Stone sat down.
Rebecca continued.
“She married my father as part of an operation.”
Morales looked stunned.
“You knew this?”
“Not until years later.”
“And your father?”
“Eventually discovered her.”
Stone stared.
“What happened?”
Rebecca’s voice became almost inaudible.
“He killed her.”
Stone lowered his head.
Now two families.
Two dead parents.
Two children left believing lies.
Victor Hale had inherited the network.
Rebecca had inherited the evidence.
Stone had inherited the consequences.
Morales stood.
“We need that ledger.”
Rebecca wiped her eyes.
“You’ll have it.”
“When?”
She looked toward Clara sleeping in the back office.
“Tonight.”
At 11:48 p.m., Stone stood beneath an abandoned railway bridge forty miles north of Mesquite.
Rebecca had led federal agents there after retrieving the instructions from Cedar City.
Boone waited beside him.
Morales carried a flashlight.
Clara and Noah were safely at the roadhouse under guard.
According to the instructions, they were looking for a steel tube hidden inside the bridge’s eastern support.
Stone found it.
Rust covered the cap.
He twisted.
Inside was no ledger.
Only a flash drive.
And a letter.
Addressed to:
DEREK MERCER.
Stone looked at Rebecca.
Her face had gone white.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Morales opened the envelope carefully.
The paper inside was old.
Twenty-two years old.
Stone recognized the handwriting before reading a single word.
His father’s.
He sat on the gravel.
Then began reading.
Derek,
If you are reading this, then I failed.
Stone stopped.
His hands shook.
Boone looked away.
He continued.
I need you to understand something. You were never part of what I did. I kept it from you because fathers sometimes mistake secrecy for protection.
Stone swallowed.
Your mother did not abandon us when you were five. She entered witness protection.
His breath stopped.
Rebecca whispered, “What?”
Stone read the line again.
His mother had supposedly left with another man.
His father had told him that story.
For forty-three years, Stone had believed it.
He kept reading.
She discovered the network before I did. She tried to report it. They threatened you. She disappeared to save you.
Stone’s eyes burned.
Then came the final paragraph.
If Rebecca Whitmore ever finds you, trust her.
But there is one person you must never trust.
Even if he appears to save you.
Even if he becomes family.
Even if you believe he would die for you.
His name is—
Stone stopped.
Boone looked at him.
“What?”
Stone stared at the paper.
His face changed.
Boone stepped closer.
“Stone?”
Stone slowly lifted his eyes.
Then looked at the man standing beside him.
His best friend of twenty years.
The man who had helped rescue Clara.
The man who had eaten Thanksgiving dinner at Stone’s table fifteen times.
The man who knew every Iron Vale route, every business account, every member’s family.
Boone.
Stone whispered, “Your real name isn’t Marcus Boone.”
Boone’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Morales reached for her weapon.
Boone moved faster.
He grabbed her wrist, twisted the pistol away and stepped backward.
Rebecca screamed.
Stone remained frozen.
Boone aimed at them.
