Chapter 16 - The Son Everett Bought
Daniel wanted to go alone.
Everyone else told him he was insane.
He went anyway.
But Mara followed at a distance with detectives, because Daniel had finally learned one useful thing about trust: it should come with backup.
Everett chose an unfinished Halcyon housing project south of Dallas.
Concrete walls. No residents. No cameras connected to the city grid.
Owen sat in the center of a bare apartment.
Alive.
Bruised.
Furious.
Everett stood behind him.
"You look like your mother when you're angry," he told Daniel.
Daniel's stomach turned.
"Let him go."
"After you give me the Locker B copies."
"No."
Everett smiled. "Charles taught you stubbornness. I gave you ambition."
"You gave me nothing."
"I gave Charles a reason to keep you alive."
The words landed hard.
Everett explained it like a business deal.
Elaine had been young. Charles had discovered the affair after Daniel was born. Everett used Daniel's paternity as leverage, then forged his teenage signature to bind the Mercer trust fraud to him.
Charles paid for years to keep it buried.
"And Nora?" Daniel asked.
"Collateral."
"Lucy?"
Everett's smile disappeared.
"Access."
Owen strained against the ropes. "He needs Lucy's guardianship to move the reserve."
Everett struck him.
Daniel lunged forward.
A red laser dot appeared on his chest.
Everett looked toward the dark stairwell.
"One more step, son."
Then a second laser dot appeared.
Not on Daniel.
May you like
On Everett.
Everett spoke without raising his voice, which made him more frightening. He described families as accounts, children as access points, and fear as leverage. Daniel realized this was the language behind every file they had found. Nobody in Everett's system was a person first. Everyone was a pressure point with a dollar value attached.
