Chapter 10 - The Dry Docks
The paramedics had arrived, loading my father onto a gurney while my mother wept hysterically, begging me to ride with them in the ambulance. I told her no, watched the doors shut, and instructed Evelyn to follow them to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to ensure my father received proper medical care—because accountability required a living defendant, not a corpse.
Now, my SUV rolled to a silent stop on the cracked asphalt of the abandoned 31st Street dry docks.
The wind off the river was fierce, howling through the skeletal metal frames of rusted cranes and abandoned industrial warehouses. A few hundred yards away, the dark, murky water of the Chicago River lapped sluggishly against the concrete seawall.
Parked directly beneath the flickering sodium glow of an overhead yard light was a matte-black SUV.
As I cut my engine and stepped out into the biting cold, the driver’s side door of the black vehicle opened.
Dominic Moretti stepped out.
He wore a dark wool overcoat, his broad shoulders squared against the wind, his dark hair ruffled slightly by the gale. He didn't look like a typical corporate CEO; he looked like a man who knew how to survive in the gray spaces between the boardroom and the underworld.
“You actually came,” Dominic said, his voice carrying clearly over the sound of the wind as he leaned against the side of his vehicle, arms crossed over his chest.
“I don't miss meetings when my family’s crimes are involved,” I said, stepping forward, keeping my hand resting casually near my coat pocket where my federal badge and sidearm rested. “You have forty minutes before my SEC backup realizes I left the hospital radius. Talk.”
Dominic reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a heavy, secure-encrypted military-grade hard drive and holding it up by the cord.
“This drive contains every transaction, every offshore wire, and every alias Arthur Sterling used to buy off politicians and judges in this city,” Dominic said quietly, his eyes locking onto mine with an intense, unyielding gravity. “Including the audio recordings of your father willingly signing over real estate titles to finance the operation.”
May you like
He took a slow step toward me, dangling the hard drive in the wind.
“Your family thought they were running the game, Agent Vale,” Dominic murmured, stopping just an arm’s length away. “But they were just pawns in a much larger war. And if you want to survive what’s coming next... you’re going to need me.”
