Chapter 6 - The Trap at Harbor RoadThe plan required Nora to do absolutely nothing.
She hated it immediately.
“You want me to sit in this house while you deliberately make Vale believe I’m being transported somewhere?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Elias looked up from the map spread across his study desk.
“Nora.”
“Don’t Nora me.”
Marcus took one step backward.
Petra was sitting on the sofa eating an apple and enjoying the argument.
Nora pointed at the map.
“He threatened me because he thinks I’m your weakness.”
“Yes.”
“And your brilliant solution is to reinforce that belief?”
“The convoy will be empty.”
“Then what happens when he realizes it?”
“We identify his people and follow them back.”
“And if he doesn’t attack?”
“Then we lose nothing.”
Nora folded her arms.
“You’re missing something.”
“What?”
“People like Vale don’t build plans around one source of information.”
Elias stopped.
Nora continued.
“He knows where I work. He knows where I live. He knew about Petra. He knew about your business changes. What makes you think Rourke is the only person feeding him information?”
Marcus and Elias exchanged a look.
Petra stopped chewing.
Nora saw it.
“You hadn’t considered that.”
“We considered it,” Marcus said.
“Not enough.”
Elias stared at the map.
Nora was right.
Again.
He hated how often that happened.
“Who else knows about tonight?” he asked.
“Five people,” Marcus said.
“Reduce it to two.”
“Me and you?”
“No. You and Danner.”
Marcus frowned.
“You’re not coming?”
“If there’s another leak, Vale needs to believe I am.”
Understanding arrived.
They changed the plan.
At nine, two SUVs left the Crane estate.
At nine-fifteen, Elias remained inside.
At nine-twenty-three, someone cut power to the west gate.
Marcus called.
“Boss.”
Elias was already moving.
“Vale didn’t take the convoy.”
“I know.”
“He’s coming to you.”
The first shot hit the security booth.
Glass exploded.
Petra screamed upstairs.
Nora grabbed her.
“Safe room.”
“I’m not leaving my dad.”
“Your dad has survived longer than both of us combined. Move.”
Another shot.
The house went dark.
Emergency lights turned the hallway red.
Downstairs, Elias drew a weapon from beneath the study desk.
He had spent years preparing for attacks.
Vale had spent years studying those preparations.
Men came through the service entrance.
Not the front.
Elias fired twice.
One attacker dropped.
Another retreated.
The house erupted.
Nora pushed Petra toward the reinforced room behind the master closet.
“Inside.”
“What about you?”
“I’m coming.”
Then Nora heard footsteps.
Wrong direction.
Someone was already upstairs.
She shoved Petra inside.
“Lock it.”
“Nora!”
“Lock it!”
The steel door closed.
Nora grabbed the nearest object.
A brass lamp.
The attacker rounded the corner.
He saw her.
“Where’s the girl?”
Nora swung.
The lamp caught him across the face.
He staggered.
She ran.
He grabbed her jacket.
Nora twisted, leaving the jacket in his hands.
She reached the stairs.
A gunshot cracked.
Wood splintered beside her.
“Nora!”
Elias.
She saw him below.
The attacker grabbed her again.
This time around the waist.
Nora drove her elbow backward.
Once.
Twice.
He cursed.
Then Elias was there.
The violence was fast.
Terrible.
Controlled.
He struck the man, disarmed him, drove him against the wall.
His hand closed around the attacker’s throat.
Nora saw something change in Elias.
The old architecture returning.
The part of him that knew exactly how to finish this.
“Elias.”
He didn’t hear.
“Elias.”
His grip tightened.
The man’s face darkened.
Nora put her hand on Elias’s shoulder.
“Petra is upstairs.”
That reached him.
His grip loosened.
Marcus’s men flooded the hallway seconds later.
Elias stepped away.
“Take him alive.”
Marcus stared.
“Alive?”
“I said alive.”
They dragged the attacker downstairs.
Elias turned to Nora.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He touched her face.
His hands shook.
Nora had never seen his hands shake.
“Elias.”
“I almost—”
“But you didn’t.”
“I saw him holding you.”
“I know.”
“And I—”
Nora put both hands around his wrists.
“Look at me.”
He did.
“I’m here.”
His breathing slowed.
“You stopped.”
Elias closed his eyes.
“I almost didn’t.”
“But you did.”
Upstairs, the safe-room door opened.
“Dad?”
Elias turned.
Petra ran to him.
He caught her.
Nora watched father and daughter hold each other beneath the red emergency lights while broken glass glittered across the floor.
And she understood something.
Vale had made a mistake.
He believed love made Elias weaker.
It did not.
Love gave Elias something fear never had.
A reason to stop.
—
The captured attacker gave them a location before sunrise.
Not because Elias tortured him.
Because Marcus offered him a choice.
Federal custody or Vale.
The man chose federal custody.
Vale was operating from an abandoned shipping terminal on the south harbor.
Danner was the second leak.
Marcus discovered it an hour later.
The convoy had been bait.
The estate had been the real target.
Danner had known the gate codes.
“Where is he?” Elias asked.
“Gone.”
“Family?”
“Gone too.”
Elias looked at Nora.
Old instincts said find them.
Punish betrayal.
New instincts asked a different question.
“Freeze the accounts,” he said. “Nothing else.”
Marcus nodded.
“You’re changing the rules fast.”
“They were bad rules.”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“Took you seventeen years.”
“Took me longer.”
—
At dawn, Nora found Elias on the back terrace.
The harbor was turning silver.
“You should sleep,” she said.
“So should you.”
“I’m considering it.”
He looked at her bare arms.
Her jacket had been torn during the attack.
A bruise was forming near her shoulder.
Elias stared at it.
“Stop.”
“What?”
“Looking at that like you personally put it there.”
“He came because of me.”
“He came because Vale sent him.”
“I brought this into your life.”
Nora walked closer.
“My life wasn’t exactly going beautifully before you.”
“That doesn’t make this acceptable.”
“No.”
She stood in front of him.
“But you don’t get to make decisions for me because you feel guilty.”
Elias looked at her.
“I don’t know how to do this.”
“What?”
“Care about someone without turning it into something I have to defend.”
Nora’s breath caught.
There it was.
Not a declaration.
Something more frightening because it was true.
“Maybe you don’t defend everything,” she said softly.
“What do I do instead?”
“You trust some things to stay.”
Elias looked at her.
Nora touched his cheek.
He didn’t move.
Neither did she.
The kiss happened without drama.
No explosion.
No desperate collision.
Just Elias leaning slightly toward her and stopping close enough to ask without words.
Nora closed the remaining distance.
His hand came to her waist.
Careful.
Almost uncertain.
That uncertainty broke her heart more efficiently than confidence would have.
When they separated, Elias rested his forehead against hers.
“That was a terrible idea,” Nora whispered.
“Probably.”
“We have several active criminals trying to kill you.”
“Yes.”
“Your house was shot up.”
“Yes.”
“Your daughter is upstairs.”
“Yes.”
“And I still work at a diner.”
“I’m aware.”
Nora smiled.
“Just checking.”
May you like
Elias kissed her again.
This time neither of them pretended it was accidental.
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