Chapter 11 - Malcolm’s Choice
I stared at Malcolm.
He looked exhausted.
“Move.”
He said.
I did not.
“You have the archive?”
I tightened my hand around the drive.
“So Torres was right.”
“About what?”
“The board.”
Malcolm laughed once.
“Not everything is what it looks like.”
Behind us, more gunfire echoed through Vale Dominion.
“Who are you working for?”
“My son.”
I frowned.
“They have him.”
“Who?”
“Victor.”
Malcolm’s hand trembled.
“He took Ethan three days ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because Victor said he would kill him.”
“So you betrayed us.”
“I gave them building access.”
His face twisted with shame.
“I thought they only wanted the archive.”
“People are being shot.”
“I know.”
Malcolm lowered the weapon.
“I was wrong.”
Dad appeared at the far end of the passage with Daniel Price.
His gun was raised.
“Step away from her.”
Malcolm immediately dropped his pistol.
“I’m sorry.”
Dad moved forward.
“Where is Victor?”
“I don’t know.”
“Cassandra?”
“No.”
“Jonathan?”
Malcolm looked at me.
“Blackthorn.”
My blood turned cold.
“What?”
“They’re going back to the manor tonight.”
“Why?”
Malcolm stared at the drive in my hand.
“Because Nathan built something beneath it.”
I remembered the renovations after our wedding.
Nathan had insisted on expanding the wine cellar and security rooms.
I never cared enough to ask why.
“What did he build?”
“A private server vault.”
Dad’s expression hardened.
Malcolm continued.
“Victor used Ashford Global to move the hardware.”
“Why Blackthorn?”
“Because nobody would connect a domestic estate to Meridian.”
I felt nauseated.
I had slept above Victor’s intelligence infrastructure for years.
Dad’s security team contained the attack within minutes.
Two attackers were arrested.
Three escaped.
One Vale Dominion officer was critically wounded.
The Crown Archive remained in my hand.
We should have gone directly to the FBI.
Instead, I made another decision.
“We go to Blackthorn.”
Dad shook his head.
“No.”
“They expect the archive.”
“Exactly.”
“If we don’t bring it, Victor kills Malcolm’s son.”
“That is not your responsibility.”
I looked at him.
“Neither was Torres.”
“Neither were the investigators Victor destroyed.”
“Neither were the employees Nathan used.”
“Everybody keeps deciding someone else is expendable.”
I put the drive inside my jacket.
“I’m done with that.”
Dad stared at me.
Then something in his expression softened.
Perhaps pride.
Perhaps fear.
Probably both.
“We do this my way.”
He said.
“Federal teams.”
“Surveillance.”
“Backup.”
“Agreed.”
We left Vale Dominion through a secure garage.
Halfway to Blackthorn, Agent Torres called.
“We intercepted a message.”
“From whom?”
“Celeste.”
I almost smiled.
Celeste had been arrested.
Apparently detention had not made her powerless.
“What did it say?”
Torres hesitated.
“Victor is not at Blackthorn.”
“Then who is?”
“Jonathan Mercer.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“Because according to Celeste, Jonathan is about to betray Victor.”
The game was splitting apart.
May you like
Exactly as complicated alliances always did.
And Blackthorn Manor—the house where Nathan believed he had broken me—was about to become the battlefield where all of them turned on one another.
