Chapter 2 - THE BRUISES, THE THREATS, AND THE HIDDEN CAMERA
“Tell me what happened.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“No.”
“You think I’ll let him hurt you again?”
Her eyes snapped toward his.
There it was.
Not denial.
Fear.
“I never said it was him.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Audrey looked toward the dark windows.
Rain had begun streaking the glass.
“Some things are bigger than whether I get hurt.”
Nicholas studied her.
“What is bigger?”
Her phone vibrated inside her apron.
She froze.
The phone vibrated again.
Nicholas said nothing.
Audrey slowly pulled it out.
A message filled the screen.
Keep your mouth shut.
Her face drained.
A photograph arrived immediately afterward.
Nicholas saw only part of it before she turned the screen over.
But it was enough.
A teenage boy leaving a school building.
“Who is he?”
Audrey pressed the phone against her chest.
“Nobody.”
“Don’t lie to me again.”
Her head jerked upward.
For a moment, fear turned to anger.
“You don’t get to say that.”
Nicholas was silent.
“You don’t get to stand there and act like the truth is easy because nobody has ever been able to threaten the one person you have left.”
The words struck him harder than she could have known.
Audrey immediately seemed to regret them.
But Nicholas only asked, “Who is the boy?”
Her anger collapsed.
“My brother.”
“How old?”
“Seventeen.”
“Name?”
“Eli.”
“Where is he?”
“With our aunt in White Plains.”
Nicholas reached for his phone.
Audrey stepped forward.
“No.”
He stopped.
“You are not sending your men anywhere near him.”
“I was going to arrange protection.”
“I said no.”
Nicholas put the phone on the table.
“All right.”
She stared at him.
“What?”
“I said all right.”
“You’re actually listening?”
“Should I not?”
Audrey laughed once.
It was not amusement.
It sounded exhausted.
“You’re Nicholas Rainer.”
“And?”
“People don’t tell you no.”
“You just did.”
“And I’m waiting to find out what it costs me.”
That sentence stayed in the room.
Nicholas looked at the mansion around them.
Marble floors.
Crystal.
Paintings worth more than most houses.
Security at every entrance.
A place he had spent years turning into a fortress.
And a woman inside it had learned that saying no was dangerous.
“How long?” he asked.
Audrey stared down.
“How long has Graham been threatening you?”
She did not answer.
“How long?”
“Three days.”
“What happened three days ago?”
“I heard something I wasn’t supposed to hear.”
Nicholas leaned forward.
“What?”
Audrey’s phone vibrated again.
Nice conversation.
She stared at the message.
Then another.
Look at the camera above the door.
Nicholas followed her eyes.
A black lens watched them from the corner of the room.
The security indicator was blinking.
His phone rang.
Daniel Reed, the overnight facilities manager.
“Mr. Rainer?”
“Yes.”
The man sounded frightened.
“We have a problem.”
Nicholas looked at Audrey.
“What kind?”
“Someone deleted most of the security archive from Tuesday through this afternoon.”
Nicholas stood.
Audrey closed her eyes.
Daniel continued.
“And we found another camera while checking the secondary system.”
“Where?”
A pause.
“The female staff changing room.”
Nicholas felt the room go cold.
Audrey whispered, “Oh God.”
He looked at her.
She already knew.
Not about the camera itself.
About the person who had installed it.
Nicholas ended the call.
“Audrey.”
“Stop.”
“Look at me.”
“You need to stop asking.”
“Why?”
May you like
Her eyes filled.
“Because the last woman who asked questions disappeared.”
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