Daniel woke properly the next afternoon.
Andrew was sitting beside him.
For several minutes, neither brother spoke.
There were too many years between them.
Finally Daniel said, “You really did get old.”
Andrew leaned back.
“You look terrible.”
“I’ve been drugged for nine years. What’s your excuse?”
Andrew laughed.
Daniel smiled faintly.
Then Andrew’s smile disappeared.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“I should’ve found you.”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“You couldn’t find what you were taught not to look for.”
Andrew frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel took a slow breath.
“Dad knew.”
Andrew’s body stiffened.
“About Ashwood?”
“Not at first.”
Daniel explained.
Nine years earlier, he had discovered that Vincent Mercer was secretly using family transportation companies to move money for Carlo Moretti.
Daniel planned to tell Andrew.
Before he could, Vincent arranged the warehouse fire.
Daniel survived.
Moretti’s men found him before police did.
They moved him to Ashwood under a false identity.
“Why keep you alive?” Andrew asked.
“Insurance.”
“Against whom?”
“You.”
Andrew stared at him.
Daniel nodded.
“Vincent told Moretti that if you ever moved against him, they could use me.”
“Why didn’t they?”
“Because Dad discovered I was alive.”
Andrew went still.
“Dad knew for five years?”
“Not exactly.”
Daniel’s voice weakened.
“He found out about a year before he died. He started gathering evidence. That’s the red ledger.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He didn’t know who he could trust.”
“I was his son.”
“So was Vincent, as far as Dad was concerned.”
Vincent had lost his parents at eleven.
Edward Mercer had raised him alongside Andrew and Daniel.
To outsiders, he was their cousin.
Inside the house, he had been another brother.
Daniel looked at Andrew.
“Dad came to see me once.”
Andrew felt as though he had been struck.
“At Ashwood?”
“Yes.”
“He left you there?”
“He was trying to get me out without starting a war.”
Andrew stood.
“He left you there.”
“Andy.”
“He knew you were alive.”
“He was dying.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“He thought Moretti had people inside our organization.”
“He was right.”
Daniel watched him.
“Anger won’t change those nine years.”
“No.”
Andrew looked at his brother.
“But it might change what happens next.”
Daniel’s expression became serious.
“Grace.”
“We’re looking.”
“She risked everything.”
“I know.”
“She could’ve ignored me.”
Andrew thought about Ivy sleeping down the hall at his house with a stuffed rabbit tucked beneath her chin.
“She doesn’t seem like the type.”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“No.”
Then he closed his eyes.
“There’s something you need to know about Grace.”
Andrew waited.
“Voss wants to marry her because of what she witnessed, but there’s another reason.”
“What?”
“Grace inherited part of Bell Harbor.”
Arthur Bell, the Ashwood patient whose forged signature Grace had challenged, was not a stranger.
He was Grace’s maternal grandfather.
Estranged from Grace’s mother for decades, Arthur had secretly amended his estate.
Grace did not know.
The waterfront property Moretti wanted was worth nearly forty million dollars.
If Arthur’s fraudulent transfer was invalidated, Grace became the principal beneficiary.
Peter Voss did not merely want to silence a witness.
He wanted control over an inheritance.
Andrew’s phone rang.
Marco.
“We found the location.”
Andrew stood.
“Grace?”
“We think so. Old Moretti property near Red Hook.”
“People?”
“Eight minimum.”
“Voss?”
“Vehicle arrived twenty minutes ago.”
Andrew looked at Daniel.
Daniel understood.
“Go.”
Andrew hesitated.
“Andy.”
“What?”
“Bring her back to her kid.”
Andrew nodded.
“I intend to.”
Grace Callahan sat at a table in an empty townhouse in Red Hook wearing the same blue nursing scrubs she had been wearing when she was kidnapped.
Peter Voss placed a marriage license in front of her.
“Sign.”
Grace stared at him.
“No.”
Peter sighed.
For six days, he had alternated between threats and false kindness.
Grace preferred the threats.
At least they were honest.
“Ivy is seven,” Grace said. “Whatever you think you can gain from me, leave my daughter out of it.”
“Then sign.”
“Show me she’s alive.”
Peter’s expression shifted.
Grace noticed.
“You don’t have her.”
“We’ll find her.”
Relief hit Grace so powerfully she nearly cried.
Ivy had escaped.
Her baby was somewhere outside this room.
Maybe frightened.
Maybe hungry.
But free.
Grace pushed the paper away.
“Then you have nothing.”
Peter leaned forward.
“I have you.”
A crash sounded downstairs.
Peter turned.
Another sound.
Shouting.
Then silence.
Peter drew a handgun.
Grace’s pulse exploded.
The door opened.
Andrew Mercer stood there.
Peter aimed.
Andrew did not flinch.
Two of Andrew’s men appeared behind him.
“Put it down,” Andrew said.
Peter grabbed Grace and pulled her against him.
The weapon pressed near her shoulder.
“Back up.”
Andrew’s eyes met Grace’s.
For one second, the room became strangely quiet.
Grace had never met Andrew Mercer.
But she knew immediately who he was.
Daniel had described him.
My brother always looks angry when he’s scared.
Andrew looked furious.
Grace wondered what he was afraid of.
Then she realized.
He was afraid Peter would hurt her before he could return her to Ivy.
Peter backed toward a side door.
“You should’ve stayed out of this.”
Andrew’s voice remained calm.
“You kidnapped a seven-year-old’s mother.”
“She’s a problem.”
“She’s a nurse.”
“She stole from us.”
“She saved my brother.”
Peter’s grip tightened.
Andrew’s eyes became colder.
“That makes her family business.”
Grace noticed Luca moving in the hallway.
Peter noticed too.
He turned his head.
Grace drove her heel down onto his foot and dropped her weight.
The gun shifted.
Andrew moved.
Everything happened in seconds.
Luca disarmed Peter.
Andrew pulled Grace away.
Peter hit the floor.
Grace stumbled.
Andrew caught her.
“Are you hurt?”
“My daughter.”
“She’s safe.”
“Where?”
“My house.”
Grace grabbed his coat.
“You swear?”
“Yes.”
“Take me to her.”
Andrew looked at Peter.
For a moment, Grace saw why people feared him.
Then Andrew turned away.
“Gladly.”
Ivy was waiting in the foyer when the front door opened.
“Mommy!”
Grace dropped to her knees.
Ivy collided with her.
Grace wrapped both arms around her daughter.
For six days, she had refused to cry in front of Peter.
Now she could not stop.
Ivy buried her face against Grace.
“I hired him!”
Grace pulled back.
“What?”
Ivy pointed proudly at Andrew.
“I paid him five dollars.”
Grace looked at Andrew over Ivy’s head.
Andrew reached into his pocket.
The bill was still there.
“She drives a hard bargain.”
Grace laughed through her tears.
It was the first time Andrew saw her smile.
Something inside him shifted.
He ignored it.
For the next hour, Grace ate while Ivy remained pressed against her side.
Then Andrew explained that Daniel was alive.
Grace closed her eyes.
“Thank God.”
“You saved him.”
“I just did my job.”
“No.”
Andrew’s voice made her look up.
“You did what everyone else there had been paid not to do.”
Grace held his gaze.
“Then maybe they forgot what the job was.”
Andrew understood immediately why Daniel trusted her.
“Where’s the ledger?”
Grace became guarded.
“Safe.”
“I need it.”
“I don’t know you.”
“I’m Daniel’s brother.”
“That doesn’t automatically make you good.”
Luca coughed into his hand to hide a reaction.
Andrew almost smiled.
“No. It doesn’t.”
Grace studied him.
“The ledger proves people were paid to keep Daniel imprisoned. It also proves financial crimes involving Ashwood.”
“I know.”
“If I give it to you, what happens?”
“I use it.”
“To kill people?”
Ivy was nearby.
Andrew noticed.
“So was Grace.
He answered carefully.
“To end what happened to Daniel and make sure it can’t happen again.”
Grace was silent.
“Some of the evidence goes to federal authorities,” she said.
Andrew disliked that idea.
Grace saw it.
“That’s my condition.”
“You’re giving conditions now?”
“My daughter apparently hired you for five dollars. I assume negotiations are allowed.”
This time Luca actually smiled.
Andrew looked at Ivy.
She nodded solemnly.
“Mommy is good at contracts.”
Andrew sighed.
“Fine.”
Grace finally relaxed slightly.
“The ledger is in a safe-deposit box.”
“Which bank?”
“I’m not telling you until Daniel confirms something.”
“What?”
Grace looked toward Ivy.
“Not in front of her.”
Rosa took Ivy upstairs.
Grace waited until they were alone.
“Daniel told me there was one page his father wanted Andrew never to see unless Daniel survived.”
Andrew’s expression hardened.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“What page?”
“Forty-seven.”
“Did you read it?”
“No.”
Andrew did not believe her.
Grace noticed.
“I’m a nurse, Mr. Mercer. People trust me with things they’re too afraid to tell their families. I know how to respect something that isn’t mine.”
“Andrew.”
“What?”
“If we’re negotiating, call me Andrew.”
Grace nodded.
“Then call me Grace.”
His phone buzzed.
Marco sent a message.
VINCENT IS GONE.
Andrew stared at it.
Grace noticed.
“What happened?”
“Our traitor knows we know.”
“Who?”
“My cousin.”
Before Andrew could explain, the security alarm sounded.
Luca rushed toward the window.
A vehicle had stopped outside the gates.
No attack came.
Instead, someone pushed a man from the back seat and drove away.
The man collapsed on the pavement.
Andrew’s guards ran toward him.
Minutes later, Andrew entered the security room.
The injured man was one of his own accountants.
Taped to his chest was a photograph.
Andrew tore it free.
The photograph showed Daniel at the private clinic.
Taken less than an hour earlier.
Written across it were five words.
HE SHOULD HAVE STAYED DEAD.
Andrew looked at Marco.
“Move Daniel.”
Marco’s face was grim.
“We already tried.”
“What do you mean?”
“The clinic called thirty seconds ago.”
Andrew’s blood turned cold.
“Daniel is gone.”