Chương 6
“This has nothing to do with your business.”
“I’m starting to think it does.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“You really don’t know?”
Dominic frowned.
“Know what?”
She looked almost surprised.
Then she turned to her father.
“You told me he knew.”
Charles said nothing.
Vanessa gave a small, disbelieving laugh.
“Oh my God.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Knew what?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled, but she blinked the tears away.
Not gracefully.
Angrily.
“The warehouse on Archer.”
Dominic stopped moving.
I watched his face.
For the first time all night, he looked genuinely shaken.
“What warehouse?”
Vanessa stared at him.
“The one your uncle financed.”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“My uncle is dead.”
“So is her father.”
Nobody spoke.
I looked from one to the other.
“What warehouse?”
Dominic turned toward me.
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa said, “That’s a lie.”
He spun back toward her.
“Don’t.”
“You think I’m protecting him now?”
“I said I don’t know.”
“You know the address.”
His expression changed.
That was enough.
I saw it.
“You do know.”
Dominic dragged a hand over his mouth.
“I know a property.”
“What property?”
“An old distribution building.”
“On Archer?”
“Yes.”
My pulse thudded in my ears.
“What does that have to do with my father?”
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa let out a bitter breath.
“Everybody suddenly knows nothing.”
Charles spoke calmly.
“Because there is nothing to know.”
I turned on him.
“Then why follow me?”
He did not answer.
“Why send your daughter to keep requesting me?”
Nothing.
“Why mention my mother?”
His face stayed smooth.
That frightened me more than anger would have.
Vanessa looked at him.
“Tell her about the list.”
He finally lost control.
“Shut up.”
The command cracked through the room.
Vanessa flinched.
Not dramatically.
Just one quick contraction through her shoulders.
I saw years inside that movement.
Then she straightened.
“No.”
Charles took one step toward her.
Dominic moved between them.
“That’s far enough.”
Charles laughed under his breath.
“You have no idea what you’re protecting.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“Neither do you.”
Marco’s radio crackled.
He listened.
Then looked at Dominic.
“We found the SUV.”
“Where?”
“North service drive.”
I turned.
“Who’s inside?”
“One male.”
Marco hesitated.
“He tried to leave when security approached.”
Charles closed his eyes.
Vanessa whispered, “Damn it.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know his real name.”
Charles said, “Do not answer that.”
Vanessa shouted, “Stop telling me what to do.”
Her voice echoed off the marble.
She looked embarrassed by the volume.
Then furious that embarrassment still mattered.
“I know him as Paul.”
Marco spoke into the radio again.
“Hold him at the gate.”
Charles stepped toward him.
“You cannot detain an employee.”
Marco looked at Dominic.
Dominic said, “If he wants to leave, let him.”
I turned sharply.
“What?”
Dominic looked at me.
“Blocking the gate creates a legal problem.”
I hated that he made sense.
“So he just drives away?”
“No.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
“Get the plate, get clear images, document who spoke to him, and call the police about the reported stalking.”
Marco nodded.
Charles’s face tightened.
Not much.
Enough.
Vanessa saw it.
“So now you care about procedure?”
Charles ignored her.
I pulled out my phone.
“What are you doing?” Dominic asked.
“Calling my mother.”
I dialed.
The phone rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
No answer.
I tried again.
Still nothing.
The room started shrinking around me.
“She was making tea,” I said.
Dominic was already reaching for his phone.
“Give me the address.”
“No.”
“Avery.”
“I’m calling again.”
I did.
Straight to voicemail this time.
My mouth went dry.
Charles said, “Phones die.”
I looked at him.
He should not have spoken.
Something in my face must have told him that.
He stopped.
I turned to Dominic.
“One car.”
He nodded.
“We leave now.”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“I’m coming.”
“No,” I said.
She stared at me.
“If my father sent someone—”
“I said no.”
Her jaw tightened.
“You think I want to help you?”
“I don’t care what you want.”
That hurt her.
Good.
Then it stopped feeling good almost immediately.
She looked smaller without the room watching her.
Still cruel.
Still dangerous.
But smaller.
Dominic said, “Vanessa stays here.”
Charles laughed.
“She’s leaving with me.”
Vanessa turned on him.
“I am not going anywhere with you.”
“You’re upset.”
“I’m awake.”
His face went cold.
“You have no idea what you’ve done tonight.”
She took a step toward him.
“For once, neither do you.”
Marco’s radio sounded again.
He listened.
Then looked at me.
“The driver says his name is Paul Mercer.”
I waited.
Marco swallowed.
“He had a photograph in the passenger seat.”
My fingers went numb.
“Of who?”
Marco looked at Dominic first.
Then at me.
“Your mother.”
I was moving before he finished the sentence.
The hallway blurred.
I nearly slipped on the polished floor, caught myself against the wall, and kept going.
Dominic followed.
Behind us, Vanessa shouted something.
I did not hear it.
All I could see was Mom’s apartment door.
The cheap brass lock.
The chipped number 3B.
Her sitting at the kitchen table in the robe she wore after dialysis.
Her phone beside the sugar bowl.
I hit the front doors hard enough that one bounced against its stopper.
Cold rain struck my face.
My car sat under the portico lights, ugly and familiar and suddenly much too far away.
Dominic caught up as I yanked the driver’s door open.
“You’re not driving like this.”
“Get out of my way.”
“You’re shaking.”
“I said move.”
He gripped the top of the door, not me.
“You crash, you don’t help her.”
I hated him for being right.
I hated myself more for needing him to be.
I threw him the keys.
“Drive.”
He caught them.
Marco was already pulling another SUV around.
I pointed at him.
“One car.”
Dominic nodded.
“One.”
We got in.
Rain hammered the windshield as he accelerated down the private drive.
May you like
The iron gates opened ahead of us.
At the north service entrance, security lights washed over a black SUV.
