Chapter 10 : The Ledger Bleeds
259 Words
We don’t go back.
New house. Palmeraie. High walls.
“Safe,” Sabastian says.
I’m pacing.
A daughter. Five years old.
“Stop.” He’s at a desk. Laptops open. “Panic is useless.”
He pulls up a photo.
Little girl. My eyes. Elias’s hair. Gray room. Stuffed lion.
My knees give out.
Sabastian catches me.
“Breathe.” His arms around me. “We get her back.”
“How?”
He sets me down. Kneels.
“Elias moves Cross’s money. We take the ledger, we take his empire.”
“The ledger is—”
“Here.” Black book. “My man got it out.”
He flips to the last page.
_L.K. - Location 7. Expires 09/15/26._
“We have 5 months.”
“We have 36 hours.” He stands. “Elias will tell Cross you’re alive. Cross will move her.”
He opens a safe.
Passports. Wigs. Guns.
“Yvonne Lancaster died in a fire.” He hands me a passport. _Maya El-Baz._
“Tonight, Maya burns Cross’s world.”
I take the gun.
“And if we don’t find her?”
His eyes meet mine.
“Then we take Cross apart. Piece by piece.”
He holds out his hand.
I take it.
“Together,” I say.
“Together,” he says.
Outside. Call to prayer.
My phone buzzes.
Unknown number.
_I have your daughter. Come alone. Or she dies at sunrise. — V.C._
Sabastian sees my face.
“Yvonne?”
I delete the text.
Lie.
“No one.”
- Writer
