Chapter 12 - THE LAST KALASMiriam fell before anyone could reach her.
Damon fired at the sedan, but Silas was already behind the open door. Nico pulled me behind the chapel wall while Celeste dropped beside Miriam.
“She’s alive,” Celeste shouted.
“Move her inside,” Damon ordered.
Silas’s men opened fire from the trees.
The chapel windows shattered. Stone chipped around us. Damon returned fire with one hand, his injured shoulder pressed against his side.
I crawled toward Miriam.
“Stay down,” Damon shouted.
“She needs help.”
“That is not your responsibility.”
“Neither was I.”
I reached Miriam and pressed my hand against the wound. Blood spread beneath my fingers.
“You’re going to live,” I told her.
She coughed. “You sound like Eli.”
“Good.”
“He never believed me.”
“About what?”
“About Silas.”
Celeste dragged Miriam toward the altar. “Who is Silas?”
“The man who created the port network,” Miriam whispered. “Your father learned from him. Damon’s father served him.”
“Why did he disappear?” I asked.
“Because he wanted the Kalas family to believe they were free.”
The shooting intensified.
Damon moved along the wall, taking down one attacker after another. He looked impossible, wounded and furious beneath the gray morning sky.
Then Silas called to him.
“Damon! You have your mother’s stubbornness.”
Damon aimed toward the sedan.
“You murdered her.”
“She betrayed the family.”
“She tried to expose you.”
“She tried to destroy what your grandfather built.”
“It was built on dead bodies.”
“Everything powerful is.”
The sentence made my stomach turn.
Silas stepped into view, holding a shield in front of him.
“Bring me the ledger,” he called. “And I will let the women leave.”
“You shot Miriam.”
“Miriam has already chosen death.”
“I choose differently,” I shouted.
Silas looked at me.
“You are Adriana Voss.”
“I was.”
“You married a Kalas.”
“I did.”
“You carry the last heir.”
“I carry my son.”
His face hardened.
“Your son is the legal owner of the ledger. His birth will expose every family that matters in this city.”
“Then maybe this city deserves the truth.”
Damon looked at me.
I knew what he was thinking. The ledger could not be destroyed. If Silas reached us, he would kill everyone. If we surrendered, the evidence would vanish.
So I did the only thing Silas did not expect.
I stood.
The gunfire stopped.
Damon’s face became furious.
“Adriana, get down.”
I held up the ledger.
“You want this?” I called.
Silas smiled. “Yes.”
“Then come take it.”
“You think bravery will save you?”
“No. I think you will.”
His smile faltered.
I held the ledger against my stomach.
“You cannot shoot me without destroying the evidence. You cannot send a man because Damon will kill him. You cannot come yourself because you are too old to survive what happens next.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You are bargaining with a life you do not understand.”
“I understand that you are afraid of one pregnant woman holding a book.”
Damon’s mouth tightened, almost a smile.
Silas lifted his gun.
“Damon,” Miriam whispered.
Damon stepped from behind the wall.
“If you shoot her, you lose everything,” he said.
“You would let her die?”
“No. I would let you think you had won.”
Silas fired.
Damon moved in front of me.
The bullet struck his side.
He staggered but remained standing.
Nico fired at the sedan. Celeste fired at the trees. The attackers scattered.
I caught Damon as he fell to one knee.
“You were shot.”
“I noticed.”
“Why do you keep doing this?”
“Because you keep standing where bullets can reach you.”
His blood soaked through my hands.
Silas vanished into the forest.
Sirens approached from every direction.
Miriam grabbed my wrist.
“The ledger is not enough,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“Silas has the original recording.”
“What recording?”
“The night Eli died.”
Damon’s eyes opened.
“Where?”
Miriam looked toward the road.
“At the place where the first Kalas betrayal began.”
She pointed to the harbor.
“Warehouse seventeen.”
Then she lost consciousness.
Damon pressed his hand to his wound.
“We go now.”
“You need a hospital.”
“We go now.”
“You are not giving orders while bleeding.”
“Adriana.”
“No.”
I took the gun from his hand.
“For once, you are going to listen to me.”
He stared at me.
“You are going to let Dr. Shaw save your life,” I said. “Then you are going to help me end this.”
His face softened.
“Yes, wife.”
The word sent a strange warmth through the terror.
May you like
Behind us, the burning hotel collapsed.
And somewhere at Boston Harbor, Silas Kalas waited with the recording that could prove exactly how Eli died.
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