companies.

I thought it had been cleared years ago.”

“You thought?”

“I searched what I could search without alerting people who should not know I was looking.”

“You mean your own men.”

He did not deny it.

That scared her more than anything else.

Dominic turned to Soren.

“Get the car under the west ramp.

No entourage.

No calls.”

Soren nodded once and disappeared into the corridor.

Mara looked at Dominic.

“I’m coming.”

“No.”

“You don’t get no after three years of lying.”

His eyes flashed.

“If this is a trap, they want you emotional and visible.”

“Then I’ll disappoint them by being neither.”

“Mara—”

“My father died in that harbor.

If there is something left of him in that locker, I am not waiting in a safe room while you decide what truth I can survive.”

Dominic stared at her, and for the first time, he seemed to understand that protecting her without trusting her had become another kind of harm.

He picked up the ledger and slid it into a black document case.

Then he took the pistol, checked it, and tucked it beneath his jacket.

“You stay behind me,” he said.

“No promises.”

For half a second, despite everything, something almost like pride crossed his face.

They left through a private service hall while the floor remained in darkness.

Employees clustered near windows and emergency lights, whispering.

Lila was waiting near the corner, pale and frantic.

“Mara,” she breathed.

“What happened?”

“I need you to do something,” Mara said.

Dominic gave her a warning look.

She ignored him.

“Send the file I gave you this morning to the secure address on the card inside.

Not now.

In twenty minutes.”

Lila’s eyes flicked to Dominic.

“What file?”

“The one marked dental receipts.”

Lila’s mouth parted.

Dominic looked at Mara slowly.

“What did you do?”

“What you should have done,” Mara said.

“I made sure someone outside this building had proof if I vanished.”

It was not the whole truth.

The file did not contain enough to ruin Voss Maritime.

It contained copies of the photograph, a summary of the federal meeting, and a written statement saying she believed the night ledger connected Daniel Ellison’s death to criminal activity at Pier 6.

It was a flare.

Not a weapon.

But Dominic looked at her as though seeing the full shape of her for the first time.

“Twenty minutes,” Lila whispered.

Mara squeezed her hand.

“Then leave.

Do not go home.”

Lila nodded, eyes wet but steady.

They reached the freight elevator at the end of the service hall.

The doors opened on emergency power.

Inside, the metal walls reflected them in distorted panels: Dominic, dark and rigid; Mara, pale but upright; the black case between them like a third presence.

As the elevator descended, Mara held the bracelet so tightly its edges pressed into her palm.

“Tell me one true thing,” she said.

Dominic did not look away.

“I started investigating my father’s ledger because of your father.”

“Why?”

“Because page seven said Daniel Ellison was paid twenty thousand dollars three days before the fire.

I knew that made no sense.

Men like my father paid for silence, not honesty.

But your father had filed complaints about missing containers, security overrides, and falsified manifests.

He was not taking money.