Chapter 2 - THE NAME IN THE LEDGER
Sadi woke the next morning with three things.
A bruised rib.
A swollen wrist.
And a stranger standing outside her apartment.
She froze before reaching the stairs.
The man wore a black suit and stood beside a black SUV parked beneath the flickering streetlight.
He wasn't smoking.
He wasn't checking his phone.
He was waiting.
Sadi immediately turned around.
She took the back exit.
She had learned a long time ago that men who waited outside your home rarely brought good news.
She crossed two streets, entered a twenty-four-hour diner, and sat in the last booth.
“Coffee?” the waitress asked.
“Yes.”
“Breakfast?”
“No.”
Sadi wrapped both hands around the mug.
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
She ignored it.
It vibrated again.
Then a text appeared.
You should not have gone back to the Foundry.
Sadi's stomach tightened.
Another message arrived.
Your father made the same mistake.
She immediately stood.
The waitress looked up.
Sadi walked into the bathroom and locked the door.
Her breathing became shallow.
Nobody knew about her father.
At least nobody who mattered.
Caleb Mercer had died eight years ago.
Officially, the fire had been an accident.
Unofficially, Sadi knew better.
She had been sixteen when she watched smoke consume the building.
She remembered her father's hand pushing her through a back window.
She remembered him shouting one sentence.
“Run, Sadi!”
Then the roof collapsed.
He never came out.
The police called it an electrical fire.
Sadi never believed them.
She had spent eight years trying to forget everything connected to the Mercer Combat Academy.
Until Dominic had recognized her name.
Her phone vibrated again.
Come to the Foundry. Alone.
She stared at the message.
Then another arrived.
Or I give the ledger to the police.
Sadi's blood ran cold.
She didn't know what ledger they meant.
But she knew they had something.
Two hours later, she stood outside the Foundry.
Dominic was waiting.
No guards.
No suit jacket.
Just a black shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms.
“You came.”
“You threatened me.”
“I warned you.”
“Same thing.”
His mouth twitched.
“You always this difficult?”
“Only with criminals.”
“That must make your social life exhausting.”
Sadi crossed her arms.
“Show me the ledger.”
Dominic studied her.
“Why?”
“Because you said my father's name.”
His expression changed.
“You knew?”
“I knew my father didn't die in an accident.”
Dominic opened the door behind him.
“Come inside.”
“I'll stay here.”
“You won't.”
“Try me.”
For several seconds, they stared at each other.
Then Dominic stepped aside.
“You have five minutes.”
Sadi entered.
He led her downstairs.
The room beneath the Foundry looked nothing like the nightclub above.
Steel walls.
Locked cabinets.
Security monitors.
Files stacked in perfect rows.
Dominic opened the ledger.
Sadi looked down.
The first page contained her father's name.
Her hands began shaking.
“Where did you get this?”
“My father.”
“Your father knew Caleb?”
“My father knew everyone.”
Dominic turned another page.
Sadi read the first sentence.
Mercer refused to deliver the package.
Her heart stopped.
“What package?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
He turned the page.
Caleb threatened to expose the arrangement.
Sadi stared at him.
“What arrangement?”
Dominic remained silent.
“Tell me.”
“I don't know yet.”
“You're lying.”
“I've been asking the same questions for years.”
She looked at him.
“You knew my father?”
“No.”
“But your family did.”
“Yes.”
“Did your family kill him?”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“I don't know.”
Sadi slammed the ledger shut.
“I knew it.”
“Knew what?”
“That men like you are all the same.”
Dominic didn't stop her when she walked away.
But before she reached the stairs, he spoke.
“Your father wasn't the only one who disappeared that night.”
She stopped.
Dominic continued.
“There were three other people inside the gym.”
Sadi turned slowly.
“My father's students.”
“Yes.”
“One was my father's assistant.”
“Dead.”
“My father's accountant?”
“Missing.”
Sadi's voice became barely audible.
“And the fourth?”
Dominic looked directly at her.
“Your father's wife.”
Sadi stopped breathing.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
“No.”
Dominic pulled out another document.
“Your mother was reported dead six years before the fire.”
Sadi stared at the paper.
The signature on the death certificate looked wrong.
Her mother's name was spelled incorrectly.
One letter.
One tiny difference.
But Sadi knew her mother's handwriting.
She knew her name.
“She wasn't dead,” Sadi whispered.
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
“Then where is she?”
“That is what we're going to find out.”
Sadi looked at him suspiciously.
“Why would you help me?”
Dominic's expression became unreadable.
“Because someone has been killing people connected to your father for eight years.”
“And?”
“You are the last one.”
A silence fell between them.
Then the security alarm suddenly screamed.
Dominic reached for his gun.
Every light in the room went red.
One of his men shouted through the intercom.
“Boss! We have a breach!”
Dominic grabbed Sadi's hand.
“Move.”
She pulled away.
“I can take care of myself.”
“I know.”
He looked at her.
“That's why they're afraid of you.”
Gunfire erupted upstairs.
Sadi's heart pounded.
Dominic opened a hidden door in the wall.
“Get inside.”
“What about you?”
He looked toward the sound of approaching footsteps.
“I'm the reason they're here.”
Sadi hesitated.
Then she stepped through.
Dominic followed.
The steel door closed behind them.
Neither noticed the tiny red light blinking on the security camera.
May you like
Someone else was watching.
And whoever it was already knew Sadi had found the ledger.
