Chapter 9
The ring fit perfectly once the insert was returned.
I twisted the braid closed.
For the first time since Daniel’s burial, the band looked complete.
Samuel stood beside me in the casino room.
Eleanor remained at my house with Owen and Piper.
Julian came because I made him.
Edmund and Derek sat under guard.
No one spoke while I pressed Daniel’s ring into the circular recess behind the portrait.
Click.
The panel opened.
Inside was no money.
No jewels.
No secret fortune.
A recorder.
Four memory drives.
And a red casino chip.
Samuel exhaled.
Julian closed his eyes.
I pressed play.
Daniel’s voice.
Alive.
Calm.
“If Marina is hearing this, then Edmund Lang has probably already called everything a debt.”
Edmund looked at the floor.
I almost smiled.
Daniel continued.
“It isn’t.”
Then:
“The Langs were paid to pressure me into identifying three Voss captains who refused to join a private protection market.”
Julian flinched.
Private protection market.
Clean phrase.
Dirty meaning.
Five families planned to divide businesses and households into tiers.
Pay more, receive guaranteed intervention.
Pay less, remain expendable.
Widows.
Small family businesses.
Retired associates.
Anyone unable to contribute enough would fall outside priority.
Daniel refused.
Voss protection had always been flawed.
Sometimes brutal.
But he would not formalize abandonment according to wealth.
The coalition needed internal support.
Julian gave it.
My brother-in-law closed his eyes.
The recording continued.
“Julian will say he was preserving leverage.”
Exactly.
“He believed if Voss did not join, Voss would be isolated.”
Julian whispered:
“He was right.”
Daniel’s recorded voice continued as though answering him.
“Isolation is preferable to becoming the family that auctions safety.”
No one moved.
Then Daniel named the three captains.
Samuel Crane.
Thomas Hale.
Rebecca Voss.
All three had fed Daniel information.
All three still alive.
I looked at Samuel.
“You were one.”
“Yes.”
Now I understood why he had stayed inside the casino after Daniel died.
He was still watching.
The recording ended with one more sentence.
“If they touch Marina or my children, stop treating this as a negotiation.”
I looked at Edmund.
May you like
His face changed.
Daniel had anticipated that too.
