Chapter 2 - Shadows over Dock SevenSmoke filled the shed instantly, blinding and stinging. The mastiffs began to bark wildly, their deep, guttural growls echoing inside the small room.
"Get down!" Silas roared, grabbing Nora by the hem of her jacket and dragging her behind an overturned wooden workbench just as a hail of silenced bullets punched through the wooden walls.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Splinters exploded through the air. Nora covered her ears, her mind spinning into complete panic. She was a waitress. She made twelve dollars an hour plus tips. She dealt with angry fishermen who complained about lukewarm coffee, not mercenary hit squads in the dead of night!
"They saw you save me," Silas growled, pulling a hidden, heavy black 9mm pistol from beneath his vest. His hands, despite being frozen moments ago, were dead steady now. "You’re in the game now, Nora Wick. Whether you want to be or not."
"I don't want your damn game!" she screamed over the sound of breaking wood. "I want to know who killed my dad!"
"Mayor Vance!" Silas yelled back, firing two shots through the wooden door. A muffled scream echoed from outside, followed by the sound of a body hitting the snow. "Vance wanted the harbor land! Caleb wouldn't sell his dock rights! Vance hired a crew from Boston to torch Caleb's boat—and I covered it up because Vance paid me off!"
The confession hit Nora harder than any bullet. Her blood ran ice-cold. "You... you helped them?"
"I ruled this town by keeping the peace between corrupt politicians and street trash!" Silas growled, turning his sharp eyes to her. "I took his money, yes. But I didn't know Vance was going to kill Caleb until it was already done. Caleb was my friend once, Nora. That watch? I took it off his body before they burned the hull. I kept it to remind myself of what I let happen."
"You monster," Nora whispered, tears of rage burning her cold cheeks.
"Judge me later!" Silas yelled, kicking open a trapdoor hidden beneath the canvas sails. "Right now, if we don't move, we both die in the next thirty seconds!"
A heavy thud rattled the main door as someone kicked it from the outside. Silas grabbed Nora by the collar and shoved her down into the dark, narrow crawlspace beneath the dock floorboards. He slithered down behind her, pulling his two mastiffs down into the dark just as the shed door blew off its hinges from a breacher charge.
They crawled on their hands and knees through the freezing slush beneath the pier, the ocean tide sloshing dangerously inches below them. Above their heads, heavy boots marched across the floorboards, followed by furious shouting in harsh, accented voices.
"Where is Cade?! Find him! The boss wants his head on a spike before sunrise!"
Nora pressed her back against a ice-covered wooden pile, holding her hand firmly over Shadow’s snout to keep the dog silent. Silas reached into his inner pocket, pulled out a small black burner phone, and dialed a single number.
"Julian," Silas said coldly into the speaker. "The Mayor moved early. Assemble the old guard. Ironwood Bay goes dark tonight."
He hung up, looked at Nora in the faint moonlight filtering through the gaps in the pier, and handed her a small leather-bound key.
"What is this?" she whispered, trembling from the biting wind.
"The key to my safe deposit box at the Ironwood National Bank," Silas said softly. "Inside is the audio recording of Mayor Vance handing me fifty thousand dollars to cover up your father's murder. If I don't survive tonight, you take that tape to the Federal Bureau in Portland. You avenge Caleb."
Nora stared at the key in her palm. The small piece of brass felt heavier than an anchor.
May you like
"And what are you going to do?" she asked.
Silas racked the slide of his pistol, a cold, ruthless smile spreading across his bloodied face. "I'm going to remind Mayor Vance why people call me the Devil of the Coast."
