Chapter 4
Victor looked at Lily once.
Then at Emily.
“Your phone.”
She handed it over.
He searched everything.
Calls.
Messages.
Photos.
Audio files.
Nothing.
His eyes narrowed.
“You heard me.”
Emily said nothing.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Victor stepped closer.
“You are a housekeeper with a three-year-old daughter. You do not want to become brave tonight.”
Emily’s fear nearly buckled her knees.
But she looked back at Lily.
And somehow stayed standing.
Victor searched the room.
He searched Emily.
He opened drawers and cabinets.
He never touched the rabbit.
Finally, he placed paper and a pen on the dresser.
“Write.”
“What?”
“That you cannot live around this world anymore. That you left by choice. That you want Mr. Mercer to care for your daughter until arrangements can be made.”
Emily stared at him.
“You think he’ll believe that?”
“No.”
Victor smiled without warmth.
“But I only need him confused long enough.”
Emily wrote the letter.
Then Victor walked her through a corridor where the cameras had been disabled, out a service entrance and into a waiting sedan.
As he forced her into the back seat, Emily twisted for one final look at the third-floor window.
Lily’s room was dark.
Emily closed her eyes.
Please find it someday, she thought.
Please be smarter than all of us.
At six the next morning, Rose discovered Lily alone.
At six fifteen, Adrian received Emily’s letter.
He read it once.
Then again.
I can’t live around this danger anymore. Please don’t look for me. Please take care of Lily.
Adrian folded the paper carefully.
“She wrote this?”
Rose nodded.
“She would never leave Lily.”
Adrian looked at her.
Rose realized he did not need convincing.
Emily had missed work only twice in eleven months, both times because Lily was sick. She counted every dollar. She repaired dresses rather than replacing them. She once went without lunch for a week because Lily needed winter boots.
A woman might abandon a job.
She might flee a dangerous house.
She might even disappear from a city.
Emily Hart would not abandon her sleeping daughter.
Adrian turned to Marcus Cole, the only lieutenant he trusted almost as much as Victor.
“Publicly, she resigned.”
Marcus understood immediately.
“And privately?”
“Find her.”
For the next twelve days, Adrian searched without letting the mansion know he was searching.
Old warehouses.
Rental houses.
Marinas.
Cheap motels.
May you like
Properties connected to rival crews.
Nothing.
