Chapter 7 - The Red Book
Nathan’s red book contained leverage.
Secrets.
Affairs.
Medical records.
Crimes.
Anything he could use to control people inside the Vale empire.
Harper had seen it when Nathan searched her room.
He placed it on a chair while cutting open her rabbit.
The cover carried a gold compass.
Lucas recognized the symbol.
It belonged to Nathan’s private yacht, True North.
The vessel was docked at a marina near Manhattan.
By the time federal agents arrived, the yacht was gone.
Port records showed it left before sunrise.
Nathan had not escaped by aircraft.
The flight changing direction was another distraction.
He was traveling by water.
The Coast Guard began searching.
Meanwhile, investigators questioned Claire.
At first, she demanded immunity.
Prosecutors refused.
Then they showed her the boathouse explosion.
Nathan had attempted to kill her while recording her confession.
Claire began speaking.
She admitted meeting Nathan six years earlier.
He recruited her through a luxury consulting firm.
He gave her access to wealthy clients.
Then he placed her name on illegal companies.
By the time she understood, he owned enough evidence to send her to prison.
“You could have left,” Serena said.
Claire laughed bitterly.
“People always say that after the door is already locked.”
“You locked Mia behind a real door.”
Claire looked away.
“Yes.”
“Why target Dominic?”
“Nathan said Dominic was powerful but lonely.”
“Elena had made him suspicious of love.”
“I was supposed to become everything Elena was not.”
“Easy.”
“Admiring.”
“Unquestioning.”
Dominic listened from behind the one-way glass.
Claire had studied him.
His preferences.
His grief.
His daughter’s routines.
Even their first accidental meeting had been arranged.
“What was in the red book?” Serena asked.
“Everyone Nathan owned.”
“Board members.”
“Judges.”
“Police officials.”
“Politicians.”
“Vale executives.”
“Arthur Bell?”
Claire’s face changed.
“Arthur was not working for Nathan.”
“Arthur was working with Elena.”
Dominic entered the room.
“Then why did Elena say not to trust him?”
“Because Nathan discovered Arthur was helping her.”
“He forced Arthur to pretend loyalty.”
“After the crash, Arthur stole a copy of the red book.”
“Nathan threatened his family.”
“Where is Arthur?”
“I do not know.”
“But if Nathan is on the yacht, he is going to find him.”
“Why?”
“Arthur has the only recording proving Nathan was physically present when Elena’s car was sabotaged.”
Claire said Arthur lived under another name near a fishing town in Maine.
The address appeared in a coded file Nathan kept inside the yacht.
If Nathan reached international waters, he could erase the red book, disappear through offshore contacts, and send someone after Arthur.
Dominic contacted the Coast Guard.
The yacht’s tracking system had been disabled.
Then Harper remembered another detail.
Nathan had a watch with a blue light.
He told her it helped him find north when the sky was dark.
Lucas realized it was a satellite emergency beacon connected to Vale Maritime Security.
Nathan trusted company systems more than public ones.
The beacon still transmitted to a private Vale server.
They found the signal.
True North was moving northeast along the coast.
A storm was approaching.
The Coast Guard issued an interception order.
Dominic insisted on joining the operation from a command vessel.
Mia objected.
“You are exactly where Nathan wants you.”
“He has spent seventeen years predicting what you will do.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Then what would you do?”
“I would stop thinking like a billionaire protecting his empire.”
“I would think like a mother trying to bring everyone home.”
The words changed the plan.
Instead of chasing the yacht with visible Vale vessels, investigators allowed Nathan to believe his signal remained hidden.
A Coast Guard aircraft tracked him from high altitude.
Another team moved toward Arthur Bell’s suspected home in Maine.
Dominic, Mia, and Harper remained at a secure station.
Near midnight, the aircraft reported that Nathan had changed course.
He was not heading toward Canada.
He was turning toward the Hudson.
Toward the Vale estate.
Nathan had never intended to escape.
He was coming back for something.
Mia looked at Harper.
“The hidden room.”
Dominic understood.
The basement chamber had held only Mia.
But its walls were unusually thick.
Its lock belonged to a high-security system.
May you like
Nathan had built the room for another purpose.
And whatever remained inside was valuable enough to make him return while every federal agency was hunting him.
