“I was trying to protect you, Aries,” Killian said, his voice steady despite the gun pointed at his skull.

“You put my name next to a midnight deadline,” Aries said. “In a ledger hidden in a shipping crate.”

Killian looked up, his eyes landing on me, then on the paper resting on the desk.

“You shouldn’t have brought her here,” Killian said softly.

“Why did you do it, Killian?” I asked, my voice shaking only slightly.

“You don’t understand the pressure on the family,” Killian said, looking back at Aries. “The Marcones have been squeezing the shipping routes for months.”

“So you sold me out to them,” Aries said.

“No,” Killian said. “I bought us time.”

“You bought yourself a grave,” Aries replied.

He reached down, pulling a pair of heavy-duty plastic zip-ties from his tactical belt.

He pulled Killian’s hands down and bound them tightly behind his back.

He pulled another set and secured Killian’s ankles to the heavy metal legs of the filing cabinet.

“Aries, if we don’t deliver the ledger tonight, they’ll seize the entire pier,” Killian warned.