Chapter 26 - The Master of Slip Nine
Dominic Rossi leaned against his silver-headed walking stick, the wood tapping rhythmically against the metal grating of the catwalk. He looked older than the portraits in the Highland Park conservatory, but the sharpness in his posture hadn't degraded. His face was weathered, carved with deep lines around a mouth that looked as though it hadn't smiled in twenty years.
"Dominic," Julian whispered, stepping half an inch in front of me, his good hand curling into a useless fist. "Let her go. She doesn't have the routing numbers. She doesn't know where the accounts are."
"Quiet, Julian," Dominic said, not even looking at my brother. His dark, hooded eyes were locked entirely on me. "You were an exceptional bookkeeper. One of the best Slip Nine ever produced. But your sister is the one who understands how to manage men. She proved that when she took fifty-one percent of the northern corridor right out from under Reyes’s nose."
"You forged that letter," I said, my voice steady despite the sheer panic pounding in my throat. "You knew I’d bring Gabriel."
"Of course you brought him," Dominic said calmly, descending the metal stairs one deliberate step at a time. The heavy rubber soles of his boots squeaked against the wet steel. "Gabriel has spent the last ten years trying to prove he’s a better man than I was. He thinks in terms of honor, contracts, and reparations. He’s soft. A businessman who wears an enforcer’s coat."
He reached the concrete floor, stopping ten feet from where Julian and I stood. Behind him, two men dressed in black tactical gear stepped out from the catwalk shadows, both carrying compact submachine guns lowered at their waists.
"Gabriel built a legitimate logistics empire in Chicago," I countered, refusing to lower my gaze. "He cleaned your blood off the family name."
Dominic let out a short, dry bark of laughter that bounced hollowly off the concrete walls. "He cleaned nothing! He built a glass castle while the Feds circled like sharks. If I hadn't faked my death, the Rossi family would be bankrupt and rotting in federal penitentiaries. I saved this family. And now Gabriel has handed control of our most valuable shipping hub to a longshoreman's daughter."
He pointed his walking stick directly at my chest.
"You are going to call him on that radio in your pocket, Maya. You are going to tell him that Julian is alive, that you have the ledger, and that he needs to walk into this pump house alone to sign the transfer documents."
"And if I don't?"
Dominic looked toward Julian. "Then Julian’s body will finally match the death certificate your father filed six months ago. Only this time, there won't be enough left of him to bury."
"Don't do it, Maya," Julian rasped, his face pale with sweat. "He’s going to kill us anyway. Once the *Caledonia* clears the port with the fifty million in foreign bearer bonds, he doesn't need any of us alive."
"Fifty million?" I looked at Julian, the piece of the puzzle finally falling into place. "The bearer bonds were never in Chicago. They were on this ship the entire time."
"The *Caledonia* isn't carrying cargo," Julian explained quickly, words tumbling out in a desperate rush. "It’s a mobile vault. Dominic transferred his liquid assets into European securities before he faked his death. I was the only one who had the dual-key authentication codes to unlock the safe in the ship's hold. That’s why he kept me alive. That’s why he couldn't leave Rotterdam without me."
Dominic’s jaw clenched, his patience visibly fraying. "Enough. The radio, Maya. Call Gabriel."
I reached into my jacket pocket. My hand brushed against the small two-way radio Gabriel had given me before I left the van.
*Ten minutes,* Gabriel had said.
I glanced at the waterproof watch on my wrist. Eight minutes had passed.
"I’ll make the call," I said, pulling the radio out slowly.
Dominic nodded, gesturing for one of his armed guards to step closer. "Smart girl. Tell him to enter through the maintenance hatch on the western wall. No weapons."
I pressed the transmit button. The radio emitted a sharp squawk of static.
"Gabriel," I spoke into the mic, keeping my voice level, watching Dominic’s eyes carefully. "I found Julian. He’s in the lower chamber."
A second of static. Then Gabriel’s deep voice crackled through the speaker: *"Is he intact?"*
"He’s alive," I said. "He says the water in the bilge is rising fast. The old man’s orchids are blooming in the greenhouse."
Dominic’s brow furrowed. "What orchids? What is she talking about?"
May you like
Before Dominic could lunge forward, the heavy steel floodgates at the top of the pump house exploded inward with a deafening roar of grinding metal and pressurized steam.
***
