Chapter 178: The Challenge

The drive back to the villa was quiet. Liam sat in the back, watching the city slide past and for the first time in days, nothing followed them. No black cars. No strange messages.

No figure waiting across the street. Just traffic, rain-darkened streets, and people going about their lives without knowing how close the city had come to catching fire.

Jack glanced over. "You’ve been quiet."

"Thinking."

"Harrison?"

"Partly." Liam checked his phone nothing new. Harrison had lost his leverage.

Jessica was safe. What remained of his network had been picked apart piece by piece, and whatever game he’d been playing had finally run out of places to hide.

It should have felt like relief. It didn’t.

One problem was still standing.

Derek had vanished the moment Harrison’s network collapsed. Liam understood now he hadn’t been running. He’d been waiting.

The gates closed behind the SUV as it pulled into the villa grounds."So what now?" Jack asked. Now we stop reacting. Liam looked ahead.

"We finish it."

The villa felt quieter than usual. Jessica sat in the security room with Renee, working through the latest camera logs, and both looked up when Liam walked in.

There was still something tight behind Jessica’s eyes not fear exactly. Closer to worry."You okay?"

"I’m fine."Good. He didn’t push. She’d already been through enough.

He turned to Renee. "Anything?"

"Quiet since you left."

"Keep it that way."His phone rang before he reached the door. Dexter.

"Talk."

"We found Derek. South of the river, heading toward the industrial district."

"Alone?"

"No. Two vehicles his, and the black sedan we’ve been chasing." A beat. "The sedan stopped outside the abandoned shipping office for a few minutes."

The shipping office. The photograph. The older man standing beside Derek in that dark corridor.

Every thread kept tying back to the same knot but Liam had spent enough nights chasing whatever someone else dropped in front of him.

"Keep watching. Don’t bring him in."

"You’re handling it?"

"Yes."The line went dead. Jack was already watching him. "Derek."

"Tomorrow."

"You’re sure?"

"I am."Jack’s smile came slow. "Good. I’ve been waiting to see what kind of man could actually push you."

"This isn’t your fight."

"I know." He leaned against the wall. "But after you beat me, I got curious."

Liam almost smiled. "Still not over that?"

"Not even close."

Later, Liam stood alone on the balcony, the city spread out beneath him in a haze of light and rain.

For weeks he’d been the one being moved watched, planned around, steered toward whatever door someone else wanted him walking through. Harrison had taken Jessica believing it was the one thing that could break him.

He’d misjudged it completely. Liam didn’t come apart when something mattered.

He went colder.The balcony door slid open behind him. Jack stepped out. "Not sleeping?"

"Not tonight."

"Derek."

Liam nodded, and Jack came to stand beside him. "You know what I don’t get? Why he waited this long."

"I know why." Liam’s eyes stayed on the skyline. "He doesn’t want Harrison’s revenge. He wants mine."

Jack went quiet, working through it. "He thinks you caused what happened to him."

"Yes." Liam didn’t need to explain further Jack already knew the shape of the story. Dexter’s sisters. Derek walking in at the wrong moment.

The accusation that followed, and Dexter believing it without hesitation. The beating. The exile.

A chain of decisions, and Liam had been standing at the center of every link.

"I didn’t beat him," Liam said.

"But you’re the reason Dexter did."

"Yes."

Neither spoke for a while. Then Jack asked, quieter, "You feel guilty?"

"No."

"Good." Jack shrugged at Liam’s look. "Guilt just makes you hesitate. And hesitating tomorrow gets you hurt."

Liam gave a low laugh. "When did you get philosophical?"

"Don’t get used to it."

Across the city, inside a warehouse that smelled of dust and old oil, Derek wrapped his hands beneath a single hanging light slow, deliberate, each pass of the tape pulled tight.

Stone Cold Rock watched from a few feet away, saying nothing until Derek finished.

"Tomorrow," Derek said.

"I know."

"I’ve waited long enough."

"You’ve waited years." Stone Cold’s voice carried no judgment, only fact. "Because of him."

"I lost everything that night." Derek looked down at his taped hands. "I blamed Dexter for it."

"You should have." A pause. "But Dexter made the decision. Liam only gave him the reason."

Derek’s jaw tightened. "You know who caused it."

"Yes."

"Liam."

Stone Cold didn’t disagree.

Derek rose. "I’ll handle him."Then don’t underestimate him. "I’ve fought dangerous men before."

"You haven’t fought him." Stone Cold turned toward the dark mouth of the warehouse, unhurried. "Tomorrow, you find out."

Morning came fast. Liam walked into the living room to find Jack already waiting, Renee and Jessica standing near the window.

Nobody spoke until he reached for his jacket.

"You’re really going," Jessica said.

"Yes." Do you know where?

"Derek chose it."

"Then it’s a trap."

"It is."She stared at him. "And you’re still going?"

"Of course."

"That’s Liam," Jack said, grinning like the whole thing was already decided in his favor.

"You sound like you’re enjoying this."

"I am."

Liam looked to Jessica. "Stay here."

She nodded, though it clearly cost her something. Renee stepped closer. "How long?"

"I don’t know." The answer sat wrong with her, and Liam saw it but some things couldn’t be timed. They simply had to happen.

Outside, the morning air was cool, the SUV idling near the gate. His phone buzzed once as he reached it. Unknown number.

Come alone.

He read it once, then deleted it.

"What’d he say?" Jack asked.

"He wants me alone."

"And?"

Liam pulled the door open. "I never said I’d make it easy for him."

Jack laughed under his breath as they climbed in. The gates swung wide, and the SUV rolled out into the morning traffic.

For the first time since this had all started, Liam wasn’t chasing a black sedan or decoding another message left for him to find.

He knew exactly where he was going, and exactly who’d be standing there when he arrived.

Derek had wanted this for years.

Now he was going to get it."Let’s finish it," Liam said, and the city swallowed the SUV whole.