Chapter 13 - THE RECORDINGDamon survived the surgery.
He did not rest.
Three hours after the bullet was removed, he was sitting in a private hospital room with a bandage around his ribs, a gun beneath his pillow, and a map of Boston Harbor spread across the bed.
“You are impossible,” I told him.
“I have been called worse.”
“By doctors?”
“By my mother.”
The memory softened his face, then disappeared.
I sat in the chair beside him, one hand resting beneath my stomach. The baby had been quiet since the attack. That frightened me more than the blood.
Dr. Shaw examined me every hour and insisted that stress could affect movement. I tried to believe her.
Miriam was alive but unconscious. Celeste had been taken into protective custody by a federal investigator Damon trusted. Nico had disappeared to locate Warehouse Seventeen.
No one knew where Silas was.
“We cannot go to the harbor until the police secure the area,” I said.
“The police are compromised.”
“Not all of them.”
“Enough.”
“You were shot because you treat every person as an enemy.”
“You were kidnapped because you trusted a driver.”
“I did not trust him. I was sedated.”
“Exactly.”
I glared at him.
He looked almost amused.
“You’re enjoying this?”
“You’re arguing with me while pregnant. It feels familiar.”
“Eli and I argued?”
“About everything.”
“He must have been patient.”
“He was not.”
For a moment, the room held something almost normal.
Then Damon reached for my hand.
“I need to tell you something.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“When I found Eli, he was alive.”
My breath stopped.
“What?”
“For a few minutes.”
I stared at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because he asked me not to.”
“You saw him?”
“I arrived after the first shot. He was on the ground. Miriam was there. Silas was there.”
“And you?”
“I chased Silas away. Then I held Eli.”
Damon looked toward the window.
“He told me you were pregnant.”
My eyes filled.
“He knew?”
“He had found out that morning.”
“What else did he say?”
“He said the child would be born into a war neither of you had started.”
“Why didn’t you tell me he was alive?”
“Because I promised him I would keep you away from the family.”
“You kept me alone.”
“I thought alone meant safe.”
“It almost killed me.”
His fingers tightened around mine.
“I know.”
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“You should have found me.”
“I tried.”
I looked at him.
“How?”
“Every time I found your trail, you had already moved. You changed numbers, apartments, doctors. You were very good at disappearing.”
“I was afraid.”
“I was afraid too.”
The hospital room became too quiet.
He lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed my knuckles.
The touch was so gentle that tears slipped down my cheeks.
“You don’t have to do this alone anymore,” he said.
“Because we’re married?”
“Because I love you.”
I could not breathe.
Damon seemed to realize what he had said only after the words were already between us.
“You love me?”
“I tried not to.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the truth.”
“You knew me for one night.”
“I knew you for years through Eli.”
“That is not knowing me.”
“Then give me time.”
The baby kicked.
Hard.
I placed Damon’s hand against my stomach before I could think better of it.
The movement came again beneath his palm.
His entire face changed.
“He knows you,” I whispered.
“No,” Damon said. “He knows you.”
Nico entered before either of us could say more.
“Warehouse Seventeen is empty,” he said. “But we found the recording.”
He placed a small black device on the bed.
Damon pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Eli’s voice.
“Damon, if you hear this, I am already dead.”
My hand covered my mouth.
“Silas believes he owns the family. He believes fear is inheritance. He is wrong. The real betrayal came from our father, but the person who opened the door was someone we both trusted.”
A second voice entered.
Gabriel.
“You should have stayed out of it.”
Eli replied, “You should have remembered who saved you.”
There was a struggle. A shot.
Then Damon’s voice, younger and desperate.
“Eli!”
I began to cry.
The recording continued.
Eli whispered, “Damon, listen. It wasn’t you. It was your uncle.”
“Where is the ledger?” Damon asked in the recording.
“With Adriana. Trust her.”
Then a third voice spoke.
Silas.
“Kill him.”
The recording ended with another gunshot.
Damon stared at the device.
“Now we have proof,” Nico said.
“No,” I whispered.
Outside the window, a black helicopter rose from the harbor.
Its searchlight swept across the hospital.
May you like
The light stopped on our room.
Then the glass began to crack.
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