Chapter 6: What the Sea Gives Back
They came in without lights.
I saw them first — two rigid inflatable vessels cutting through the swells from the northeast, running dark, moving fast.
Reyes had seen them on radar for the last four minutes but hadn't said anything, and I understood why.
He hadn't wanted me to count the seconds.
They came alongside at twelve seventeen.
Eight officers in total — four from each vessel, Interpol-affiliated maritime unit, exactly what Reyes had called for.
They were on the deck before Flynn, Aidan, and Fiona had any idea the approach had happened.
I heard it from the bridge.
Shouting — Aidan's voice first, then Fiona's sharp cry, then Flynn's, and Flynn's was the worst because it was controlled.
Even now.
Even caught.
Reyes unlocked the bridge door.
One of the officers — a woman, forties, short dark hair, a jacket with no markings — stepped inside and looked at me.
"Miss Sterling?"
"Yes."
"Are you injured?"
"Dr*gged.
Three days.
I'm functional."
She nodded.
"We'll need a medical assessment before you make any statements.
Is that acceptable?"
"After," I said.
"I want to see them first."
She studied me for a moment.
Then she stepped aside.
They had Flynn, Aidan, and Fiona on the main deck, seated apart from each other.
Flynn's hands were behind his back.
Aidan was very still, the way powerful men go still when they realize power has stopped working.
Fiona was crying — not the delighted laugh from the lower deck, not the cooing warmth of a mother-in-law.
Something smaller and uglier.
Flynn saw me come down the stairs.
His face did something complicated.
The performance tried to reassemble itself — the concern, the warmth, the husband's worry — and then it stopped.
He looked at me without any of it.
"You recorded me," he said.
"Yes."
"The intercom."
"And the satellite transmission.
The photographs.
The pills.
The document." I stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
"All of it, Flynn."
He was quiet for a moment.
Then: "Your father put Reyes up to this."
"My father suspected.
Reyes watched.
I survived." I looked at him steadily.
"Those are three different things."
"Vivienne." He leaned forward slightly, the restraints pulling taut.
"I can give you names.
People above me in this.
People your father has been trying to reach for years — financial connections, offshore accounts, the whole structure.
I give you that, and maybe this looks different for me."
"Tell the officers," I said.
"I'm sure they'll find it very useful."
Something shifted in his face.
Not defeat — Flynn didn't do defeat cleanly.
It was more like a door closing.
He sat back.
"You'll regret this," he said.
Quietly.
Almost conversationally.
"No," I said.
"I really won't."
Fiona made a sound from across the deck — half sob, half something directed at me.
"We treated you like family.
We welcomed you—"
"You kept me in Paris for a week so Flynn could forge my signature," I said.
"Don't."
Her mouth closed.
Aidan hadn't spoken at all.
He was looking at a fixed point somewhere past my left shoulder, and I realized he was doing the math.
Lawyers, charges, asset freezes, the Swiss accounts Flynn had mentioned.
He was calculating what could be saved.
His face said the answer was not much.
The lead officer touched my arm.
"Miss Sterling.
The medical assessment."
"One more minute." I turned back to Flynn.
"The men in the mountains.
The ones waiting for my parents."
His jaw tightened.
"We need names," I said.
"Now.
Before they move."
"I already gave them up," he said flatly.
"The moment your officer there put his hand on my shoulder, I gave them up.
I'm not going to prison for people who weren't even willing to be here in person."
I looked at the lead officer.
She gave a small nod.
Already handled.
I let out a breath I had been holding since the lower deck.
The officer guided me toward the interior.
As I passed Flynn, he said one more thing — low, so only I could hear it.
"I did love you.
In the beginning.
Before the plan."
I stopped walking for exactly one second.
May you like
Then I kept going.
Whatever that was worth, it wasn't worth stopping for.
