Chapter 6 - THE CHAMPION’S DEBT
Luca survived.
Toxicology showed a sedative in his blood, but his fingerprints were on the bottle and no camera captured an intruder. Vincent publicly expressed concern for his brother and privately offered Emma a deal: abandon the trust challenge, and Luca’s mother would remain safe.
Emma refused.
She returned to the community gym where Thomas had trained her. In an old photograph, her father stood beside a twenty-four-year-old Derek Kane. Both men had identical burn scars on their forearms.
The gym’s retired custodian explained why. Derek had been inside the warehouse fire. Thomas dragged him through a broken window and saved his life.
Derek had not caused the scar on Thomas’s body.
He shared it because Thomas saved him.
Emma arranged a meeting in the empty gym. Derek arrived alone, though she knew Vincent’s men waited outside.
“You owed him your life,” she said.
“I paid that debt.”
Derek revealed what happened after the fire. Thomas survived with severe burns. Derek hid him in a clinic while Thomas prepared to testify. Three days later, federal agent Martin Kessler arrived to place Thomas in protection.
Thomas vanished.
Derek believed Kessler killed him. Years later, Kessler became Vincent’s private compliance consultant.
“Why stay with Vincent?” Emma asked.
Derek’s face hardened. “My younger sister has needed full-time medical care since she was sixteen. Vincent pays for it.”
His loyalty was purchased one hospital invoice at a time.
Derek gave Emma a storage key Thomas had pressed into his hand during the fire. He had been too afraid to use it. Before Emma could leave, the gym doors opened and federal agents entered.
Kessler led them.
They arrested Derek for the trust theft and Emma for obstruction. The storage key disappeared during the search.
At the federal building, Kessler placed photographs of Luca’s pill bottle before Emma.
“Help us convict Derek,” he said, “and we forget your part.”
Emma looked at the photograph of the evidence bag.
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Taped beneath the bottle was the missing storage key.
Kessler had photographed it without realizing what it opened.
