Chapter 6 - THE NAME IN THE LEDGER
Cole did not run.
That was the first thing Damian noticed.
When confronted with the ledger, Cole simply looked at his own name.
Then said,
“I wondered when you’d find that.”
Grace’s hand tightened around the chair.
Damian stood across the library.
“Explain.”
Cole looked at him.
“Your father recruited me.”
“For what?”
“To watch Gabriel.”
Silence.
Damian laughed once.
No humor.
“You expect me to believe my father placed your name in a criminal ledger because you were secretly loyal?”
“No.”
Cole met his eyes.
“I expect you to verify it.”
He removed a key from around his neck.
A safe hidden beneath the library floor opened.
Inside were seventeen sealed envelopes.
Each signed by Elias Hawthorne.
One was addressed to Damian.
He opened it.
Son,
If Cole gives you this letter, then Gabriel has moved before I could stop him.
Trust Cole until he gives you a reason not to.
Trust no one else because of blood, history, love, or fear.
Men like Gabriel survive by making trust feel foolish.
Do not become the man he wants you to become.
Damian read the final line twice.
Cole spoke quietly.
“Your father discovered Gabriel’s network eleven years ago.”
“Why didn’t he destroy it?”
“Because Gabriel had people everywhere.”
“Police.”
“Courts.”
“Banks.”
“Your father feared moving too quickly would start a war that killed you.”
Damian looked at him.
“So he waited.”
“Yes.”
“And died.”
Cole lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
Grace understood the tragedy.
Elias had spent years preparing Damian to survive a betrayal he never explained.
Now Damian had inherited a war without knowing its rules.
The ledger provided one advantage.
Gabriel didn’t know Damian had found it.
They decided to use that.
Damian sent a message.
I HAVE THE LEDGER.
PROOF OF LIFE.
Three minutes later, a video arrived.
Noah sat inside a room with pale yellow walls.
He was crying.
But alive.
A woman’s hand offered him a bottle.
Grace froze the image.
“Wait.”
She enlarged the bottle.
A hospital logo appeared.
St. Matthew’s Pediatric Recovery Center.
Cole looked it up.
Closed six years ago.
Owned by a Voss subsidiary.
Damian’s eyes hardened.
They moved immediately.
But Gabriel had anticipated them.
When Damian’s convoy reached the abandoned center, the building was empty.
Still, Grace found something inside one room.
A stuffed rabbit.
Noah had never owned it.
Attached to its ear was a handwritten tag.
GRACE.
She opened the seam.
Inside was a voice recorder.
A woman whispered,
“If you found this, they moved the baby.”
Grace recognized the voice.
Camille.
The recording had been made before her arrest.
“Gabriel told me the final location years ago.”
“He said if Damian ever became uncontrollable, there was one place no Hawthorne would willingly enter.”
Grace looked at Damian.
The recording continued.
“The old Voss slaughterhouse near Gary.”
“And Grace…”
Camille’s breathing shook.
“I know you hate me.”
“You should.”
“But get Noah out.”
“Because Gabriel never planned to trade him.”
Damian went cold.
The recording ended.
Cole looked at the map.
The slaughterhouse was forty minutes away.
They had been lured in the wrong direction.
Damian headed for the door.
Grace caught his arm.
“He wants you emotional.”
“My son is there.”
“And that is exactly why Gabriel thinks he controls you.”
Damian stared.
Grace lowered her voice.
“Bring Noah home.”
“But don’t become predictable doing it.”
For the first time, Damian smiled faintly.
Not because anything was funny.
Because Grace had just repeated the lesson his father died trying to teach him.
They approached the slaughterhouse from three directions.
Inside, Damian found Noah.
Alive.
Sleeping inside a portable crib.
No guards.
No Gabriel.
Too easy.
Grace knew it immediately.
“Don’t touch anything.”
A red light flashed beneath the crib.
Cole shouted.
“MOVE!”
Damian grabbed Noah.
Everyone ran.
Seconds later, the far side of the building erupted.
Windows shattered.
Fire climbed through the roof.
They escaped.
Barely.
Grace held Noah outside as Damian kissed his son’s forehead over and over.
Then Cole received a call.
His expression changed.
Gabriel had attacked somewhere else.
While Damian rescued Noah—
the Hawthorne corporate board had voted.
May you like
Damian Hawthorne had been removed as chairman.
And the man replacing him was Gabriel Voss.
