Chapter 8
Richard woke up at dawn.
Leo was asleep in the chair beside the bed.
Still holding his father’s hand.
Richard stroked his son’s hair.
Tears in his eyes.
I was standing in the doorway.
Watching.
He looked up.
Saw me.
“Thank you,” he mouthed.
I nodded.
I walked over.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I got hit by a truck. But I’m alive. That’s more than I expected two days ago.”
He tried to sit up.
Winced.
I helped him.
Propped pillows behind his back.
“Where is everyone?”
“On the deck. Planning.”
“Planning what?”
“Your revenge.”
Richard smiled sadly.
“Rook’s idea, I assume.”
“Partly. Leo’s too.”
Richard’s smile faded.
He looked at his sleeping son.
“He shouldn’t have to see this. Any of this. He’s eight years old. He should be playing baseball. Riding a bike. Falling off his skateboard. Not… not this.”
“It’s too late for that now,” I said gently. “He’s seen too much. He’s done too much. You can’t put that back in the bottle, Richard. All you can do is guide him. Make sure he doesn’t become like them.”
Richard nodded.
He was quiet for a long time.
“Victoria,” he said finally. “I can’t believe it. I knew she was unhappy. I knew she wanted more money. But to do this… to plan my murder… to hurt Leo… I never thought she was capable of that level of evil.”
“People show you who they are eventually,” I said. “She just waited until she thought she could get away with it.”
Outside, voices rose.
We walked to the window.
Rook was pacing the deck.
Phone to his ear.
Angry.
Shouting.
He slammed the phone down.
“What is it?” Richard called from the window.
Rook looked up.
Relief crossed his face when he saw his brother standing.
“Richard! You’re awake!”
He ran into the house.
Hugged his brother carefully.
“Good to see you on your feet. How do you feel?”
“Like I want to know who you were just yelling at.”
Rook’s face darkened.
“One of the board members. Harold Finch. He called. Said he wants to make a deal. Says he was never really on Victoria’s side. Says he voted no. Says he can give us the rest of the names. The ones not on the list. In exchange for immunity. For him and his family.”
“Did you believe him?”
Rook laughed.
“Hell no. Harold Finch has been stealing from this company since day one. He’s lying. But it doesn’t matter. Because while he was on the phone, Zero was tracing his location. He’s in the city. At his penthouse on Park Avenue. Alone except for two bodyguards. Scared out of his mind.”
Richard thought for a minute.
“Then we pay him a visit.”
“Richard—”
“No. I’m not sitting on this island while other people fight my battles. Not anymore. Victoria took three days of my life. She hurt my son. She destroyed everything I built. I’m going to look every single one of those traitors in the eye before I take everything from them. Starting with Harold Finch.”
He looked at Leo.
The boy was awake now.
Watching.
“Leo stays here,” Richard said. “With Elena and Mia. It’s too dangerous.”
“Dad—”
“No. This is not up for discussion. You’ve been braver than any eight-year-old should ever have to be. But this part… this is my job. I’m your father. It’s my turn to protect you.”
Leo opened his mouth to argue.
Then he saw the look in his father’s eyes.
He closed it.
Nodded.
“Okay, Dad. But you promise you’ll come back?”
Richard knelt.
Winced at the pain in his knees.
He pulled Leo into a hug.
“I promise. No matter what. I will always come back to you.”
An hour later, the seaplane left the island.
Richard.
Rook.
Jax.
Marcus.
And me.
Mia and Elena and Zero stayed behind with Leo.
The flight back to the city was quiet.
Richard stared out the window the whole time.
Thinking.
Planning.
We landed on the East River.
A black van was waiting for us.
We drove straight to Park Avenue.
Harold Finch’s penthouse was on the top three floors of one of the most expensive buildings in the city.
We parked across the street.
Waited.
Watched.
“Okay,” Rook said. “Here’s how we do this. Richard and I go in through the front. Jax and Marcus—you take the service entrance. If Finch tries to run, you catch him. If his bodyguards give you trouble… do what you have to do.”
He looked at his brother.
“Ready?”
Richard nodded.
He was still bruised.
Still limping.
But when he stepped out of that van, he was Richard Voss again.
Billionaire.
Leader.
The most powerful man in New York.
We walked into the lobby.
The doorman started to say something.
One look at Richard’s face.
He shut up.
Stepped aside.
We took the private elevator to the top floor.
Ding.
The doors opened.
Harold Finch was standing in the hallway.
Waiting.
He was a small man.
Nervous.
Sweating through his five-thousand-dollar suit.
Two bodyguards stood behind him.
Hands inside their jackets.
“Richard,” Harold said. His voice was shaking. “Thank God you’re alive. I’ve been so worried. When Victoria told me you were dead—”
Richard held up a hand.
“Save it, Harold. We both know you’re lying. We both know you voted to kill me. We both know you made twenty million dollars from the deal. So let’s skip the pleasantries.”
Harold’s face went white.
“Richard, I can explain—”
“Explain what? How you sat in my boardroom for twenty years. How you ate at my table. How you came to my son’s birthday party. And then you voted to have me killed. For money. For a few extra million you didn’t even need.”
Richard took a step closer.
Harold flinched.
“I’m not here to kill you, Harold. That would be too easy. That would be too kind. No. I’m going to do something much, much worse.”
He signaled to Rook.
Rook pulled out his phone.
Hit play.
A recording filled the hallway.
Harold’s voice.
Talking to Victoria.
Telling her how to kill Richard.
How to make it look like an accident.
How to split the money.
Harold’s mouth fell open.
“Where… where did you get that?”
“We have everything, Harold. Every email. Every phone call. Every wire transfer. Every dirty little secret you’ve ever tried to hide. By the end of the day, every news outlet in the world is going to have it. Your wife is going to know about your three mistresses. The IRS is going to know about your offshore accounts. Your children are going to know what kind of man their father really is. You’re going to lose everything. Your money. Your house. Your reputation. Your freedom. And the worst part? You’re going to be alive to see it all happen. Every single second of it.”
Harold collapsed to his knees.
Sobbing.
“Please, Richard. Please. I have a family. My kids… they don’t deserve this.”
Richard knelt down.
Looked him in the eye.
“My son didn’t deserve to have his father taken from him either. But you voted for that anyway. Didn’t you?”
Harold couldn’t answer.
He just cried.
Richard stood up.
Turned his back on him.
“Let’s go. He’s already dead. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
We walked back to the elevator.
As the doors closed, I looked back.
Harold Finch was still on his knees.
Sobbing in the empty hallway.
A broken man.
We visited three more board members that day.
One by one.
Each time the same.
Richard would walk in.
Calm.
Cold.
Rook would play the recordings.
Zero would drain their bank accounts in real time while we watched.
By the end of the day, four of the twelve were finished.
Ruined.
Disgraced.
Their lives destroyed.
And nobody had fired a single shot.
That night, we were in the safe house in Tribeca.
Zero was monitoring the news.
The first stories were breaking.
VOSS FINANCIAL SCANDAL ERUPTS.
BILLIONS MISSING.
BOARD MEMBERS IMPLICATED.
It was everywhere.
Every channel.
Every website.
Every newspaper.
The world was watching.
“Victoria and Adrian have gone to ground,” Zero said. “I can’t find them anywhere. They’ve shut off their phones. Their credit cards. Everything. They’re ghosts.”
“They’ll surface,” Rook said. “They always do. When the money runs out. When they get hungry. When they get careless. We’ll be waiting.”
Richard was on the phone with his lawyers.
The good ones.
The ones who had stayed loyal.
Explaining everything.
Telling them what to do.
Who to arrest.
What to freeze.
He was in his element.
Commanding.
Powerful.
You would never know he had been locked in a basement three days earlier.
At 11:00 p.m., the phone rang.
Unknown number.
Rook answered.
Listened.
His face went dark.
He handed the phone to Richard.
“It’s Victoria.”
Richard took the phone.
“Hello, Victoria.”
Her voice came through the speaker.
Cold.
Hateful.
“You think you’ve won, Richard? You think because you destroyed a few weak old men, this is over? This is just beginning. You took everything from me. So I’m going to take the only thing you have left.”
A pause.
Then we heard it.
Leo’s voice.
Screaming.
“Dad! Dad, help me! She’s here! She’s—”
The line went dead.
Richard dropped the phone.
His face went ashen.
May you like
He looked at Rook.
“The island,” he whispered. “She found the island.”
