Chapter 10 - THE WRONG MARINA
At 11:40 p.m., College Point marina looked abandoned.
Fog drifted over black water. Boats knocked softly against the docks. A single light flickered near the bait office.
I arrived with Tony and Nicky.
Just three men, as promised.
The copy of the flash drive sat in my coat pocket.
Harlan’s car rolled in at midnight exactly.
He stepped out wearing a charcoal overcoat and leather gloves, looking more like a banker than a trafficker.
Two men dragged Luca from the backseat.
My brother’s face was bruised. One eye swollen. But he was breathing.
“Dante,” he rasped.
I looked at Harlan. “Let him walk.”
“The drive first.”
“Let him walk halfway.”
Harlan smiled. “You still think this is a negotiation.”
“No,” I said. “I think this is a distraction.”
For the first time, his eyes sharpened.
My phone vibrated.
A message from Mara.
IN POSITION.
Harlan noticed my glance.
His smile faded.
“What did you do?”
“Something you should have done,” I said. “Protected children.”
Across the city, Mara and a task force of cops she trusted moved on Red Hook Pier 31 with every news camera Nurse Mercer could reach waiting two blocks away.
Harlan lunged for Luca.
Tony fired first.
Not at Harlan.
At the marina light above him.
Darkness swallowed the dock.
Men shouted.
Luca hit the ground.
I moved through the chaos, grabbed my brother by the collar, and dragged him behind a stack of crab traps.
Gunfire cracked over the water.
Harlan’s men fired blind.
Nicky went down with a bullet in his shoulder, swearing like a saint denied heaven.
Tony returned fire.
Harlan ran.
Of course he ran.
Men like him always believed survival was proof of superiority.
A speedboat engine roared at the far dock.
I saw Harlan leap aboard.
Then Bruno came out of the fog.
I had not brought him to the marina.
He had followed.
Or maybe he had known.
He launched himself from the dock onto the boat just as it pulled away.
May you like
Harlan screamed.
The boat spun hard into the black river.
