Chapter 11 - Kendrick couldn't speak.Elena walked toward him.
“You betrayed me?”
“No.”
“Then explain.”
“You were working with the people trying to kill Penny.”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“You handed them the ledger.”
“I gave them a fake.”
Silence.
Kendrick's expression changed.
“A fake?”
Elena nodded.
“The real ledger was never in the pendant.”
Willa looked at her necklace.
“Then where?”
Elena pointed at Penny.
“Inside her memory.”
Everyone froze.
Penny had been hypnotized as a child.
Not to control her.
To protect the ledger's location.
She knew where it was.
But couldn't say it until she felt safe.
That's why she stopped speaking.
That's why she trusted only Titan.
And that's why Titan trusted Willa.
Kendrick finally understood.
The dog recognized Willa's scent from the night of the fire.
He had found her before Kendrick did.
Willa's mother attacked.
Kendrick fired.
Chaos exploded.
Barrett and Julian opened fire from opposite sides.
Elena grabbed Penny.
Willa ducked behind a pillar.
Her mother screamed.
“You ruined everything!”
Elena shouted back:
“You ruined your own family!”
Willa's mother aimed at Elena.
Willa jumped.
The bullet struck her shoulder.
Kendrick shot the weapon from her hand.
She collapsed.
Willa fell.
Kendrick caught her.
“Willa!”
She was conscious.
“I'm okay.”
“You're bleeding.”
“Just a scratch.”
Kendrick looked furious.
“You call that a scratch?”
She almost smiled.
“Compared with six years ago...”
Her voice broke.
Kendrick held her tighter.
Across the church, Penny was crying.
“Elena!”
The real Elena knelt.
The child ran into her arms.
Kendrick looked away.
For the first time in three years, his daughter was hugging her real mother.
Then Penny whispered something.
Elena's face changed.
“What?”
Penny looked at Willa.
“She found the place.”
Kendrick walked over.
“What place?”
Penny pointed toward the floor.
“The room where Mommy hid the book.”
They followed her.
Under an old stone panel was a staircase.
Beneath the church was a hidden vault.
Inside sat a single black ledger.
Kendrick opened it.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
Assassinations.
And one final page.
A photograph.
His father.
His grandfather.
And a third man.
Kendrick stared.
“Who's that?”
Elena answered.
“Your uncle.”
Kendrick frowned.
“My father was an only child.”
“No.”
Elena's voice lowered.
“He lied.”
The final page contained a name.
JONATHAN ASHFORD.
Marked:
ALIVE.
Kendrick felt cold.
“Where is he?”
Barrett looked toward the church.
“He's been running the syndicate through intermediaries for twenty years.”
“Where?”
Barrett handed him a photograph.
A skyscraper.
Kendrick recognized it instantly.
His own corporate headquarters.
Willa stared.
“So the entire time...”
“He was right beside you,” Elena said.
Then every phone in the church buzzed.
One message appeared on every screen.
THANK YOU FOR FINDING THE LEDGER.
NOW BRING IT HOME.
Willa looked at Kendrick.
“Home?”
Kendrick slowly turned toward the city skyline visible through the broken church window.
The message included an address.
The Ashford mansion.
May you like
Their mansion.
The enemy was waiting there.
