Chapter 16
Amina called immediately.
“Do not go home.”
“I have nowhere else to go.”
“You have my apartment.”
“You have one bedroom and a girlfriend who already suspects I am part of a prolonged legal emergency.”
“She has accepted your existence as a weather system.”
Luca called before I could answer.
“Where are you?”
“At work.”
“Stay inside.”
“I am off shift.”
“Gabriel says the vehicle belongs to a private investigations firm.”
“Why did you ask Gabriel?”
Silence.
“Luca.”
“He controls security.”
“He is also the person under investigation.”
His voice hardened.
“I have not accused him.”
“You gave a suspect warning that I noticed surveillance.”
The mistake became audible between us.
“I am sending Vincent.”
“No armed men in the hotel.”
“Hannah.”
“I will leave through the service exit with Marco and meet Vincent at Amina’s office.”
“You do not dictate security conditions during a threat.”
“Then you can protect someone else.”
I ended the call.
My hands shook afterward.
Marco looked at me over a bowl of chopped onions.
“Boyfriend problem?”
“He is not my boyfriend.”
“Mafia problem?”
“Yes.”
“Worse. Boyfriends usually have fewer cars.”
Vincent met us behind the hotel.
The dark sedan followed for four blocks, then disappeared when an unmarked police vehicle joined us.
Hayes had arranged it.
Not Luca.
That distinction mattered.
The sedan belonged to Sentinel Meridian, a private security contractor.
Its largest recent payment came from an account controlled by Gabriel’s brother-in-law.
The same digital authorization used to approve the payment had accessed the bridge file three years earlier.
One evidence trail.
Two different acts.
Gabriel had not merely buried the report.
He was monitoring the witness who had reopened it.
Hayes obtained a warrant before anyone confronted him.
May you like
Luca wanted the confrontation inside the estate security office.
Hayes refused.
