Chapter 2 - The Box That Wasn’t Empty
For one full second, nobody moved.
Then Lucian reached for his phone.
“Gideon.”
Already moving, Gideon spoke into his sleeve. “Lock down the garage. Black SUV from this morning. Check street cameras, adjacent rooftops, every vehicle with line of sight.”
Harper stood frozen beside the island.
Kyle had followed her.
No.
Not followed.
Watched.
There was a difference, and it made her skin crawl.
Lucian ended a call and looked at her.
“Where are your moving boxes?”
“Apartment. Storage locker. Some at my office.”
“Which box would contain the valet case?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
“Don’t order me to think.”
His jaw flexed.
Then he nodded once. “Fair.”
Harper closed her eyes.
She saw the chaotic bedroom. Movers carrying lamps. Her hands shaking while she packed shoes. The dark walnut box on the dresser.
She had shoved it into a carton marked BEDROOM — PERSONAL.
“I know which box.”
“Where?”
“At the sublet.”
Gideon stopped at the elevator.
Lucian swore under his breath.
Harper grabbed her purse.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
She gave him a look.
Lucian corrected himself.
“I would strongly prefer that you remain here.”
“Better. Still no.”
“Harper—”
“My apartment. My box. My cheating ex. I’m coming.”
Lucian stared at her for two seconds.
Then he picked up his coat.
“Fine.”
Gideon looked between them.
“That was faster than usual.”
Lucian ignored him.
The ride to West Loop took eleven minutes.
Harper counted every one of them.
She sat between Lucian and the door in the back of a different SUV while Gideon spoke quietly to security through an earpiece.
Lucian was close enough that she could smell cedar and clean soap.
It annoyed her that a terrifying man smelled reassuring.
She looked out the window.
“Do you do this often?”
“Do what?”
“Escort women to retrieve potentially incriminating stolen watches from moving boxes.”
“No.”
“Good. I’d hate to feel ordinary.”
His mouth twitched.
Harper hated that she noticed.
They arrived to find the apartment hallway empty.
The moment Harper saw her door, she stopped.
It was slightly open.
The red umbrella lay on the floor.
Yesterday, it had been propped neatly beside the frame.
Gideon moved in front of her.
“Stay here.”
This time she did not argue.
Two security men went inside first.
Thirty seconds later, one returned.
“Clear.”
Harper entered.
Her apartment had been destroyed.
Not robbed.
Searched.
Couch cushions were cut open. Cabinet doors hung wide. Her clothes had been ripped from drawers and thrown across the floor. A lamp was shattered beside the kitchen island.
Her cheap bottle of pinot noir had been knocked over.
A dark red stain spread across the rug.
Lucian looked at it.
“Tragic.”
Harper stared at him.
“You’re criticizing the wine crime scene?”
“I’m trying to keep you from looking at the bedroom.”
She turned anyway.
The mattress had been sliced.
Her wedding dress box was torn open.
She had brought the dress because she could not decide what to do with it. Sell it. Burn it. Donate it. Pretend it did not exist.
Now ivory silk spilled across the floor with muddy footprints stamped over the train.
Something inside Harper went quiet.
Lucian saw it.
“Whoever did this wanted to frighten you.”
“They succeeded.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“They made you angry.”
He was right.
Harper walked past the ruined dress and crouched beside the far wall.
The carton marked BEDROOM — PERSONAL had been opened.
Jewelry, scarves, and framed photographs were scattered around it.
No walnut box.
Her pulse pounded.
“It’s gone.”
Gideon crouched beside her. “Anything else missing?”
Harper looked around.
Her grandmother’s earrings were there.
Laptop on the desk.
Cash envelope untouched.
Passport in the drawer.
“Nothing obvious.”
Lucian’s phone buzzed.
He read the message.
His face darkened.
“What?” Harper asked.
“The building camera was looped for nineteen minutes.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning this wasn’t Kyle acting alone.”
Harper stood.
Her phone rang again.
Unknown number.
Everyone looked at it.
She answered on speaker.
A woman was crying.
“Harper?”
Harper’s body went rigid.
“Sloane?”
Her cousin’s voice broke.
“Please don’t hang up.”
Harper’s eyes closed.
Sloane.
The woman she had shared childhood Christmas mornings with.
The girl who had been maid of honor at the wedding that would now never happen.
The woman Harper had found naked in Kyle’s bed.
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you calling?”
“Because Kyle came to my apartment.”
Harper opened her eyes.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Is he there now?”
“No.”
Sloane sucked in a breath.
“He tore the place apart. He kept asking me where you put the watch.”
Harper looked at Lucian.
Lucian was listening with complete attention.
Sloane continued. “Harper, I swear to God, I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
“Why would he think you do?”
Another sob.
“Because he thinks I helped you move.”
“You did help me move.”
“I left before the movers finished.”
“After sleeping with my fiancé.”
Silence.
Gideon looked at the ceiling.
Lucian’s expression became unreadable.
Sloane whispered, “I deserve that.”
“No. You deserve a great deal more than that.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying you know.”
“Okay.”
Harper rubbed her forehead.
“What do you want?”
Sloane’s voice dropped.
“I want to tell you Kyle has a gun.”
The room changed.
Gideon’s hand moved toward his jacket.
Harper’s heart slammed once.
“He has never owned a gun.”
“He does now.”
“How do you know?”
“He put it on my kitchen counter while he searched.”
Sloane started crying again.
“And Harper… he said something else.”
“What?”
“He said if you had gone to Moretti, then everything was ruined.”
Lucian’s eyes narrowed.
Sloane whispered, “He said Vittorio would kill all of us before he let Lucian open that watch.”
The call went silent.
Then a man spoke in the background.
“Who are you talking to?”
Sloane gasped.
The line went dead.
Harper stared at the phone.
“She said Kyle left.”
Gideon was already moving.
Lucian’s voice became flat. “Trace the call.”
Harper grabbed his arm.
“Go get her.”
Lucian looked down at her hand.
Then at her face.
“I will.”
“No. Not one of your people. You.”
He studied her.
“She betrayed you.”
“Yes.”
“You still want me to protect her?”
Harper’s throat tightened.
“I want to hate her tomorrow. I don’t want her dead tonight.”
Something softened in his eyes.
Lucian turned to Gideon.
“Send Mercer’s address to CPD and our people. No sirens until they’re in the building.”
Gideon nodded.
“And you?”
Lucian looked at Harper.
“I’m taking Miss Delaney somewhere safe.”
Harper released his arm.
“I’m not going back to your penthouse.”
“Good.”
She blinked.
Lucian picked up her ruined wedding dress from the floor.
“Because I don’t think my penthouse is safe anymore.”
Harper stared at him.
“Why?”
He held up the torn fabric.
Pinned beneath the lace was a tiny black object.
A listening device.
Someone had planted it inside her dress box.
Lucian’s face turned dangerous.
“This wasn’t installed here.”
Harper understood immediately.
The dress had been sealed since she left the apartment she shared with Kyle.
Kyle could have done it.
But the box had also spent three days at Voss & Hart after a bridal magazine photoshoot arranged by her boss.
Mara had insisted on storing it in the office wardrobe.
Harper looked at Lucian.
“My company.”
“Yes.”
She whispered, “Someone at my company has been listening to me.”
May you like
Lucian crushed the device beneath his heel.
“No,” he said quietly. “Someone at your company has been listening for me.”
