Chapter 7 - The Dangerous Alliance
I grabbed the torn ledger page from the ground and shoved it deep into my pocket.
Marcus kept his weapon aimed at our father as we backed slowly toward the heavy metal stairwell door.
Our father screamed that we were both dead men and that he would hunt Eli down himself.
I slammed the heavy door shut, cutting off his violent threats.
We sprinted down six flights of stairs until we reached the abandoned hospital parking garage.
Marcus clicked his key fob, and the headlights of a black sedan flashed in the dark corner.
I demanded to know where the real ledger was hidden.
He tossed me the car keys and told me to drive before the precinct locked down the entire block.
I started the engine and tore out of the garage, blending into the late-night city traffic.
Marcus wrapped a torn piece of cloth around his bleeding hand and stared out the window.
He confessed that our father had been grooming him to take over the criminal enterprise for years.
He claimed he never knew about the hit on my wife until Eli opened the hidden compartment in the basement.
I gripped the steering wheel tightly and asked how we were going to prove any of this to the authorities.
Marcus revealed that he had stolen the real black ledger before the corrupt cops arrived at the house.
He had locked it safely inside a twenty-four-hour secure storage facility on the edge of town.
He said we just needed to retrieve the book and hand it over to the FBI field office at dawn.
I wanted to believe him, but fifteen years of family betrayal made it nearly impossible.
I pulled the sedan into the desolate parking lot of the heavily fortified storage facility.
Marcus punched a code into the keypad, and the massive steel security gate slowly rolled open.
We walked down a long, echoing corridor lined with hundreds of bright orange metal doors.
He stopped in front of unit number forty-two and pulled a small silver key from his pocket.
He slid the key into the lock and pulled the heavy door open.
I stepped inside the unit and found the black leather ledger resting perfectly in the center of a metal table.
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I reached out and grabbed the book, feeling a massive wave of victory wash over me.
Then I heard the distinct, sharp sound of the metal door locking firmly behind me.
