Chapter 13
Vale’s next move came through one of my own men.
Anthony Reese.
Twenty years with the Carter organization.
He arrived at the hospital claiming he needed to brief me about the missing convoy.
My captain searched him.
Found a second phone.
Vale contact.
Ryan laughed when he heard.
“There.”
I looked at him.
“You seem relieved.”
“At least I wasn’t the only one.”
That was Ryan.
Even betrayal became comforting if someone else shared the guilt.
Anthony was brought inside.
He looked at Noah first.
Then Emily.
Then me.
“Boss.”
“Why?”
He sighed.
“Because you were changing.”
“Into?”
“A grandfather.”
I almost smiled.
“That’s the problem?”
“You moved men for family.”
“Yes.”
“You started protecting homes before routes.”
“Yes.”
“You canceled a council because Emma had pneumonia.”
“She was four.”
Anthony shrugged.
“And?”
Same poison.
Different man.
I understood how Vale had recruited him.
He already believed care was weakness.
Vale simply gave resentment a direction.
“What did you promise them?”
“Nothing.”
Ryan laughed.
“He’s lying.”
Anthony looked at him.
“So are you.”
Good.
Traitors tearing at each other.
I let them.
Anthony finally admitted Vale promised him command over the east crews after I stepped aside.
Linda laughed bitterly.
“They promised Ryan that too.”
Ryan turned.
“What?”
I almost felt sorry for them.
Almost.
Vale had sold the same future to multiple ambitious men.
Anthony stared.
“You said—”
I interrupted.
“No one said anything honest.”
Silence.
I held up the burner phone.
“What does Vale do next?”
Anthony’s face changed.
He knew.
“Tell me.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“Emily and two children are in this room.”
He looked at Emma.
That mattered.
Not everyone had lost everything human.
Finally:
“Vale has a team at Emily’s house.”
Emily went white.
“What for?”
“To take something.”
“What?”
Anthony looked at Noah.
“His medical bag.”
James frowned.
There was no medical bag.
Then Emma whispered:
“The blue one?”
Everyone turned.
She hugged the teddy.
“Daddy put papers and keys in Noah’s blue bag.”
Ryan’s face emptied.
He had hidden something among his son’s belongings.
May you like
Vale knew.
And Linda apparently didn’t.
