Chapter 9 - THE UNSEALED WILL
The report of the .45 died away into the winter night.
The body of Marcus Vance slumped against the rusted control console, motionless in the snow.
Rhett lowered his weapon.
He holstered the Kimber beneath his jacket, his breathing slow, steady, and completely unbothered by the violence.
He walked down the iron stairs of the tower, his boots clicking on the metal rungs.
He reached the gravel tracks where I stood.
The wind whipped the dark strands of my hair across my eyes.
The snow was falling lighter now, drifting down in soft, quiet flakes that coated his broad shoulders.
Rhett stopped two feet in front of me.
He reached out with his bare right hand.
He gently took the heavy iron crowbar from my frozen fingers, tossing it aside into the ballast stones.
He looked at my black fiberglass cast, then down at my face.
"I told you to stay in the house, Isa," he murmured.
His voice had no anger in it.
Only that terrifying, breathtaking warmth that made my pulse race against my ribs.
"You would have missed the bypass valve, Rhett," I answered softly.
"The map was thirty years old."
"I could have lost you," he said.
His thumb came up, brushing a dusting of white snow from my cheekbone.
"You didn't lose me," I said, leaning my face into his warm palm.
"I’m right here."
Leo Vance jogged up the tracks, holding a heavy satellite tablet.
"Don Valin," Leo reported, his breath misting in the freezing air.
"The state police have secured the harbor berths."
"Julian Vance has been transferred to federal custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center."
"And the High Council has issued an emergency decree."
Leo held out the tablet.
On the screen was an official proclamation bearing the crimson wax seals of all five Chicago families:
"BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT OF THE HIGH TRIBUNAL: THE VANCE CHARTER IS DISSOLVED. ALL ASSETS, BERTHS, AND TERRITORIES TRANSFERRED PERMANENTLY TO THE HOUSE OF VALIN."
Rhett didn't even look at the decree.
"What about the probate records?" Rhett asked.
Leo tapped the screen, bringing up an unsealed document from the Cook County Chancery Division.
"The marriage contract between Julian Vance and Isa Brooks was filed under false pretenses in 2021," Leo said.
"Judge Harrison voided the union twenty minutes ago on grounds of criminal coercion and systemic fraud."
Leo looked at me, a genuine, respectful smile breaking across his scarred face.
"You are officially an unmarried woman, Ms. Brooks."
My breath caught in my throat.
A wave of pure, dizzying relief washed through my veins, so intense that my knees buckled beneath me.
Four years of terror.
Four years of looking over my shoulder at every red light.
Four years of carrying a dead man's debt like an iron chain around my neck.
Gone.
Wiped away into the cold winter air.
Rhett caught me before I could fall.
His strong arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me flush against his chest.
I buried my face into the wool of his lapel, weeping tears of pure, unadulterated freedom.
He held me in the middle of the frozen rail yard, surrounded by his soldiers and the silent propane tankers, shielding me from the wind with his broad frame.
"It's over, Isa," he whispered into my hair.
"The debt is paid."
"The name is clean."
I pulled back slightly, looking up into his amber eyes.
"And my job?" I asked, a faint, tearful smile touching my lips.
"Do you still need your coffee at six-forty tomorrow morning, Mr. Valin?"
Rhett looked down at me.
His fingers reached up, gently lifting the heavy gold signet necklace resting against my sweater.
"You are never making my coffee again, Isa," Rhett murmured.
"Then what am I going to do in that giant house?"
May you like
Rhett leaned down until his lips were inches from mine.
"You are going to help me run this city."
