Chapter 6 - Loving Him Put a Target on Her BackThe photograph reached Draos headquarters before sunrise.
Nessa learned about it 2 days later.
Ezra did not tell her.
That became their first real fight.
“You knew.”
They stood in his office at Meridian Tower.
Ezra closed the door.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Forty-one hours.”
Nessa stared at him.
“You counted?”
“I knew you would ask.”
“That is not the problem.”
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
She threw the printed photograph onto his desk.
It showed them outside Caldwell’s Gym.
Kissing.
A red circle surrounded Nessa’s face.
Underneath:
LEVERAGE.
Nessa looked at Ezra.
“You made the decision for me.”
“I increased security.”
“Without telling me why.”
“Because your grandfather is still in the hospital.”
“And?”
“And I didn’t want you spending 2 days looking over your shoulder.”
Nessa laughed once.
“You mean you wanted me calm.”
“Yes.”
“You wanted me manageable.”
“No.”
“Same thing.”
Ezra stood.
“It is not.”
“It is when you decide what I’m allowed to know.”
He stopped.
Because she was right.
Again.
Ezra had discovered that Nessa’s most infuriating quality was not stubbornness.
It was accuracy.
“I’m sorry.”
That silenced her.
He continued.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I was wrong.”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to make me repeat it?”
“Possibly.”
Despite herself, her anger weakened.
Then Ezra’s phone rang.
The federal investigation had begun.
Sebastian’s recordings connected Draos to bid manipulation, shell acquisitions, bribery, and extortion.
Three offices were raided.
Two executives arrested.
But Anton Draos remained free.
Anton was 44.
Montreal-born.
Educated in London.
Publicly the head of Draos Infrastructure.
Privately the man who had spent 8 years transforming his father’s organization into something cleaner, quieter, and significantly harder to prosecute.
He did not threaten people.
He purchased the circumstances around them until they had nowhere left to stand.
That was what he had done to Arthur Caldwell.
Now he focused on Nessa.
The first move was financial.
Royal Victoria called.
Arthur’s account had been paid.
Nessa assumed Ezra had done it.
He had not.
The payment came from an anonymous corporate trust.
Nessa understood immediately.
Draos.
The message arrived 6 minutes later.
YOUR GRANDFATHER’S DEBT IS GONE.
WE SHOULD TALK.
Ezra wanted to trace the number.
Nessa wanted to answer.
“No.”
Ezra stood beside her.
“You don’t engage.”
“You engaged Sebastian.”
“He was family.”
“And Draos destroyed mine.”
“That’s exactly why you don’t engage.”
Nessa looked at him.
“Because I’m emotional?”
“Because he wants you alone.”
“Then we don’t give him what he wants.”
She typed:
WHERE?
Ezra swore.
The reply came.
ST. LAWRENCE MARKET. TOMORROW. NOON.
PUBLIC.
Nessa smiled without humor.
“He thinks public means safe.”
“It means difficult to control.”
“Good.”
“No.”
She looked at Ezra.
“You hired me because I notice things.”
“I did not—”
“Whatever.”
She stood.
“Let me notice him.”
Anton Draos arrived exactly at noon.
He wore no bodyguards visibly.
That meant he had several.
Nessa sat alone at a café table.
Ezra watched through surveillance from a nearby building.
Mara’s team covered every exit.
Anton sat.
He was handsome in the forgettable way expensive men sometimes were.
Nothing sharp.
Nothing memorable.
Designed to pass through rooms without becoming the story.
“Miss Caldwell.”
“Mr. Draos.”
“I’m sorry about your grandfather.”
“No, you’re not.”
Anton smiled.
“I admire efficiency.”
“You stole his gym.”
“I purchased distressed property.”
“You created the distress.”
“That’s difficult to prove.”
“Not anymore.”
His smile weakened.
Nessa understood something.
He was afraid.
Not of her physically.
Of what she represented.
Documents.
Witnesses.
A story simple enough for prosecutors and journalists to understand.
Old man loses family gym because corporation manipulates lease through shells.
People understood that.
“You’re close to Blackwood now.”
Anton said it casually.
Nessa said nothing.
“He isn’t what you think.”
“I don’t remember telling you what I think.”
“He will use you.”
“Possibly.”
Anton frowned.
That answer disturbed him.
“You trust him?”
“No.”
That disturbed him more.
Nessa leaned forward.
“Trust isn’t the point.”
“What is?”
“Choice.”
Anton watched her.
Nessa continued.
“Ezra gives me one.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
Anton smiled again.
Then he placed an envelope on the table.
Inside were photographs.
Ezra meeting municipal officials.
Ezra beside known criminals.
Ezra entering buildings associated with money laundering.
Nessa examined them.
“You expect surprise?”
“I expect intelligence.”
Anton leaned back.
“Blackwood is not becoming legitimate. He’s becoming better at hiding.”
Nessa looked at the photographs.
Some were real.
Some felt wrong.
One showed Ezra outside a warehouse supposedly owned by a trafficking organization.
The timestamp was 11:48 p.m.
Nessa remembered that night.
Ezra had been with her at Royal Victoria until after midnight.
She looked again.
The shadow fell east.
At 11:48 p.m., under that street lighting, it should have fallen west.
Manipulated.
“You made these.”
Anton’s expression did not change.
Nessa slid them back.
“You should hire better people.”
Then Anton made his mistake.
“Your mother would have been more reasonable.”
Nessa stopped.
“What?”
He realized too late.
Nessa’s mother had been dead for 8 years.
She had never been mentioned publicly in connection with the investigation.
“How do you know anything about my mother?”
Anton stood.
Meeting over.
Nessa caught his wrist.
He looked down.
She did not release him.
“What did you mean?”
“Let go.”
“Answer.”
Security moved around the market.
Mara’s voice came through Nessa’s hidden earpiece.
Nessa, release him.
Anton pulled free.
Then he leaned close.
“Ask your grandfather why Caldwell’s Gym was really purchased.”
He walked away.
Nessa remained seated.
Her heart pounded.
Ezra reached her 90 seconds later.
“What happened?”
“You heard.”
“Yes.”
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
Nessa looked at him.
“Find everything.”
“Nessa—”
“Everything.”
They went to the hospital.
Arthur refused to answer at first.
Then Nessa placed Anton’s photograph beside the bed.
Arthur closed his eyes.
“Oh, kid.”
“What happened?”
He looked suddenly older.
“Your mother didn’t stop playing because of life.”
Nessa waited.
“She stopped because she saw something.”
“What?”
“Money.”
Arthur swallowed.
“She performed private events. Like you.”
Nessa felt cold.
“One night, she saw Gabriel Blackwood meeting Viktor Draos.”
Ezra went still.
His father.
Anton’s father.
Arthur continued.
“They were partners then.”
Nessa looked at Ezra.
He looked stunned.
“Partners in what?”
“Ports.”
Arthur’s voice weakened.
“Shipping.”
Nessa understood.
The rivalry had once been an alliance.
Her mother had witnessed something.
“What happened to her?”
Arthur looked at Nessa.
“She was threatened.”
“By Draos?”
“I thought so.”
“Thought?”
Arthur began crying.
Nessa had seen her grandfather bleed.
She had seen him break bones.
She had never seen him cry.
“I made her quit.”
He whispered.
“I told her music wasn’t worth dying for.”
Nessa took his hand.
“She hated me for a year.”
“What did she see?”
Arthur looked at Ezra.
“Ask your father.”
Gabriel told them that night.
Twenty years earlier, Blackwood and Draos had shared smuggling routes.
Not drugs.
Not weapons.
People.
Ezra’s face changed.
Gabriel continued.
“I ended it.”
“When?”
“After your mother died.”
Ezra stared.
“What does my mother have to do with this?”
Gabriel looked at his son.
“Everything.”
The truth came slowly.
Ezra’s mother, Evelyn, discovered the trafficking operation.
So had Nessa’s mother, Claire.
Both women had separately seen evidence.
Evelyn threatened Gabriel with police.
Claire had witnessed a meeting.
Within 2 years, both women were dead.
Claire from what police called a highway accident.
Evelyn from an overdose everyone assumed was accidental.
Nessa felt the room tilt.
“No.”
Arthur had never questioned Claire’s accident.
Gabriel had questioned Evelyn’s death.
That was why he ended the partnership.
Why Draos became an enemy.
Why Sebastian eventually began rebuilding the relationship in secret.
Ezra stood.
His face had gone white.
“My mother didn’t overdose.”
Gabriel could not look at him.
“I don’t know.”
“You knew this?”
“I suspected.”
“For 16 years?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Ezra laughed.
The sound was broken.
Nessa recognized the sentence.
Protect you.
The same excuse Ezra had used when hiding the photograph.
Secrets disguised as protection.
Generations repeating themselves.
Ezra walked out.
Nessa followed.
She found him outside.
Rain had begun.
He stood beneath it.
“Nessa.”
His voice was low.
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
“I need 1 minute.”
She gave him 5.
Then 10.
Finally he turned.
“My entire life is built on things nobody told me.”
Nessa looked at him.
“So is mine.”
He laughed once.
Then she crossed the distance.
He held her.
Not romantically.
Desperately.
Nessa wrapped both arms around him.
Two people grieving women they had lost years earlier for reasons they were only beginning to understand.
After a long time, Ezra whispered:
“We finish this.”
Nessa pulled back.
“Together.”
“Yes.”
“No more secrets.”
He looked at her.
“No more.”
She held out her hand.
Like Iron Works.
Like the first agreement.
Ezra took it.
This time there was no wager.
No money.
No leverage.
Only a promise.
They would find out what happened to their mothers.
And if Draos had killed them—
May you like
They would not answer with revenge.
They would answer with proof.
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