Chapter 176: His Territory

Dexter’s voice was different not frightened, not angry. Just serious.

"We have a problem."

Liam stood beside the SUV, one hand resting on the open door. "What happened?"

"Harrison entered my territory.

"Where?"

"River district. One of my men spotted him twenty minutes ago, going into an old property near the eastern docks."

"How many with him?"

"Four." Then a pause."Derek?"

"Yes."Liam closed the door. "Let’s go."

The river district looked like a different city after midnight warehouses behind rusted fences, loading bays swallowed in shadow, the roads near the water empty of everything but silence.

Dexter’s men were already in position when Liam arrived.

The building was old. Three floors, brick stained by years of rain and river air, no company sign, no light except one window on the second floor.

Jack studied it through the windshield. "He’s waiting for us."

"That’s the point."Dexter stepped out beside them. "He could have stayed hidden."

"But he didn’t." Liam’s eyes stayed on the lit window. "He wants you here."

Dexter’s smile was thin. "He knows me well enough."

Nobody stopped them at the door the first thing Liam noticed, the absence where an ambush should have been.

Inside smelled of dust and damp concrete. Dexter’s men swept the ground floor and called it clear, one after another, before Dexter nodded toward the stairs.

"Second floor."

The door at the top stood open. Harrison sat inside an office stripped down to nothing a table, two chairs, a bottle of whiskey with Derek at his shoulder.

Harrison looked up as Liam entered. "You came." You wanted us here. "I wanted Dexter here." He poured himself a drink without hurrying.

Dexter’s jaw tightened. "You walked into my territory."

"I know." And expected me to come.

"I knew you would."

"You’ve become very confident for a man who’s lost almost everything."

"That’s because I’ve already lost it." Harrison’s eyes drifted to Liam. "And he took most of it." He lifted the glass, unbothered. "But that’s not why I’m here."

"Then why?"

"Because there’s something you both keep misunderstanding." He set the glass down.

"I didn’t build the network you’ve been tearing apart. I built my own place inside it knew the people, the routes, who owed what to whom.

But some of those routes existed long before I ever touched them."Liam thought of the photographs the shipping office, the black vehicles, the older man beside Derek in the dark corridor.

"You’ve been using someone else’s network."

"Now you’re getting somewhere."

Derek said nothing. Liam turned to him anyway. "You knew about it."

"I’ve known people in this city longer than you’ve been alive."Harrison laughed under his breath. "That’s the problem with you, Liam. You think everything began when you arrived."

"No." His eyes didn’t move off Harrison. "I think you want me to believe it did."

The smile fell away, and for the first time all night Harrison looked genuinely interested. "Perhaps."

Dexter crossed his arms. "Name the network."

"No." You came here to waste my time?

"I came here because you needed to understand something." Harrison stood.

"I didn’t bring trouble into your territory. I brought the consequences of an old arrangement."

"What arrangement?"

Harrison only glanced at Derek, who answered instead. "There are people who don’t answer to men like Harrison."

Dexter’s smile was cold. "Everyone answers to someone."

"Not everyone."

The room went quiet in a way that had weight to it. Jack shifted slightly, and Liam caught it not fear, recognition.

Derek knew more than he was saying. But Liam wasn’t going to let Harrison steer the room any longer.

"You took Jessica."

"Yes." To force me here.

"Yes."Then stop wasting time.

"She was never the objective." Harrison held his gaze. "You were."

Silence, brief and total.

"I wanted you to see what you’ve been walking through."

He nodded toward the window the district, the docks, the dark shapes of warehouses beyond the glass. "The shipping office. The vehicles. The people watching you."

"You wanted me to follow a trail."

"I wanted you to notice it."

"Why?" Because destroying my organization wasn’t enough.

He took a slow sip. "You took my buildings, my routes, my money, my people but you never asked who’d been using those routes before I did."

"You’re giving me a name."

"No." The smile returned. "I’m giving you a location." He crossed to a cabinet and set a folded piece of paper on the table. Liam didn’t reach for it yet.

"What is it?"

"An old industrial compound."

"Whose?" That’s what you’re going to find out.

Dexter’s eyes moved from the paper to Harrison. "Why should I let you send him there?"

"Because I don’t care whether you go." His smile widened. "You’ll go anyway. I’m counting on his curiosity."

Liam picked up the paper. An address. No name, no explanation just a location at the edge of the industrial district. He folded it once. "Where’s Jessica?"

"Safe."

"That’s not an answer."

"It’s the only one you’re getting tonight."

Derek finally spoke. "Take the address. If you want answers, that’s where they start."

"And if we don’t?" Dexter asked.

"Then you keep fighting people who were never the real problem."

The air in the room tightened. Derek took one step forward; Dexter didn’t move. Jack’s eyes flicked between them, the tension plain enough to taste. Derek wanted the fight. Dexter knew it.

"Not here," Liam said.

Derek looked at him. "Afraid he’ll lose?"

"No. I’m saving him the inconvenience."

Dexter laughed quietly. Derek’s smile disappeared and Harrison, watching all of it unfold without a word, made Liam understand exactly what this was.

A distraction. A way to set them against each other while he slipped free of the room untouched.

Liam pocketed the address. "We’re done."

"Not quite." Harrison moved to the window, looking down at the black water.

"There are people who built their names in this city before yours, mine, or Dexter’s ever mattered. I used some of what they built. Now you’re walking toward it."

"Why help me?"

"I’m not helping you." His voice dropped, quiet and certain. "I’m making sure you finally understand what you’ve been fighting."

He opened the door himself. "You’ll find your answers at the compound."

Liam walked past him, then stopped at the threshold. "One question. Did Jessica ever see the man in that photograph?"

Something shifted in Harrison’s face small, almost nothing, but Liam caught it.

"No."

"Good." He walked out. Dexter and Jack followed; Derek stayed behind. On the stairs, Harrison’s voice reached him one last time.

"You’re looking for someone who’s been around longer than you realize."

Liam didn’t turn. "Then I’ll find him."

Outside, the cold river air cut against his face. Dexter fell into step beside him. "You believe him?"

"I believe he gave us a real location."

"That’s not what I asked."

Liam turned the paper over in his hand. "No."

"Good."

Jack glanced back at the building. "Derek wanted a fight."

"I know." Think he’ll get one?

"Eventually," Liam said, and Dexter’s faint smile confirmed it.

They walked back to the SUV. Liam opened the door but didn’t get in right away, looking once more at the dark building behind them.

Harrison had lost his network, his money, his influence and still, somehow, he knew exactly where to point next. That was what stayed with Liam. Not that Harrison was strong.

That he’d stopped trying to hide what stood beyond him, and was directing Liam toward something older. Something already built, long before any of them had a name worth using.

He folded the address once more. "Let’s go."

Jack started the engine, and as the SUV pulled away, Liam watched the warehouses slide past the glass. He didn’t know the man’s name yet. Didn’t know his face.

But somewhere in the industrial district was the beginning of the answer and this time, he wasn’t chasing a ghost. He was going to find the man who’d been there before any of them.