Chapter 4 - FIVE YEARS OF LIES
Z
Nora read Lincoln's message six times.
Each time, the words became less believable.
Her first instinct was to move.
Her second was to vomit.
Adrian took the phone.
“No.”
Nora looked at him.
“I didn't ask you anything.”
“You're thinking about going.”
“He has Jessica.”
“He wants the box.”
“Exactly.”
“And once he has it, he has no reason to keep either of you alive.”
“She betrayed me.”
Adrian's eyes remained on hers.
“Yes.”
“She slept with him.”
“Yes.”
“She helped him use me.”
“Yes.”
Nora swallowed.
“But I'm not going to let her die.”
Something shifted in Adrian's face.
Not approval.
Recognition.
“I know.”
Nora wiped both hands over her face.
“Don't say it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you've already decided what kind of person I am.”
Adrian's voice quieted.
“I decided last night.”
Despite everything, Nora almost laughed.
“You decided what kind of person I am based on drunken texts?”
“You discovered your partner with your closest friend and went home instead of burning down his apartment.”
“I considered it.”
“You bought him dinner first.”
“That curry was twenty-four dollars.”
“The restraint is remarkable.”
A laugh escaped her.
It turned into a sob before she could stop it.
Nora covered her mouth.
Adrian stepped closer.
He didn't touch her immediately.
That mattered.
When she leaned forward, he put one hand behind her neck.
Nora pressed her forehead against his chest.
For ten seconds, she let herself fall apart.
Then she stepped back.
“Okay.”
Adrian's hand dropped.
“What does the box prove?”
They moved to a secured office upstairs.
Marcus connected one of the old drives to an isolated computer.
Files appeared.
Shipping manifests.
Payments.
Property transfers.
Private security invoices.
Names.
Adrian became colder with every page.
“What?” Nora asked.
“My father suspected someone inside Cross Shipping was moving weapons through company routes.”
Nora glanced at him.
“Your father was surprised by illegal activity?”
His mouth tightened.
“My father committed crimes, Nora. He also understood that there were lines.”
“What kind of lines?”
“No trafficking. No drugs through neighborhoods we controlled. No weapons sold to crews using children.”
Nora absorbed that.
Not morality.
A code.
Imperfect and dark, but real enough to create enemies.
Adrian pointed toward the ledger.
“Richard Pierce handled compliance.”
“He was stealing?”
“Worse.”
Marcus enlarged a spreadsheet.
Pierce had rerouted shipments for another organization.
Millions disappeared.
Several Cross employees who investigated later died.
Accidents.
Suicides.
Disappearances.
Then Nora saw a date.
April 14.
Seventeen years ago.
Adrian's father died on April 17.
She looked at him.
“Three days later?”
“Yes.”
Nora's voice softened.
“You think Richard had something to do with your father's death.”
“I've thought it for seventeen years.”
“Then why was he free?”
“Because suspicion isn't evidence.”
That surprised her.
“Aren't you supposed to be terrifying?”
“I am.”
“But you waited seventeen years?”
“I wanted the truth more than revenge.”
Nora looked at him differently.
Marcus opened another file.
A building schematic.
Bellweather Hotel.
Several rooms were marked.
One had handwriting beside it.
R.P. - ORIGINAL SAFE ACCESS.
Nora leaned forward.
“That's wrong.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What?”
“The room doesn't exist.”
Marcus frowned.
“It's on the plan.”
“On this plan.”
Nora pulled out photographs from her earlier survey.
“The north foundation is fourteen feet wider outside than the interior dimensions show.”
Adrian understood immediately.
“A hidden room.”
“Yes.”
“And Lincoln still needs you.”
Nora's phone rang.
Again.
Lincoln.
Adrian nodded.
“Answer.”
Nora did.
Lincoln sounded calm.
That was almost worse.
“Hi, sweetheart.”
Her stomach turned.
“Don't call me that.”
“You found the box.”
“Where is Jessica?”
“Alive.”
“I want to hear her.”
A shuffle.
Then Jessica's shaking voice.
“Nora, don't—”
Lincoln took the phone back.
“Satisfied?”
“No.”
“You never were.”
The cruelty landed because it sounded familiar.
For years, Lincoln had wrapped insults in concern.
Too emotional.
Too stubborn.
Too ambitious.
Now Nora heard the architecture beneath the paint.
“Why me?”
Silence.
Then Lincoln sighed.
“Do we really need to do this?”
“Five years, Lincoln.”
“You were convenient.”
The sentence cracked something inside her.
But surprisingly, it didn't break her.
It freed her.
Lincoln continued.
“Your access. Your knowledge. Your company. Dad knew Cross hid records inside Bellweather before he died.”
“Your father isn't dead.”
A pause.
Nora's eyes narrowed.
Lincoln had told her Richard lived in Arizona.
Yet Jessica had said Richard hid the evidence.
Adrian wrote something on paper.
ASK WHERE RICHARD IS.
Nora said, “Where is your father?”
Lincoln chuckled.
“Closer than Adrian thinks.”
Adrian's expression changed.
Nora's pulse jumped.
“You're working with him.”
“I work for my family.”
“You slept with Jessica for your family too?”
Lincoln's voice hardened.
“Bring the box.”
“Where?”
“You'll get an address.”
“I come alone?”
“Yes.”
“And Jessica walks away.”
“If you behave.”
Nora's hand tightened.
“Lincoln.”
“What?”
“I hope she was worth it.”
Silence.
Then she ended the call.
Adrian stared at her.
“What?”
“That was cruel.”
“You approve?”
“Deeply.”
For the first time all day, Nora smiled.
Then Marcus's computer chimed.
He had found another file.
A security roster.
Adrian leaned closer.
His face lost all expression.
Nora knew instantly something was wrong.
“What?”
Marcus looked sick.
“This roster is current.”
Nora moved beside them.
Dozens of names.
Cross Meridian security personnel.
Drivers.
Warehouse supervisors.
One name was highlighted in red.
Marcus Vale.
Nora looked at the man standing beside Adrian.
Then at Adrian.
Marcus whispered, “I have never seen this file.”
Another name appeared beneath his.
Daniel Rourke.
Adrian's operations director.
One of the few men who had been with him since his father's death.
Adrian stared at it.
Marcus said, “Daniel has access to the estate.”
“To your house?” Nora asked.
Adrian was already reaching for his phone.
“To everything.”
The line connected.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Adrian's face became dangerous.
Then his phone rang from an unknown number.
He answered.
A man's voice spoke.
Adrian listened.
His eyes went to Nora.
“What?” she whispered.
He lowered the phone.
“My house has been breached.”
Nora's blood chilled.
“By Lincoln?”
“No.”
May you like
Adrian looked at the old photograph of Richard Pierce.
“By the men I trusted enough to give keys.”
