Chương 5
“No.”
“You had an address, a job, a driver’s license, taxes, utilities, everything.”
“So why hire someone to find me?”
“That was Caleb’s question.”
Daniel came back toward the bed, though not close enough to touch it.
“What was his answer?”
“He didn’t have one.”
“You said he wanted your help.”
“He thought the client wasn’t paying to locate you.”
Maya paused.
“He thought they were paying to watch what happened after I met you.”
Daniel’s face changed almost imperceptibly.
“Watch what?”
“Whether you trusted me.”
The baby stirred in the bassinet again, making a small restless sound.
This time Daniel crossed the room automatically and placed one hand on the bassinet’s edge.
He looked down at his son for several seconds.
Maya watched his shoulders soften and hated herself for noticing how quickly they hardened again when he turned back.
“Did Caleb tell you who the client was?”
“No.”
“Did he know?”
“He had suspicions.”
“About?”
“Someone connected to your father.”
Daniel stared at her.
“My father was dead.”
“Yes.”
“You keep saying that like it makes this less insane.”
“It doesn’t.”
“What connected them?”
“Vale had done work for your father years earlier.”
Daniel gave a short shake of his head.
“No.”
“Caleb found old billing codes.”
“My dad sold commercial real estate.”
“I know.”
“He wasn’t hiring private investigators.”
“You don’t know that.”
Daniel looked at her sharply.
Maya stopped.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then Daniel said, “You’re right.”
The admission sounded painful.
“I don’t.”
Maya pulled the blanket higher over her legs though she was not cold.
“Caleb said there were payments from a company your father controlled.”
“What company?”
“Northline Holdings.”
Daniel’s brow furrowed.
“I’ve heard that name.”
Maya’s heart kicked.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Estate paperwork, maybe.”
“Your mother might know.”
Daniel looked toward the door.
“My mother currently has the investigative instincts of a drunk raccoon.”
A startled sound escaped Maya before she could stop it.
It was almost a laugh.
Daniel looked at her.
For one brief second, something old and familiar passed between them.
Then it vanished.
Maya wiped beneath her uninjured eye.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t.”
“I wasn’t laughing at—”
“I know what you were laughing at.”
Daniel pulled the chair back and sat again.
“That’s the problem.”
Maya went quiet.
Daniel leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.
“What did you and Caleb actually do?”
“We tried to trace the client.”
“For how long?”
“About two months.”
“While you were dating me.”
“Yes.”
“You were investigating the people who hired you to investigate me.”
“Yes.”
“And you still didn’t tell me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Maya looked toward the bassinet.
Daniel followed her gaze.
“Don’t use him to avoid answering me.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
Maya looked back at him.
“Because by then I knew I had crossed a line I couldn’t explain without losing you.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“So you chose not to explain.”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t protection.”
“I know.”
“That’s control.”
“I know.”
He stood and walked to the window.
Below them, an ambulance turned into the hospital drive without its lights on.
Daniel watched it move beneath the glass.
“What did Caleb find?”
“Northline had been inactive for years.”
“Since Dad died?”
“Before that.”
“How long before?”
“Almost a year.”
Daniel frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It had no normal operations that we could find.”
“What does that mean?”
“No staff, no website, no public-facing business, almost no ordinary expenses.”
“But it paid Vale.”
“Yes.”
“From where?”
“An account that had been funded in several transfers.”
“From?”
“We couldn’t trace them cleanly.”
Daniel turned.
“Couldn’t or didn’t?”
“Couldn’t.”
“Caleb was a private investigator.”
“He wasn’t a magician.”
Daniel looked away.
Maya continued carefully.
“The records he had access to were internal billing records, not bank subpoenas.”
“So what did he actually know?”
“That Vale had been paid through Northline twice.”
“For me?”
“One payment was marked location verification.”
“And the other?”
Maya hesitated.
Daniel noticed.
“What?”
“Relationship development.”
He stared at her.
The words sat between them like something obscene.
Daniel walked back to the bed.
“You’re telling me somebody paid a private investigator to arrange my relationship.”
“I don’t know if they wanted a relationship.”
“That’s what the payment said.”
“That’s how Vale labeled it.”
“Which means what?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s voice rose.
“Stop telling me you don’t know.”
The baby startled.
Daniel went still immediately.
A tiny cry came from the bassinet.
Maya shifted instinctively, then winced.
Daniel reached the baby first.
For a second he seemed unsure what to do, despite having spent the last seven hours learning.
Then he slid one hand beneath the baby’s neck and another beneath his body and lifted him carefully.
The crying softened against Daniel’s chest.
Maya watched him sway without realizing he was doing it.
“You’re bouncing too fast,” she said.
Daniel looked at her.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
He looked down and slowed.
The baby quieted.
Daniel gave Maya a bitter little smile.
“Apparently some things about me you studied correctly.”
Maya’s face crumpled.
He regretted it at once.
“Damn it.”
“It’s fine.”
“No, it isn’t.”
He looked at their son.
“I’m angry at you, and I keep trying to make you hurt.”
Maya swallowed.
“It’s working.”
“I know.”
The baby opened his mouth, yawned, and settled against Daniel’s scrub top.
Daniel stared at him.
“What did Caleb want from you after he found Northline?”
“He wanted me to stop seeing you.”
Daniel looked up.
“Why?”
“He thought it was becoming dangerous.”
“For you?”
“For both of us.”
“Because of what?”
“Because Vale knew I wasn’t reporting honestly anymore.”
“What were you leaving out?”
Maya closed her eyes briefly.
“You.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I stopped putting personal details in the reports.”
“Such as?”
“Things that weren’t relevant.”
“To what?”
“To confirming you were where you were supposed to be.”
Daniel’s expression sharpened.
“Where I was supposed to be.”
“That’s how Vale talked.”
May you like
“You never thought that sounded strange?”
“I did.”
