Silas Mercer called at 2:17 the next morning.
Adrian answered on the first ring.
“Where are you?”
A familiar laugh came through the phone.
Nine years disappeared.
Adrian was seventeen again, standing in his father’s office while Silas explained why fear was more reliable than love.
“You always begin with the wrong question,” Silas said.
Adrian gripped the phone.
“You threatened a child.”
“No. I educated my son.”
“You’re not my father anymore.”
“Blood doesn’t require permission.”
Across the room, Emily slept on the study couch with Lily curled against her.
After the security breach, neither wanted to return to the east wing.
Adrian had stayed awake beside them.
Silas continued.
“I’ve been watching you.”
“For nine years?”
“Longer.”
“Victor.”
“My finest investment.”
Adrian’s stomach turned.
“Eleven years.”
“Victor understood what you never did. A kingdom requires teeth.”
“You used him against me.”
“I used him to protect what you were destroying.”
“You mean your criminal empire.”
Silas laughed.
“You became respectable.”
“I became better than you.”
Silence.
Then Silas’s tone changed.
“You always did confuse softness with morality.”
Adrian looked at Lily.
“No.”
He spoke quietly.
“I confused cruelty with strength because you taught me to.”
Silas did not answer.
Adrian knew he had struck something.
Then his father said, “Send me the Hart woman.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“No.”
“She has information belonging to me.”
“She’s a person.”
“Everyone belongs to someone.”
“That sentence is why your world is ending.”
Silas laughed again.
“You think a maid and her child changed you?”
Adrian looked at Emily.
Maybe they had.
“I think you’re afraid they did.”
The line disconnected.
Emily’s eyes opened.
She had heard enough.
“That was him?”
“Yes.”
She sat up carefully so Lily would not wake.
“What does he want?”
“You.”
Emily looked toward her daughter.
“He thinks I still have evidence.”
“You do.”
“Not enough.”
“We’ll get enough.”
Adrian called Detective Reed.
By sunrise, the mansion contained police officers Adrian normally would never have allowed through the gate.
Reed reviewed the phone trace.
“Burner. Signal bounced.”
“Can you find him?”
“Eventually.”
“I dislike that word.”
“I know.”
Rose entered carrying breakfast.
Lily woke immediately.
“Pancakes?”
“Yes.”
“With faces?”
Rose smiled.
“Obviously.”
Adrian watched Lily climb onto the chair.
The child had survived two weeks of fear and somehow still cared whether blueberries formed proper eyes.
That resilience unsettled him.
He realized he wanted to protect it.
Not simply today.
Forever.
The thought frightened him more than Silas.
Emily noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You have the same face you make when something bothers you.”
“I have one face.”
Lily shook her head.
“No.”
Adrian frowned.
Lily counted on her fingers.
“Mad face. Work face. Scary face. Lily face.”
Emily laughed.
“Lily face?”
Lily nodded proudly.
Adrian looked offended.
“What does Lily face look like?”
The little girl reached up and pushed the corners of his mouth upward.
“Like this.”
Even Reed laughed.
For a brief moment, the mansion felt almost normal.
Then a guard entered.
“Mr. Mercer, you need to see this.”
A package had been left beyond the east fence.
Inside was Daniel Hart’s wristwatch.
Emily recognized it instantly.
She sank into a chair.
“That was never recovered.”
Reed put on gloves.
A note lay beneath it.
YOUR HUSBAND SHOULD HAVE LISTENED.
Adrian’s jaw clenched.
Emily stared at the watch.
“I gave him that for our fifth anniversary.”
Lily did not understand.
She climbed into Emily’s lap.
“Mommy sad?”
Emily kissed her.
“A little.”
Lily handed her Mr. Buttons.
“You can hold him.”
Emily pressed the rabbit to her chest.
Adrian turned away.
Silas wanted fear.
He wanted Emily destabilized.
He wanted Adrian angry enough to make mistakes.
Adrian would not give him either.
“Reed.”
“Yeah?”
“We need Victor.”
“Agreed.”
Adrian looked at the watch.
“And I know how to make him come to us.”
Victor Hale had spent eleven years believing Adrian’s greatest weakness was pride.
Adrian decided to use that belief.
By afternoon, word spread through Coldwater’s criminal network that Adrian was leaving town.
He intentionally allowed two warehouses to appear unguarded.
He moved several legitimate accounts.
Then he contacted one man Victor still trusted and delivered a false message.
Adrian had evidence against Silas.
He planned to hand it to federal prosecutors the next morning.
Victor reacted exactly as predicted.
At midnight, he entered Warehouse Twelve through a drainage passage only four people knew existed.
Adrian was waiting.
Victor stepped into the dark warehouse.
“You always were dramatic.”
Adrian emerged.
“You always were predictable.”
Victor froze.
Detective Reed and two officers appeared behind him.
Victor laughed bitterly.
“Police again.”
“You kidnapped Emily.”
“You think I had a choice?”
“Yes.”
Victor looked at him.
“You really believe that?”
“For eleven years.”
“You have no idea what your father did.”
“Then tell me.”
Victor’s face tightened.
“When Silas disappeared, he told me to watch you.”
“You mean control me.”
“At first.”
“And later?”
Victor looked away.
Adrian saw something unexpected.
Regret.
“Later, I thought maybe you were right.”
Adrian frowned.
“About what?”
“About changing things.”
“Yet you helped him.”
Victor laughed without humor.
“You think men like Silas allow retirement?”
Reed stepped closer.
“You can testify.”
Victor glanced at him.
“Against Silas Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“Then my life expectancy becomes approximately six minutes.”
Emily’s voice came from behind Adrian.
“Daniel had six minutes too?”
Everyone turned.
Adrian’s expression changed.
He had told her to stay at the mansion.
Of course she had ignored him.
Emily approached.
Victor looked shaken.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“My husband shouldn’t be dead.”
Victor’s jaw clenched.
Emily stood ten feet away.
“Did you kill Daniel?”
Victor closed his eyes.
“No.”
“Did you order it?”
“No.”
“Did you know?”
Silence.
Emily’s voice broke.
“Did you know?”
“Yes.”
The word echoed.
Tears entered her eyes.
“And you did nothing.”
Victor looked at her.
“I tried to warn him.”
“That doesn’t make you innocent.”
“I know.”
Adrian watched Victor carefully.
“Who killed him?”
Victor hesitated.
Then whispered.
“Silas.”
Emily’s knees almost buckled.
Adrian reached for her, but she steadied herself.
Victor continued.
“Daniel discovered the laundering system. Silas ordered me to handle it. I told Daniel to walk away. He refused.”
“So my father arranged the accident,” Adrian said.
Victor nodded.
“And Emily?”
“Silas ordered me to bring her in.”
“Why?”
“She had recordings.”
“Why didn’t you kill her?”
Victor looked at Emily.
“Because I was tired.”
Nobody spoke.
Victor swallowed.
“Tired of dead people. Tired of telling myself I was protecting an organization that didn’t deserve protecting.”
Emily’s expression remained cold.
“You still kidnapped me.”
“Yes.”
“Threatened my daughter.”
“Yes.”
Victor looked toward the floor.
“I can’t undo that.”
Adrian believed him.
But forgiveness was not the same as trust.
“Where’s Silas?”
Victor raised his eyes.
“There’s an old Mercer estate north of the Canadian border.”
Reed frowned.
“Maine?”
“Near Ashland. Not under Mercer’s name.”
Adrian remembered it.
A hunting lodge his father used when Adrian was a boy.
“Why there?”
“Private airstrip.”
“He’s leaving?”
Victor nodded.
“Tomorrow night.”
“With what?”
“Records. Money. Everything he needs to disappear again.”
Adrian looked at Reed.
“You heard him.”
Reed nodded.
“We move through state and federal channels.”
Victor laughed softly.
“Too slow.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Then help.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“You’d trust me?”
“No.”
That answer surprised everyone.
Adrian continued.
“But I’ll use you.”
For the first time in days, Victor almost looked like the man Adrian remembered.
“Fair.”
They created a plan.
Victor would contact Silas.
Tell him Emily had been recaptured.
Tell him Adrian was injured.
Tell him the evidence was being delivered.
Silas would stay at the lodge.
Reed contacted federal agents.
Everything appeared possible.
Until Victor’s phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
Adrian nodded.
Victor answered.
Silas’s voice came through speaker.
“You disappoint me, Victor.”
Victor went pale.
Nobody moved.
Silas continued.
“You always forget I taught you everything you know.”
Then came a sound in the background.
A woman screaming.
Rose.
Adrian’s blood froze.
He looked at Emily.
Emily looked toward the warehouse entrance.
Silas said quietly, “You left the mansion remarkably vulnerable.”
Adrian grabbed the phone.
“If you hurt her—”
“Bring Emily.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“Never.”
“Then perhaps Lily would be more persuasive.”
Emily stopped breathing.
Silas laughed.
“Oh, don’t worry. The child is still at home.”
Adrian looked at his watch.
Then toward Reed.
Silas continued.
“But for how long?”
The line went dead.
Adrian ran.
For the first time since becoming head of the Mercer organization, he did not care about money, territory, pride or revenge.
Only three people mattered.
Emily.
Lily.
Rose.
And Silas Mercer had just threatened all of them.
---