Chapter 3 - The Ghost of Eugene
By midnight, the coastal estate was fully fortified. My men were stationed along the perimeter, while inside, the children were sleeping in warm, clean beds for the first time in over a year.
I sat in the study, reviewing the files Silas had compiled. Beside me sat Leo. He refused to go to sleep, sitting quietly on the leather sofa with a oversized blanket wrapped around his shoulders, watching my every movement like a hawk.
"You should be resting, kid," I said softly, setting the papers down on my desk.
"If I go to sleep, I might wake up back there," Leo said quietly.
I looked at him for a long moment, then stood up, walked over to the sofa, and sat down beside him. I pulled my silver pocket watch from my vest—an heirloom my father had given me before he died—and placed it in Leo's small palm.
"Feel how heavy that is?" I asked.
Leo nodded, running his thumb over the engraved casing.
"That watch has been through two wars and three building fires," I told him. "It doesn't break. As long as you have that in your pocket, you're under my protection. You aren't going back to that cellar. Not tonight. Not ever."
Leo squeezed the watch tightly in his fist, a tiny, almost invisible nod escaping him.
A knock sounded on the study door, and Silas stepped inside, accompanied by a woman wearing a dark trench coat. Her name was Detective Sarah Lin. She was one of the few honest officers left in the Portland Police Department—a woman I had exchanged information with in the past when our interests aligned against human traffickers and violent cartels.
Lin looked at Leo, then turned to me, her eyes filled with incredulity.
"Dominic," she said, keeping her voice low. "I got your message. Is it true? You have five missing kids from the state foster registry here?"
"They aren't missing anymore, Detective," I said, rising from the couch. "They're safe. But the man who put them in that hole is still out there."
Lin stepped closer to my desk, looking over the photos of the house Marco had taken before we cleared it. Her face drained of color as she realized the scale of the operation.
"Arthur Vance's real name is Gregory Vance," Lin whispered. "He's a high-level lieutenant for Vanguard. We've been trying to pin a human trafficking ring on him in Eugene for three years, but every time we get close, the witnesses disappear."
"Because your department is leaking like a sieve," I replied coldly. "You have three captains on Vanguard's payroll, Sarah. If you try to file an official report tomorrow, Vance will know about it before the ink is dry, and those kids will have targets on their backs."
"So what are you proposing?" Lin asked, her jaw set tight. "You're a civilian, Dominic. A powerful one, but you can't hold these children forever."
"I'm not holding them," I said. "I'm protecting them while I put Vanguard and Vance in the ground. You want Vance? I'll hand him to you on a silver platter—after I break his operation apart piece by piece."
Lin stared at me for a long, silent minute. She looked back at Leo, who was watching her with intense distrust, clutching my watch in his hand.
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"Forty-eight hours, Dominic," Lin said finally. "I'll hold off on filing the missing persons report for forty-eight hours. But you give me Vance alive so he can testify against the rest of the Syndicate."
I looked at her, my eyes cold as ice. "I'll give you what's left of him."
