Page 33 of Make Them Pay

Enley used a civilian’s private information to build a case that could end Serafina for good. That civilian will face real consequences. Frozen accounts. Questions. The sudden knowledge that her mother’s money was never clean. Those consequences matter.

But the other choice was leaving a hole big enough for Serafina to keep operating. Keep hurting people. Keep holding Poe in a room.

“Did you look for another way?” I ask. Not accusing. Just wanting to know.

“I looked for about fifteen minutes. The path through Margaux’s trust was the only connection. Serafina set it up that way on purpose. She put her daughter between herself and the evidence because she knew anyone with a conscience would hesitate.”

“And you didn’t.”

“I hesitated for about ten minutes.” She holds my gaze. “Then I thought about Poe. And I stopped hesitating.”

I shift on the cot so I can face her more directly. The fever burned away a lot of the noise in my head. What’s left is simple and clear. “You made the right call,” I say.

Something in her expression softens. Like she needed to hear me say these words.

“The right call still hurts a nineteen-year-old,” she says.

“Yes.”

“Does that bother you?”

“Yes.” I don’t soften it. “It bothers me that it was necessary. It doesn’t bother me that you did it. There’s a difference.”

“Is there?”

“The difference is between regretting the situation and regretting the decision. I regret that Serafina built her network through her daughter’s life. I don’t regret that you traced it. The evidence you put together is going to put Serafina away for good because you didn’t leave her a gap to crawl through.”

She’s quiet for a moment. Then she nods once, the same quiet way Poe does when something’s been settled as far as it can be. “There’s something else,” she says.

“What?”

“While I was in that Luxembourg account I found regular payments to a security company called Ross Protection Services. Registered to Erik Ross.”

The name hits hard. Ross. The man running the holding facility. Serafina’s second-in-command.

“The payments are large,” Enley continues. “And they started three months before the crew was taken. She was paying him to plan this long before it happened. This wasn’t a reaction. She prepared for it.”

Three months of planning. Three months of building the cage while the rest of us went about our lives.

“Does the log show anything useful for the rescue?” I ask. “Details about the facility or the security?”

“Not directly. But the payments list specific things. Guard staffing that matches the numbers Orchid confirmed. Electronic security that matches the camera layout. And a line item called Asset Management with payments that started six months ago.”

“Asset Management.”

“I think that’s the hostages. I think she paid Ross to keep the ability to hold people for a long time. She built the cells before she had anyone to put in them.”

The size of the planning is hard to take in. This wasn’t opportunity. This was deliberate. Patient. Cold.

“Add all of it to the evidence package,” I say. “The payments. The timeline. Everything. When this reaches the authorities I want them to see how long she planned this.”

“Already done.”

Of course it is.

I look at the woman who spent ten hours alone in this storage unit finishing a massive piece of work while taking care of my fever and building a case that would take a team weeks. She’s exhausted. I can see it in the slight droop of her eyelids and the way she keeps shifting in the chair.

But she’s not broken. She’s not looking to me for permission or comfort. She’s looking at me like a partner. Someone who carried the weight while I couldn’t and is ready to hand it back now that I can.