Chapter 4
The downtown meeting had been moved twice.
Only six people knew the final time.
Me.
Rafe.
Ruth.
Damien.
My driver.
And Sebastian.
I had told my uncle because he asked whether I would attend Arthur Bell’s retirement dinner afterward.
A harmless question.
Maybe.
Rafe pulled records from the garage gate.
One vehicle had been waiting two blocks away since eight thirty.
Black SUV.
Temporary plates.
No connection to Moreau.
At nine twelve it left.
Exactly when the garage was sealed.
Whoever waited knew phase one had failed.
I looked at Damien.
“Call your father.”
He hesitated.
“Now.”
He called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then a message arrived.
YOU FAILED.
Damien stared at it.
No fatherly concern.
No question whether his son was hurt.
Just failure.
Something inside him cracked.
Good.
I asked:
“What did Sebastian promise you?”
Damien laughed bitterly.
“Nothing.”
Lie.
Sloane answered.
“Vincent’s garage operations.”
He looked at her.
I looked at him.
“You sabotaged my car for a management position?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Of course.
He had been told I planned to close the old garage division.
Sebastian said dozens of Moreau employees would lose work.
Damien could “save” them if he proved he could handle a crisis.
A crisis Sebastian created.
Classic.
“What about Ruth?”
Damien looked ashamed.
“My father said she would interfere because she was loyal to your father’s methods.”
Ruth laughed.
“His methods?”
Then pointed at me.
“I’m loyal to the boy I helped raise.”
That landed on me harder than I expected.
Damien looked toward her.
“I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“You threw my dinner into oil and locked me in a cage.”
Silence.
Villains love abstract intentions until specific actions enter the room.
Then Sloane interrupted.
“Sebastian never planned to give him the garage.”
Damien turned.
“What?”
She looked at him.
“He planned to blame you.”
The room froze.
“For what?”
Sloane nodded toward my car.
“If Vincent died, the sabotage pointed to Damien.”
My cousin went white.
May you like
Sebastian had not sent his son to help execute a plan.
He had sent him to become the evidence.
