THE LAST DAY OF MERCY

CH 2

The photograph was water-damaged and creased, but Richard Ashford's smile still cut through the years like a blade.

Lucas sat on the edge of his cot, holding the picture in hands that had stopped shaking somewhere around year two. Richard in his hospital bed, one arm around a sobbing Victoria, the other gripping Lucas's shoulder like a lifeline. Three days before the cancer finally won.

"Promise me," the old man had whispered. "Six years. Protect her. She doesn't know what's coming."

Lucas had promised. Richard died believing his daughter would be safe.

He'd been wrong about a lot of things.

The window scraped open.

Lucas didn't turn. "You're getting sloppy, Dustin. I heard you at the fence."

"Good." Dustin Steele dropped through the window with predator grace, his five-thousand-dollar suit somehow not wrinkling. "Maybe it'll remind you that you're not actually a servant."

"Six more days."

"Six more—" Dustin's voice cracked. He paced the tiny room like a caged wolf, all coiled violence and expensive cologne. "Sir, do you have any idea what's happening out there? President Volkov has called fourteen times. Fourteen. The man has nuclear codes and he's begging for an audience with you."

Lucas set down the photograph. "Handle it."

"I can't handle heads of state showing up unannounced! Governor Mitchell flew in from New York this morning. Senator Blackwell's been camped outside headquarters for three days. They're not asking anymore, they're demanding."

"Then tell them all to wait."

Dustin stopped pacing. Stared. "You're serious."

"Richard Ashford saved my life when I was twelve years old." Lucas's voice was flat, factual. "Found me in an alley, half-dead, three men trying to sell me to a trafficking ring. He put two of them in the hospital and took me home. Fed me. Clothed me. Asked nothing in return."

"So you're torturing yourself for a dead man's request."

"I'm keeping a promise."

"To protect Victoria." Dustin's laugh was bitter. "Sir, the woman just threw you in a pool. She grinds you under her heel daily. When did you become this soft?"

Lucas picked up the photograph again. Richard's smile. Victoria's tears. "Her father thought she'd grow strong in six years. Thought she'd learn to stand on her own."

"And has she?"

The silence answered.

Dustin pulled out his phone, swiped through screens. "The Ashfords are now broke. Completely. Vivian's been liquidating company assets for two years—real estate, stocks, the manufacturing division. She's gambling the money away in Atlantic City. Victoria has no idea her supposed inheritance’s been burning down to ash."

"I know."

"Derek Hartley's Hartley Enterprises is also acquiring the pieces for pennies on the dollar. In six months, Sterling Corp won't exist."

"I know that too."

Dustin's jaw worked. "Then why—"

"Because I gave Richard my word." Lucas stood, his head nearly brushing the ceiling. The room was built for storage, not people. "I've been rerouting capital through shell companies, propping up their stock value, blocking hostile takeovers. Sterling Corp would've collapsed eighteen months ago without me."

"They don't deserve it."

"Richard did."

"Richard is dead!" Dustin's control finally snapped. "You command the largest private military force on three continents! Forty-seven corporations answer to you! Ninety five governors, sir. Ninety five. You could buy this entire city before breakfast and still have enough left over to—"

"Six more days, Dustin." 

The words landed like a guillotine.

Dustin breathed hard, fighting for composure. "The board is restless. They want their leader back. Not this... ghost playing house in a servant's quarters."

"They'll survive."

"Will you?"

The question hung in the stale air. Lucas didn't answer because he didn't know. Six years was a long time to be invisible. Long enough that he sometimes forgot what his real face looked like.

"There's something else," Dustin said quietly. "Derek Hartley. I've been investigating his finances."

"And?"

"And Hartley Enterprises is drowning in debt. He's leveraged everything—his company, his properties, even his yacht. The man's a house of cards."

"Let me guess. He's using Victoria."

"Sterling Corp's assets are the only thing keeping him afloat. Once he marries her, he gains access to what's left of Richard's holdings. The prenup Vivian's pushing heavily favors him."

Lucas had suspected. Now he knew.

"Sir, I'm begging you. End this. One phone call and Derek Hartley disappears. One call and—"

"No."

"Then what's the POINT?" Dustin's frustration bled through every word. "Why keep your promise if they're just going to destroy themselves anyway?"

"Because Richard asked me to give her six years to become strong enough to stand alone. Not to save her. To give her the chance."

"She's had six years!"

"Six more days."

The door crashed open.

Victoria stood in the doorway, her red dress from the party replaced by silk pajamas that cost more than Lucas's fictional monthly salary. Her eyes were wild, searching.

Dustin moved like smoke—one second standing in the center of the room, the next pressed against the wall behind the door, invisible in the shadows.

"Why is your light on?" Victoria's voice was sharp with suspicion.

"Couldn't sleep," Lucas said.

"Well, I need you to clean the pool house. Now. Derek spilled champagne everywhere and it's going to stain."

"It's two in the morning."

"I don't care." She started to leave, then stopped. Her foot caught something.

The platinum card. Dustin had dropped it when he dove for cover.

Victoria bent, picked it up. The metal caught the light—pure platinum, engraved with two letters. SR.

"What's this?" She turned it over in her hands. "This is... this is real platinum."

"I found it by the pool," Lucas said. "Someone must have dropped it."

"Found it." Victoria's eyes narrowed. "Or stole it."

"I was going to turn it in to Helen tomorrow."

"Sure you were." She pocketed the card. "I'm showing this to Derek. Let's see what he makes of you 'stealing' thousand-dollar cards."

She moved to leave. Stopped again. Turned.

"You disgust me," she said, and there was something in her voice beyond anger. Something that might have been disappointment or regret or just exhaustion. "My father... when he made me sign that contract, made me promise to stay married to you for six years... he was dying. Delirious. He had no idea what he was doing."

"He knew exactly what he was doing."

"He thought you were someone worth saving." Victoria's laugh was glass breaking. "God, what a mistake. I'll make sure that when this is over, when you finally slink away, you leave with nothing. Not a penny. Not a memory. Nothing."

She left.

The door clicked shut.

Dustin emerged from the shadows. "She has the card."

"I know."

"Sir, that card is registered to you. If Derek Hartley runs it through the right channels—"

"He won't. He'll assume it's fake or stolen. Men like Derek don't believe people like me could own something like that."

"And if he digs deeper?"

"Then we'll handle it." Lucas picked up the photograph again. Richard's smile. Victoria's tears. "Six more days, Dustin. Then it's over. Then they'll all learn exactly what Richard Ashford saved from that alley."

Dustin moved to the window. Paused halfway through. "For what it's worth, sir, Richard would be proud. You kept your promise even when it nearly broke you. I'm sure he'll be more than grateful."