Chapter 13 - The Name Elias ProtectedRonan did not lower the gun.
Bell did not ask him to.
“Why?”
“Because the name wasn't an enemy.”
“Then whose was it?”
Bell looked toward Eleanor.
“Someone Elias believed could still be saved.”
Sadie stepped closer.
“Who?”
Bell hesitated.
Ronan cocked the weapon.
Sadie glanced at him.
“That is not helping.”
“It helps me.”
“No, it makes everyone more nervous.”
“I am comfortable.”
“You're holding a gun.”
“Exactly.”
Bell almost smiled.
Then he said the name.
“Daniel Hawthorne.”
Ronan lowered the weapon slightly.
Daniel Hawthorne was not a crime lord.
He was seventy-one years old.
A billionaire philanthropist.
Former Treasury adviser.
Founder of children's hospitals.
And Declan Cain's closest friend for almost forty years.
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“You knew,” Ronan said.
She nodded.
Daniel had helped Declan create the original Crown accounts.
When the organization turned criminal, Daniel tried to leave with him.
But Daniel's son, Charles, had taken control of the Hawthorne interests.
Elias believed Charles—not Daniel—was responsible for expanding the network.
“Why protect Daniel?” Sadie asked.
Bell answered.
“Because he was Elias's source.”
Silence.
Daniel had secretly supplied Elias with documents for two years.
Without him, Elias would never have discovered Marsh.
Ronan looked at Bell.
“And now?”
“I don't know.”
Ronan hated those words.
He was beginning to hate them professionally.
Daniel Hawthorne lived outside Washington, D.C.
Ronan wanted to go immediately.
Sadie insisted on coming.
This time he did not argue.
Instead, he looked at her coat.
“You need something warmer.”
Sadie blinked.
“That was suspiciously reasonable.”
“I am evolving.”
“I'm proud of you.”
“Don't make it unpleasant.”
They left Poppy with Eleanor under reinforced security.
Before leaving, Poppy gave Ronan a folded drawing.
“For protection.”
It showed Ronan holding a sword while Sadie stood beside him holding what appeared to be a frying pan.
Ronan frowned.
“Why does your mother have cookware?”
“Because Mommy doesn't need a sword.”
Sadie kissed her daughter's forehead.
“Correct.”
Daniel Hawthorne received them personally.
He looked older than his photographs.
When he saw Sadie, he began crying.
“You have his eyes when you're angry.”
Sadie stiffened.
“You knew Elias.”
“I loved him like a son.”
Ronan remained standing.
“Then help us.”
Daniel poured three glasses of water.
Nobody touched them.
“The Crown is active again,” Ronan said.
Daniel's hand stopped.
“Impossible.”
“Someone fired an arrow through my daughter's window.”
Daniel looked at Sadie.
“Daughter?”
“Elias's.”
The glass slipped from Daniel's hand.
It shattered.
“You have a child?”
Sadie nodded.
“Poppy.”
Daniel sat.
“My God.”
Then he said something strange.
“Charles knows.”
Ronan leaned forward.
“How?”
Daniel's face became terrified.
“Because I told him.”
Sadie felt the room tilt.
Daniel explained.
Six months earlier, after Marsh's arrest, Charles had confronted him.
He knew Elias's archive had resurfaced.
Daniel had tried to convince his son the Cain family wanted peace.
To prove Ronan had changed, he mentioned Poppy.
A child.
A reason Ronan would not restart an old war.
Instead, Charles had become obsessed.
“He asked whether Elias left anything with her.”
“The locket,” Sadie whispered.
Ronan looked at her.
The microfilm had been removed.
But the locket itself remained.
Poppy still wore it.
Daniel stood.
“You need to call home.”
Ronan already had his phone out.
No signal.
Sadie's phone showed the same.
Daniel walked toward the window.
Then stopped.
Three black SUVs were entering the estate.
Not Ronan's.
Daniel whispered:
“Charles.”
The lights went out.
Ronan grabbed Sadie's hand.
“Stay behind me.”
She grabbed a brass fireplace poker.
Ronan stared.
“What?”
“Poppy's drawing inspired me.”
Despite everything, he almost laughed.
Gunfire erupted downstairs.
Daniel opened a hidden door behind the library shelves.
“Tunnel.”
Ronan looked at him.
“You have a tunnel?”
Daniel shrugged.
“You're a Cain. Don't act surprised.”
They escaped beneath the estate.
At the tunnel exit, Ronan finally regained signal.
Thirty-two missed calls.
One from Eleanor.
One voicemail.
He played it.
Poppy's voice came through.
“Uncle Ronan, Grandma says don't come home.”
A pause.
May you like
Then Poppy whispered:
“There's a white crown on our gate.”
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