Chapter 2 - Ronin Arrived Before Preston Could Break Through
I don't remember telling Ronin my address.
Maybe I had.
Maybe he'd remembered it from the emergency contact form I'd filled out when my mother needed surgery.
I only knew that twenty-seven seconds after his warning, the hallway outside my apartment went silent.
No footsteps.
No voice.
Nothing.
Preston was gone.
I lowered the phone.
My mother stared at me.
"What did he say?"
"Not to open the door."
We waited.
Five minutes.
Ten.
Then the building's front door slammed below.
My mother finally exhaled.
I went to the window.
A black SUV was parked across the street.
Two men stood beside it.
One looked up.
Our eyes met.
He touched his earpiece.
I stepped back.
"He's here."
My mother frowned.
"Who?"
"Ronin."
She stared at me.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
A knock came at the door.
My mother grabbed my wrist.
"Don't."
A man's voice came through.
"Ms. Mercer, it's Gideon Shaw."
I knew him.
I opened the door only after checking the peephole.
Gideon stood alone.
"We need to move."
My mother looked past him.
"Why?"
"Because Preston left the building ten minutes ago."
I stepped into the hallway.
"How did you know?"
Gideon's eyes shifted.
"Because Ronin asked us to watch the exits."
I turned.
"Us?"
He nodded.
"The man you thought was standing outside your apartment was not Preston."
My stomach dropped.
"Then who?"
"One of his associates."
I looked at my mother.
"Get a bag."
She did not question him.
Ten minutes later, we were in the SUV.
Ronin wasn't there.
I sat in the back beside my mother.
Gideon drove.
"Where are we going?"
"Fox Chapel."
I sighed.
"I told Ronin I couldn't."
"He didn't tell me to take you to the house."
"Then where?"
Gideon looked at me through the mirror.
"The guest residence."
My mother frowned.
"Ronin owns a guest residence?"
"He owns several things."
I almost smiled.
Of course he did.
When we arrived, I realized what Gideon meant.
It wasn't a mansion.
It was a small stone house tucked behind trees.
No gates.
No guards in sight.
It looked ordinary.
That somehow made it safer.
We went inside.
A woman was waiting.
Mid-fifties.
Dark hair.
Sharp eyes.
"Mrs. Walker?"
My mother nodded.
The woman smiled.
"I'm Celia. Mr. Calder's house manager."
My mother relaxed slightly.
"You'll be comfortable here."
I wasn't sure comfort was possible anymore.
We spent the night there.
I couldn't sleep.
Around two in the morning, I went downstairs.
Ronin was sitting in the dark.
I stopped.
He looked up.
"You shouldn't be awake."
"Neither should you."
He glanced at my wrist.
"Did Preston come back?"
"No."
"Good."
I sat across from him.
"How did you know?"
"Know what?"
"About the door."
He didn't answer.
"Ronin."
He sighed.
"Your company laptop was compromised six weeks ago."
"What?"
"You thought the login alerts were glitches."
My heart stopped.
"They weren't."
He opened his phone.
There were access records.
My schedule.
My mother's address.
Travel plans.
Internal files.
Someone had been watching me.
Through work.
Through me.
My stomach twisted.
"Was it Preston?"
"We don't know."
"What do you know?"
Ronin slid the phone across.
"Your credentials were used."
I stared.
"Then someone has my password."
"Or someone inside my company gave it to them."
I looked at him.
"Are you saying someone close to you is helping Preston?"
"I'm saying I don't trust coincidences."
My mother appeared at the doorway.
She looked at Ronin.
"You need to tell her."
He went still.
"Tell me what?"
My mother walked in.
"Three years ago, when you hired Laurel, I asked someone to watch you."
I frowned.
"Mom?"
She ignored me.
"The man who watched Ronin wasn't Preston."
Ronin's eyes narrowed.
"Who?"
My mother looked frightened.
"Richard Mercer."
My father.
The name I almost never heard.
Ronin stood.
"Your father is dead."
"So we thought," my mother whispered.
The room went silent.
I looked at her.
"What do you mean, so we thought?"
She closed her eyes.
"Your father didn't die in that warehouse accident."
My knees weakened.
I sat down.
"What are you saying?"
"He disappeared."
Ronin's expression hardened.
"Why?"
My mother looked at him.
"Because your father knew something about your family."
Ronin stepped closer.
"What?"
She looked at me.
"Something about the Calders."
I stared.
"My father knew Ronin's family?"
"He knew his father."
Ronin's jaw tightened.
"What did he know?"
My mother finally said the words.
"Your father and Ronin's father were partners."
I looked between them.
The room seemed to tilt.
Ronin's face was unreadable.
"My father died eighteen years ago."
"He disappeared eighteen years ago."
"Why?"
My mother whispered:
"Because they were trying to protect you."
I shook my head.
"From what?"
She looked toward the windows.
"From the men who killed your father's partner."
Ronin went still.
"My father didn't have a partner."
My mother looked directly at him.
"He did."
A long silence followed.
"Who?"
She answered:
"Daniel Calder."
Ronin's face changed.
His father.
I knew the story.
Daniel Calder had been murdered when Ronin was seventeen.
A car accident, according to the official report.
But Ronin had never spoken about it.
My mother whispered:
"Your father and Daniel were trying to expose an organization called the Black Ledger."
Ronin's eyes became cold.
"I've heard the name."
"Everyone in our world has."
"No."
My mother shook her head.
"Not everyone."
She looked at me.
"Because your father died trying to erase it."
I couldn't breathe.
Ronin moved toward the window.
"Why would Preston be involved?"
My mother hesitated.
"Because his father was."
The world stopped.
"Preston's father?"
She nodded.
"Edward Hayes."
Ronin looked at me.
I knew the name.
Edward Hayes was a respected businessman.
A philanthropist.
A man who sat on hospital boards.
A man my mother once described as dangerous.
Ronin's voice was quiet.
"Where is Edward Hayes now?"
My mother looked terrified.
"He's the reason your father vanished."
Nobody spoke after that.
Then Ronin's phone rang.
Gideon.
He answered.
"What?"
A pause.
His face changed.
"Say that again."
Another pause.
He looked at me.
"Preston has been arrested."
I stood.
"What?"
"For assaulting a man outside a bar."
"Which man?"
Ronin's eyes darkened.
"The man who gave him your address."
I stared.
"Who?"
He didn't answer.
Because Gideon had already said it.
"Richard Mercer."
May you like
My father was alive.
And somehow, he was back.
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