Chapter 27 - The Harbor Exchange
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The salt air blew thick and cold across Pier 14 at three o'clock the following morning. Fog rolled over the black water, wrapping around the rusted shipping containers like ghost shrouds.
I stood near the edge of the dock, wearing a long black coat, holding the leather-bound Sterling ledger beneath my arm.
Ben stood fifty yards behind me near our SUV, his hand resting on his sidearm, his eyes scanning the surrounding shadows. What Julianna Vance didn't know was that forty federal agents and SWAT snipers were concealed inside the empty shipping containers surrounding the pier, their optics locked onto the landing zone.
Headlights cut through the thick fog. A sleek black limousine pulled to a stop twenty feet away from me.
The rear door opened, and Julianna Vance stepped out onto the wet asphalt, accompanied by two tall men in dark tactical gear. She held a silver-handled cane, her steel-grey eyes glittering with cold triumph as she looked at me.
"You're early, Lydia," Julianna said, her voice carrying easily over the sound of the waves lapping against the pilings. "I admire a woman who understands urgency."
"Where is Adrian?" I asked, keeping my voice steady as stone.
Julianna chuckled softly, a dry, raspy sound. "Adrian? Poor, foolish Adrian signed a full confession in exchange for a transfer to a lower-security facility. He was useful once, but he is completely irrelevant now. Hand over your father's ledger, Lydia."
I held up the leather notebook. "This ledger doesn't contain a twenty-million-dollar debt, Julianna. It contains forty percent of Vanguard Apex's voting stock. It belongs to my daughter."
Julianna’s smile vanished, her face hardening into a terrifying mask of malice. "You think you're clever, girl? You think having your father's blood makes you powerful? Hand it over before I order my men to go to your house and find your baby."
"I don't think so, Julianna," I said softly.
May you like
I opened the ledger, pulled out a small flare, and struck it against the stone.
Red flame erupted into the dark night sky.
