Chapter 14 - The Last PageThe warehouse fire had begun eight years earlier at 11:58 p.m.
Now, at almost the same hour, Rhett Valon stood in the building where his father had died, watching flames climb the wall of a small office.
The fire had started when one of Conrad's men knocked over a fuel container during the escape. Most of the building was empty, but smoke was already filling the upper floor.
Rhett had lost sight of Isa during the chaos.
Anton was searching the western corridor. Elias had gone after Conrad through the loading bay.
Rhett moved toward the staircase.
Then he heard her voice.
“Rhett!”
He found Isa near the old control room. She was coughing, one hand pressed against her ribs, while a guard tried to drag her through a side door.
Rhett tackled the man and drove him against the wall.
The guard struck back. Rhett barely felt the blow. He disarmed him and pushed him away, then turned to Isa.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Don't lie to me.”
“I can walk if you stop asking stupid questions.”
He almost laughed.
Then a burning beam cracked overhead.
Rhett pulled her into the corridor as sparks rained onto the floor. They reached the loading bay just as Elias emerged from behind a row of freight containers.
He was alone.
“Where's Conrad?” Rhett shouted.
Elias shook his head.
“He took the ledger and escaped through the eastern tunnel.”
Rhett looked toward the open doors.
“Then we follow him.”
Isa grabbed his arm.
“No.”
He turned.
“Isa, he has the original ledger.”
“He has a book. You have the copies. The recordings are already out.”
“Those records won't stop him from coming after us.”
“Maybe not.”
She stepped closer.
“But you don't have to keep fighting him just because he wants a war.”
Rhett stared at her.
Behind them, the flames grew brighter.
For years, he had believed power meant making the final decision. He had inherited that belief from men who considered mercy weakness and truth an inconvenience.
But Isa had been right from the beginning.
Conrad wanted him to chase. Every threat, every hostage, every taunt had been designed to make Rhett react.
To make him become the monster his uncle claimed he was.
Rhett lowered his gun.
“Anton!”
His bodyguard appeared through the smoke.
“Get everyone out. No pursuit.”
Anton hesitated.
“Boss?”
“No pursuit.”
Isa watched him with something that looked like relief.
Then Elias pointed toward the far side of the warehouse.
A figure stood beside a black sedan.
Conrad.
He was holding a small object in one hand.
The last page of the ledger.
“Rhett!” he shouted.
Rhett stepped forward, but Isa caught his wrist.
Conrad held the page over a metal barrel, where a small flame flickered.
“This is what you came for!” he called. “Everything your father knew. Everything he planned to reveal.”
He lowered the paper toward the fire.
Rhett didn't move.
“You destroy it,” he said, “and the copies still exist.”
Conrad froze.
“You're bluffing.”
“Maybe.”
Rhett glanced toward the warehouse roof.
A red light blinked on a small camera mounted above the loading bay. The feed had been sent to the journalist and investigators before the fire began.
“Maybe not.”
Conrad looked toward the camera.
Then he looked at the men who had once been his loyal soldiers. Some were lowering their weapons. Others were backing away from him.
His empire was collapsing in front of his eyes.
“You ungrateful fool,” he whispered. “I gave you everything.”
“You gave me a lie.”
“I built your family's power.”
“You murdered my father.”
“Your father was weak!”
The words tore through the warehouse.
“He wanted to dismantle everything we built. He wanted to hand our names to strangers and watch the whole family rot in prison.”
“He wanted his son to have a life.”
Conrad's face twisted.
“He wanted to destroy you.”
“No,” Rhett said quietly. “He wanted to save me.”
Conrad raised his pistol.
Rhett saw it.
So did Isa.
She stepped in front of him.
The gunshot exploded through the warehouse.
For one terrible second, Rhett couldn't understand what had happened.
Isa staggered.
Then she collapsed into his arms.
“Isa?”
Her eyes were open, but her face had turned white.
Rhett pressed his hands against her side. Blood spread between his fingers.
“No. No, look at me.”
She tried to speak.
He leaned closer.
“Don't you dare,” he whispered. “Don't you dare leave me.”
Her lips moved.
“Rhett.”
“I'm here.”
She tried to smile.
“You finally stopped chasing him.”
Rhett's throat closed.
“Please.”
She squeezed his hand once.
Then her eyes drifted shut.
The world disappeared.
Rhett lowered his forehead to hers, unable to breathe, unable to think, unable to remember how to be the man everyone feared.
Across the warehouse, Conrad stood with his gun still raised.
Then a second shot rang out.
Conrad's pistol fell from his hand.
Elias stood behind him, weapon smoking.
“That's for my father,” Elias said.
Conrad staggered backward, clutching his shoulder.
Rhett barely heard him.
He gathered Isa into his arms and ran toward the exit while Anton shouted for a medical team.
The rain met them outside.
May you like
For the second time in two days, Rhett Valon carried the woman he loved through a storm.
This time, he prayed she would survive it.
