Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN MY BED
A storm woke me sometime after four.
At first, I thought thunder had shaken the room.
Then I felt warmth beside me.
Human warmth.
My body went rigid.
Someone was in my bed.
My right hand slid beneath the pillow.
My fingers closed around cold steel.
Then I looked down.
Dark hair.
Gray cleaning uniform.
Emma.
Her cheek rested inches from my shoulder.
I stared at her, completely unable to understand what I was seeing.
Her eyes opened.
For three seconds, neither of us moved.
Then she noticed my hand beneath the pillow.
Her face changed.
Not fear.
Heartbreak.
“Danny…”
“How did you get in here?”
“I didn’t.”
“You’re lying.”
“I remember cleaning the hallway.”
“And then?”
“Nothing.”
I pulled the pistol free.
She flinched.
It was the first time she had ever been afraid of me.
“Don’t move.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
I pressed the emergency button beside the bed.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
The phone was dead.
The bedroom door was locked from the inside.
Then something clicked beneath the bed.
Emma heard it.
“Danny…”
Another metallic click.
I raised the gun.
“Get behind me.”
She moved behind my wheelchair.
The door handle slowly turned.
“Who’s there?”
Silence.
Then Luke’s voice came through the door.
“Danny?”
Relief hit me.
Then suspicion followed.
“Step away from the door.”
A pause.
“Danny, I’m downstairs.”
My blood went cold.
The handle turned again.
Emma grabbed the back of my chair.
Someone slammed the door inward.
I fired.
The muzzle flash lit an empty doorway.
Nobody was there.
A second later, the entire security system came alive.
Sirens.
Red lights.
Running footsteps.
Luke appeared with armed guards.
He looked at the bullet hole.
Then Emma.
“What the hell is she doing in your bed?”
“I don’t know.”
One guard stepped toward her.
“Want us to restrain her?”
“No.”
Luke looked at me.
“Danny—”
“Nobody touches her.”
The words surprised me.
But somewhere beneath the panic, I knew one thing with absolute certainty.
Emma wasn’t the person I needed to fear.
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Someone had put her there.
And whoever had done it had entered the most secure room in Chicago without appearing on a single camera.
