Chapter 6 - THE BURNER PHONE
"You can't trust him!" Mara yelled, pointing a shaking finger at Silas. "He just tried to sell us out to save his own kid!"
"I know," Julian said calmly, pacing the length of the master bedroom. He picked up the burner phone. "But Silas is the only leverage we have. Marcus thinks the back door is going to open. He thinks he's walking into a slaughter. We are going to give him one."
Silas was slumped against the wall, clutching his bleeding side, tears streaming down his face. "Marcus wants the shipping ports, Boss. He found out your brother’s old watch was recovered. He knows you're close to proving he ordered the hit on Elias. He's using the waitress to draw you out because her father was the driver. It ties the whole narrative together neatly for the police."
Mara closed her eyes. Her father had been a pawn. And now, she and her sister were the collateral damage.
"Where is the trade supposed to happen?" Julian demanded.
"Pier 42," Silas choked out. "An hour. He has Elena and my daughter there."
Julian looked at Mara. "I am leaving a security team here with Leo. You are staying with him."
"No," Mara said, her voice dropping all traces of panic. The waitress who kept her head down was gone. The woman who read the underlying currents of dangerous men stepped forward. "Marcus wants me. If I don't show up, he kills Elena. I am going with you."
Julian stared at her. He saw the iron in her spine. He didn't argue.
He walked to a heavy steel safe in the closet, unlocked it, and pulled out a sleek, compact 9mm pistol. He checked the magazine, snapped it back into place, and handed it to Mara.
"Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to destroy what is in front of you," Julian instructed quietly.
Mara took the cold metal in her hands. It was heavy. Real.
"I'm ready," she said.
They left Silas locked in a basement cell with a medic. Julian, Mara, and a strike team of Julian's most trusted men loaded into two unmarked black SUVs. The drive to the waterfront was agonizing. Mara stared out the window, praying Elena was unharmed.
The docks at Pier 42 were shrouded in thick, icy fog. The smell of salt and diesel fuel hung heavy in the air.
Julian's car parked in the shadows of a massive shipping container. He turned to Mara.
"Stay exactly behind me. You do not step out until I have Marcus in my sights. Understand?"
"Understood."
They stepped out into the freezing night air. The fog swirled around their ankles.
At the end of the pier, illuminated by the harsh glare of a single floodlight, stood Marcus. The developer from Table Twelve. Beside him were two terrified young women, bound and gagged. One was Silas's teenage daughter.
The other was Elena.
Mara let out a choked gasp, stepping forward, but Julian put a firm hand on her shoulder, keeping her in the shadows.
"Where's my back door, Julian?" Marcus called out, his voice echoing off the metal containers. A dozen armed men stepped out from the fog, forming a wall around him.
"You don't need a back door, Marcus," Julian said loudly, stepping into the light, entirely unarmed. He held his hands out. "I'm right here."
Marcus smiled, pulling a gun from his coat. "How noble. Did you bring the girl?"
"She's not a part of this," Julian said, walking slowly toward the center of the pier.
Marcus laughed. "She is the whole point, Julian! Her father drove the car. I need her dead to close the loop on Elias's murder!"
From the shadows, Mara raised the pistol. Her hands were shaking violently. She couldn't get a clean shot. There were too many men.
Suddenly, Marcus’s phone rang.
He frowned, keeping his gun on Julian, and answered it.
"Hello?"
The voice on speakerphone echoed loudly. It was Leo. The six-year-old boy.
"Hi, Mr. Marcus," Leo's small, innocent voice rang out. "Uncle Jules said to tell you he has a present for you."
Marcus's eyes widened in sheer panic.
May you like
Julian smiled. "Look down."
Beneath Marcus's feet, a small red light was blinking furiously on a brick of C4.
