridor.
The attackers scattered.
One disappeared toward the street.
Another went down.
The third reached the stairwell before Renick caught him.
Renick drove him against the wall.
“Who sent you?”
The man smiled through a bleeding lip.
“You already know.”
Renick hit him once.
Belle flinched.
“Renick.”
He stopped.
The attacker laughed.
“Getting soft?”
Renick’s face became expressionless.
Then police sirens sounded outside.
The man suddenly bit down.
His body convulsed.
Belle stared in horror.
“What happened?”
Sully swore.
“Poison capsule.”
Within seconds, the attacker was dead.
Renick turned away.
Belle realized his hands were shaking.
Not from fear.
Rage.
Back at the safe house, they examined the flash drive.
Most files were encrypted.
One video opened.
Daniel appeared on screen.
Belle covered her mouth.
He looked exhausted.
Older than she remembered.
“Belle, if you ever see this, I’m sorry.”
Her tears came immediately.
“I wanted to tell you.”
Daniel continued.
“But knowing would have put you in danger.”
Micah stood beside Belle.
He touched the screen.
“Dad.”
Daniel explained the Harrow Circle.
A network of businessmen, port officials, corrupt police, and criminals.
For years they had used legitimate shipping companies to move weapons and money through Boston Harbor.
Daniel had discovered the accounting trail.
But there was more.
“The person running Harrow isn’t who Renick thinks.”
Renick leaned closer.
Daniel looked directly into the camera.
“The leader is inside Kavanaugh’s own organization.”
The video glitched.
Then returned.
Daniel said one name.
Sully Byrne.
Nobody moved.
Belle slowly turned.
Sully stood near the door.
His face had gone white.
Renick looked at the man who had managed his estate for fifteen years.
The man who had helped raise Brinley after her mother died.
The man who had just stood beside him during the shooting.
“Sully?”
Sully stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
Daniel’s video continued.
“If Sully is still beside Renick when this is found, do not confront him alone.”
Sully stepped backward.
Security guards reached for their weapons.
Then Sully did something nobody expected.
He pulled his gun.
Not on Renick.
On himself.
Renick moved instantly.
He knocked the weapon aside.
It fired into the ceiling.
Micah screamed.
Belle pulled him down.
Two guards tackled Sully.
Renick pinned his oldest friend against the floor.
“Talk!”
Sully’s eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t run Harrow.”
“Daniel named you.”
“Because I gave him my name!”
Renick froze.
“What?”
“I was his source.”
Silence.
Sully breathed hard.
“I infiltrated them.”
Renick stared.
“For how long?”
“Seventeen years.”
Renick slowly released him.
Sully sat against the wall.
“Daniel used my name in his files because he couldn’t risk writing the real one.”
Belle wiped tears from her face.
“Then who was the real one?”
Sully looked toward Renick.
“You’re not going to believe me.”
“Try.”
Sully closed his eyes.
“Your brother.”
Renick’s expression emptied.
“Declan is dead.”
Sully shook his head.
“No.”
Renick stepped back.
Declan Kavanaugh had supposedly died twelve years earlier in a warehouse fire.
No body had ever been recovered.
Sully looked toward Brinley sleeping upstairs.
“Declan has been alive this entire time.”
Belle suddenly understood.
The balcony.
The nanny.
The threat.
This was not merely revenge against Renick.
It was family.
And upstairs, a floorboard creaked.
Micah looked toward the ceiling.
“Brinley?”
Belle ran.
The bedroom was empty.
The window stood open.
And on Brinley’s pillow was another envelope.
Renick tore it open.
One sentence.
May you like
YOU TOOK MY FAMILY.
NOW I’M TAKING YOURS.
