Chapter 3
“Mercer will be at Pier Nine personally on the twenty-eighth.”
Emily pressed herself against the wall.
Victor was around the corner, speaking on a phone.
“He still thinks the losses are random. Keep pressure on the smaller routes. Nothing big enough to force him to change the schedule.”
Silence.
Then Victor laughed quietly.
“No. Once he is gone, I control the north side. You take the docks. We settle the rest afterward.”
Emily’s blood ran cold.
She knew enough about Adrian’s world to understand what she was hearing.
Victor was selling information.
Worse, he was arranging Adrian’s death.
Her first instinct was to run to Adrian’s study.
Then she heard Victor say, “And after tomorrow, there can’t be anyone left inside that house who can connect me to you.”
Emily’s hand found her phone.
She pressed record.
Victor continued.
Routes.
Times.
Account numbers.
A warehouse near the abandoned Seaview Cannery.
A plan to make Adrian’s death look like retaliation from a completely different crew.
Emily recorded ninety-three seconds.
Then her phone vibrated.
A low-battery warning.
Tiny.
Almost silent.
In the dead corridor, it sounded enormous.
Victor stopped talking.
Emily ran.
She reached her room, locked the door and tried to send the recording.
Nothing.
The mansion’s private security network restricted outgoing transfers at night.
She tried twice more.
Failed.
Footsteps sounded in the corridor.
Emily looked at Lily.
At the rabbit.
At the small sewing kit on the dresser.
She moved without thinking.
Inside an old jewelry box was a tiny USB drive Daniel had once used for photographs. Emily connected it to her phone, copied the recording and erased every trace she could from the device.
The footsteps grew closer.
Emily grabbed scissors.
She cut open the old seam along Mr. Buttons’s belly.
“Mama?”
Lily was awake.
Emily’s hands shook.
“It’s okay, sweetheart.”
She wrapped the drive in a scrap of cloth and pushed it deep into the rabbit’s stuffing.
Then she sewed the seam shut.
Six ugly stitches.
Fast.
Crooked.
Lily watched with fever-bright eyes.
Emily leaned over and kissed her.
“If Mama has to go somewhere, you keep Mr. Buttons with you.”
“Where?”
“Nowhere yet.”
“Are you coming back?”
The doorknob turned.
Emily cupped Lily’s face.
“I will do everything I can.”
Victor entered.
His expression was almost gentle.
That frightened Emily more than anger would have.
May you like
“Emily.”
She stood between him and the bed.
