Chapter 4 - THE BLUE PACIFIER
I didn't think. I just reacted.
I lunged across the mahogany table, my knees hitting the polished wood, and snatched the blue dinosaur pacifier from Elias's coat pocket.
“Where is he?!” I screamed, my voice raw and broken. “Where is my son?!”
Elias stumbled backward, shocked by the sudden attack from the cleaning woman. He looked at Dominic, his eyes wide.
“Dom, get this crazy bitch off me! Who is she?”
Dominic didn't tell his guards to pull me away.
Instead, he walked slowly around the table, his eyes locked on his younger brother.
“Why do you have a child's pacifier in your pocket, Elias?” Dominic asked, his voice deadly quiet.
Elias swallowed hard. He looked at Gregory, who was still being held at gunpoint by the guards, and then back to Dominic.
“I found it in the garage,” Elias lied quickly. “In Gregory’s car. I was searching it for leverage.”
“In my car?” Gregory laughed, a harsh, grating sound. “You lie like a frightened dog, Elias.”
I clutched the blue rubber pacifier so hard my fingernails dug into my palm.
“He hasn't used this in three years,” I cried, looking at Dominic. “I keep it in a memory box in my bedroom closet. In apartment 4B. The only way Elias could have it is if he was in my home tonight.”
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Elias’s face went pale. The panicked victim act vanished, replaced by a cold, cornered anger.
“You were supposed to be at the warehouse,” Dominic said, stepping closer to his brother. “But you weren't. You were tossing Mave's apartment looking for the Marseille ledger.”
Elias backed up until he hit the heavy oak credenza.
“You're weak, Dom,” Elias spat, the betrayal finally bleeding out into the open. “You run this family like a charity. Gregory offered me thirty million for the ledger. Thirty million! All I had to do was find the book and hand over the accountant's wife.”
“You traded our family's honor for a ledger?” Dominic’s voice didn't rise, but the absolute heartbreak in it was palpable.
“I traded it for the future!” Elias yelled.
Elias reached behind his back.
He moved fast, drawing a silver revolver from his waistband. He didn't aim it at Dominic. He aimed it straight at my chest.
“Give me the bronze key, Dom,” Elias demanded. “And the woman comes with me. Or I kill her right here, and Gregory’s men burn your warehouse anyway.”
I froze, staring down the dark barrel of the gun.
But I had lived my entire life being invisible. Being ignored. Being stepped on.
I was done.
I didn't wait for Dominic to negotiate. I dropped to the floor, my hands instinctively grabbing the one thing I had controlled all night.
The plastic bucket.
I swung it upward with all my strength.
The heavy, gray, ammonia-soaked water flew through the air in a solid wave, hitting Elias squarely in the face.
Elias gasped, blinded by the burning chemicals. His finger twitched on the trigger.
BANG.
The gunshot deafened the room.
The bullet missed me by inches, slamming into the center of the mahogany table, shattering a massive crystal water pitcher.
Water and glass exploded outward.
Dominic moved with terrifying speed. He tackled his brother, disarming him in seconds, pinning Elias to the floor with a knee on his throat.
The guards swarmed Gregory, forcing the massive man to the ground.
I stayed on my knees, my breath coming in ragged gasps, staring at the shattered crystal on the table.
As the water drained away from the impact zone, something glinted in the wreckage.
It wasn't glass.
I reached out and carefully picked it up.
It was a small, black microchip. It had been hidden inside the false, thick base of the crystal pitcher.
Dominic looked up from Elias, noticing the object in my hand.
“The pitcher,” Dominic breathed, realization dawning. “Charles insisted on bringing that pitcher into the boardroom tonight.”
The answer was clear. Charles and Elias had planted a recording device to capture Dominic's security protocols.
But the larger secret was staring me in the face.
I turned the microchip over. Engraved on the back in tiny, barely visible letters, was a familiar sequence of numbers.
44-78-Marseille.
“Dominic,” I whispered, my blood running cold. “This isn't a recording device.”
“What is it?”
“It's the ledger,” I said, holding it up. “Tomas didn't hide a book. He hid a digital drive. And Charles didn't plant it tonight. He’s been hiding it in plain sight on your table for months.”
Suddenly, the heavy steel security shutters covering the boardroom windows began to grind upward.
The power to the room died, plunging us into emergency red lighting.
“Boss!” the security chief yelled over the radio. “Gregory’s men bypassed the garage security! They’re in the building!”
Dominic hauled Elias to his feet, tossing him to the guards. “Lock them both in the vault.”
He turned to me, his dark eyes fierce in the red light.
“We have to move,” Dominic said.
He grabbed my hand, his grip warm and solid, and pulled me toward the private elevator.
As the doors slid shut, sealing us away from the chaos of the boardroom, I looked down at the microchip in my palm.
“If Gregory’s men have the building,” I asked, my voice trembling, “where is Leo?”
Dominic looked at the elevator panel as it descended into the dark.
“We’re going to get him back, Mave. I swear on my life.”
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The doors opened to the underground garage.
And sitting perfectly centered on the hood of Dominic’s armored black SUV was Leo’s blue dinosaur backpack.
