The Attorney's Price
Chapter 11 - The Attorney's Price
Victor did not react the way Sadi expected.
He did not curse. He did not throw the remote. He did not storm into a hallway barking orders.
He reached over and stopped the audio.
Then he stood.
The absence of motion frightened her more than rage would have.
"Who was that?" she asked.
"Nathan Vale."
"Your lawyer?"
"My counsel for sixteen years."
"Oh."
It was a small word for such a large betrayal.
Victor looked at the blank TV screen.
"He handled my mother's estate. My sister's trust. My immunity agreements with half the men now pretending they never needed me."
Sadi rose slowly.
"Can he hurt you?"
Victor's eyes met hers.
"Yes."
The honesty chilled the room.
Paul arrived ten minutes later. When he heard the audio, his face folded inward again, but this time there was anger to hold it together.
"Vale knows every safe house."
"Not every," Victor said.
"Nicky?"
"Mick wouldn't keep him anywhere Vale knows I can reach. He'll hold him near the exchange."
Sadi's phone buzzed.
A message from Mick.
NOON. COME ALONE. BRING THE COPY. IF COSTELLO SHOWS, THE BOY GETS MORPHINE ENOUGH TO SLEEP FOREVER.
Sam, watching through video, went pale.
"Nicky's counts are low," he whispered. "Too much morphine could—"
"I know," Sadi said quickly.
She did not need the medical details. Terror supplied them.
Victor took the phone and read the message.
"You're not going alone."
"They'll be watching."
"Then they will watch what I allow them to see."
"That sounds like arrogance."
"It's experience."
Mara entered holding a garment bag.
"She's going, Victor."
He looked at her.
"Don't."
"You know she is. Mick won't accept anyone else. Caldwell wants her frightened. Vale wants proof she can be separated from you. If she doesn't appear, Nicky becomes the punishment for your refusal."
Paul turned away.
Victor stared at the floor.
Sadi stepped closer.
"I'll do it."
"You don't understand what alone feels like in a trap."
She laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
"Victor. I borrowed from a loan shark to keep my brother alive, worked in a house full of armed men, and cried against a hallway because someone threatened a hospital machine. Alone and trap are not new words."
He looked at her then.
Something in his expression almost undid her.
"They are when I can stop them."
The train station market was full by eleven-thirty.
Vendors sold flowers, coffee, scarves, cheap jewelry, old books, and hot bread. Families moved between stalls. Office workers cut through with paper cups and earbuds. It was the kind of public place that made violence look impossible.
Sadi knew better now.
Mara had dressed her in a camel coat, soft scarf, and plain boots. Her bandaged hands were hidden inside gloves. A tiny microphone rested beneath the scarf seam. A tracker was sewn into the coat lining.
Victor watched from a maintenance corridor above the west arch, invisible behind old glass.
"She's too exposed," Paul said.
"Yes."
"You hate this."
Victor's jaw tightened.
"Yes."
"Good. Means you're still human."
Victor did not answer.
At noon exactly, Mick O'Shea appeared near the flower stall.
He wore a gray overcoat and carried himself like a man convinced crowds were shields. Beside him walked Declan, his collector nephew.
No Nicky.
Sadi's stomach dropped.
Mick smiled.
"Where is it?"
"Where is the boy?"
"Close."
"That's not an answer."
"Neither is whatever's in that pretty little purse."
He reached for it.
Sadi stepped back.
"Touch me and Victor kills you in front of a florist."
Mick's smile faltered.
"You said he didn't know."
"I said a lot of things. You believe women when it makes you feel smarter."
From above, Victor's eyes sharpened.
Paul murmured, "I like her."
"Focus."
Mick's expression hardened.
"You think this is a game?"
"No. I think there's a sick boy somewhere because men like you keep confusing cruelty with intelligence."
Mick grabbed her wrist.
The movement was fast.
Pain shot through Sadi's cracked hand.
Victor moved instantly.
Mara's voice snapped through comms.
"Wait."
Because Sadi had not screamed.
She had looked down at Mick's hand and smiled.
"Thank you."
Mick frowned.
"For what?"
"For touching me while wearing the ring."
He looked at his hand.
The ring on his finger had a blood-pressure medical charm welded inside it. Sam had noticed from the video Mick sent. Nicky's abductors were likely using medical equipment. That ring was a transmitter key for a portable monitor.
Mara had told Sadi to get close enough.
Victor had hated the plan.
Now Paul's tablet lit with a signal.
"Got him," Paul said. "Basement level. Old baggage tunnels."
Victor was already gone.
Sadi saw Mick's realization arrive too late.
Declan lunged toward her.
But Mara stepped from behind the book stall and placed a small revolver against his ribs.
"Don't make me become nostalgic," she said.
Mick stared past Sadi toward the upper windows.
"Costello can't save everyone."
Sadi pulled her wrist free.
"Maybe not."
Then she looked him directly in the eye.
"But he came for people you thought nobody would come for. That was your mistake."
Below the market, in the old baggage tunnels, Victor found Nicky Ferrell strapped to a clinic gurney beside two empty morphine vials.
And standing behind him with a syringe in his hand was Nathan Vale.
Victor stopped.
Nathan smiled sadly.
"I told them you'd choose the maid."
Victor raised his gun.
May you like
Nathan pressed the needle closer to Nicky's IV line.
"And that's why you lose."
