Chapter 5 - THE HOUSE WITH NO SAFE ROOMS
Z
Adrian's home sat on the eastern shore of Lake Washington behind stone walls, iron gates, and enough cameras to make Nora wonder how anybody had breached it.
Then she saw the front doors.
They were open.
Marcus drew his weapon.
Nora stopped.
“I thought we were going somewhere safe.”
“We were,” Adrian said.
“That sentence is not reassuring.”
He looked at her.
“Stay in the car.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
“Jessica is being held because of something in your archive. Lincoln dated me because of this. Somebody dropped a ceiling on me. We are past stay-in-the-car.”
Marcus looked as though he had developed a sudden interest in the trees.
Adrian's jaw worked once.
“Beside me.”
Nora got out.
Inside, the house was unnervingly beautiful.
Dark wood.
Stone.
Floor-to-ceiling windows.
No gaudy billionaire nonsense.
No gold statues.
No marble lions.
“You have normal furniture,” Nora whispered.
Adrian looked at her.
“What were you expecting?”
“A throne.”
Marcus actually laughed.
The sound died when they reached Adrian's office.
Drawers had been emptied.
A safe stood open.
One computer was gone.
Adrian crossed the room.
“They knew exactly where to look.”
Marcus examined the security system.
“Internal override.”
Nora walked toward the wall.
Something bothered her.
The paneling.
She touched a narrow strip beside the bookcase.
“Has this been moved?”
Adrian turned.
“No.”
“Recently?”
“No.”
She crouched.
Fine wood dust marked the floor.
Fresh.
“Somebody removed this panel.”
Marcus approached.
Nora pressed along the edge.
A hidden latch released.
The panel opened.
Behind it sat a small black transmitter.
Marcus swore.
“A relay.”
“For what?” Nora asked.
“To bypass the cameras.”
Adrian stared at it.
“Installed before tonight.”
Nora's skin prickled.
“Meaning somebody has been inside your private office preparing for this.”
“Yes.”
“Who gets in here?”
“Four people.”
“Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“My house manager.”
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“And me.”
Nora looked at Marcus.
He looked furious rather than defensive.
Adrian trusted him.
At least for now.
“What did they steal?” she asked.
Adrian's eyes went to the empty space on his desk.
“A list.”
“What list?”
“Names of federal witnesses connected to an investigation into Richard Pierce.”
Nora stared.
“You were working with federal agents?”
“Quietly.”
“You are terrible at fitting stereotypes.”
“I'll try harder.”
Despite herself, she smiled.
The expression vanished when her phone buzzed.
An address.
An abandoned ferry maintenance yard south of the city.
Then Lincoln's message.
MIDNIGHT.
BRING THE BOX.
Nora glanced at the clock.
Four hours.
Adrian took off his coat.
There was blood along his shirt cuff from the Bellweather injury.
“You need that hand stitched.”
“Nora.”
“I mean it.”
“Nora.”
“What?”
“You're staying here.”
She laughed.
“No.”
“I wasn't joking.”
“Neither am I.”
His expression hardened.
“You do not understand the men involved.”
“And you don't understand Lincoln.”
“I understand him sufficiently.”
“No. You understand criminals.”
“Lincoln is a criminal.”
“He is also vain. Petty. Controlling. He hates being embarrassed. And after five years, I know exactly how he argues.”
Adrian stared.
Nora stepped closer.
“He doesn't just want the box. He wants me to know he won.”
“Which makes you useful as bait.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You were going to use me as bait without telling me.”
Marcus turned away.
Adrian said nothing.
Nora pointed at him.
“That silence is extremely loud.”
“You're not trained.”
“You don't need me trained. You need me angry.”
“I already have enough angry people.”
“None of them dated Lincoln Pierce.”
For one second, Adrian almost smiled.
Then the lights went out.
Complete darkness.
Marcus moved instantly.
“Down.”
Adrian grabbed Nora and pulled her behind the stone fireplace.
A shot cracked through the front window.
Glass exploded.
Nora flinched.
Another shot.
Then another.
Adrian covered her with his body.
“Stay down.”
Men shouted outside.
Marcus fired toward the window.
Nora's heart pounded so hard she tasted metal.
A minute later, silence returned.
Backup generators brought dim lights online.
Adrian lifted his head.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“You?”
“No.”
“Marcus?”
“Fine.”
Nora realized her hands were gripping Adrian's shirt.
She released him.
“Sorry.”
His hand covered hers before she could move away.
“Don't.”
The word was quiet.
Their faces were inches apart.
The entire room had changed.
Or maybe Nora had.
She looked at him and suddenly remembered his voice at midnight telling her to lock the door.
A stranger who had no reason to care.
A man everybody feared who had spent the night protecting a woman who had insulted him by accident.
She whispered, “Why did you send people to my apartment?”
Adrian's gaze stayed on hers.
“You gave me your address.”
“That doesn't answer the question.”
“No.”
“Why?”
His thumb moved once against her fingers.
“My mother called me the night my father died.”
Nora didn't speak.
“I was angry with him. I saw her name and ignored the call.”
His voice barely changed.
But she heard the regret anyway.
“By the time I called back, the car had exploded.”
Nora's chest tightened.
“So now you answer wrong numbers?”
“No.”
“Then why me?”
Adrian looked at her for a long moment.
“You sounded like someone standing on the edge of a very bad decision.”
“And you decided to stop me.”
“Yes.”
The honesty made breathing difficult.
Nora should have moved away.
Instead, she kissed him.
It lasted one startled second before she realized what she had done.
She pulled back.
“Oh God.”
Adrian stared.
“I am sorry.”
“Nora.”
“I've had a complicated twenty-four hours.”
“Nora.”
“I probably have a concussion.”
“You don't.”
“You aren't a doctor.”
His hand moved behind her neck.
“No.”
Then he kissed her.
Nothing about Adrian Cross was hesitant.
Not his hands.
Not the way he tilted her face upward.
Not the breath Nora forgot to take when his mouth met hers again.
For ten seconds, there was no Lincoln.
No Jessica.
No hidden ledger.
No bullets.
Then Marcus's voice came from across the room.
“I deeply regret being alive right now.”
Nora jerked away.
Adrian closed his eyes.
Marcus studied the broken window with intense professionalism.
Nora's face burned.
Adrian's phone rang.
The moment ended.
He answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“What happened?”
Silence.
Then:
“When?”
He lowered the phone.
Nora's stomach tightened.
“What?”
“The police found Jessica's car.”
“Where?”
“Near the maintenance yard.”
Nora waited.
Adrian's next words were quieter.
“There was blood inside.”
Her face went cold.
“Jessica?”
“No body.”
Before Nora could respond, another message arrived.
A photograph.
Jessica was no longer in the chair.
Now the chair was empty.
Lincoln's text read:
CHANGE OF PLANS.
COME EARLY.
AND ADRIAN?
I KNOW SHE'S WITH YOU.
Nora looked up.
“How does he know?”
Adrian stared toward the black transmitter hidden behind the wall.
Then toward the ceiling.
“He isn't watching you.”
May you like
His expression turned lethal.
“He's watching me.”
