Chapter 3 - The Man Who Kidnapped Lily Had One Message for MeWe found the first body forty yards from the safehouse.
One of my guards.
His throat had been cut.
The second body was another guard.
The killer had moved fast.
Professionally.
Without hesitation.
Leon crouched beside the bloodstained pavement.
“This wasn’t Rourke.”
“How do you know?”
“Rourke’s people are sloppy.”
I glanced at Marcus.
“And these people?”
Marcus answered.
“They knew the building.”
My eyes narrowed.
“How?”
Nobody spoke.
Then Leon looked at me.
“Someone gave them the floor plan.”
There were only four people outside my inner circle who had access.
Marcus.
Adrian.
Leon.
Vivian.
One of them had betrayed me.
And now Lily was gone.
We had twenty minutes before dawn.
I ordered every camera in the district pulled.
We tracked a black van heading north.
The plate was fake.
Of course it was.
But Leon found one thing.
The van had passed beneath a toll camera.
A blurry image showed a man driving.
I recognized him.
Elias Rourke.
Vincent Rourke’s younger brother.
He had disappeared two years earlier after a failed assassination attempt against me.
I called Vincent.
He answered on the second ring.
“Caleb.”
“Your brother has Lily.”
A pause.
“What?”
“The little girl.”
“I know who she is.”
That caught my attention.
“You know her?”
“I know her mother.”
Silence.
I tightened my grip on the phone.
“Where is your brother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then find him.”
“I can’t.”
“You have ten minutes.”
Vincent laughed bitterly.
“You still think you can threaten me?”
“I’m not threatening you.”
I looked at Marcus.
“I’m promising you.”
He went quiet.
Finally he said, “There’s an abandoned church on Mercer Street.”
“Why?”
“Elias used it.”
“Where?”
“Basement.”
We were moving before the call ended.
The church was abandoned for fourteen years.
Rain poured through the shattered roof.
My men surrounded it.
We entered through the basement.
Empty.
No Lily.
No Elias.
Only a chair in the middle of the room.
And a speaker.
It clicked on.
A distorted voice filled the room.
“Hello, Caleb.”
I raised my weapon.
“Where is the girl?”
“You always go straight to business.”
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“You have thirty seconds.”
“You sound angry.”
“You have twenty-five.”
The voice laughed.
“You still think the world revolves around you.”
“No.”
I looked around the room.
“I think the world revolves around people who have the courage to admit what they’ve done.”
The laughter stopped.
“You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Then ask your sister.”
My chest tightened.
“Vivian?”
“She knows.”
The speaker clicked off.
I stared into the silence.
Marcus whispered, “Caleb…”
I turned toward him.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You suspected?”
He shook his head.
“I never had proof.”
I turned away.
Something inside me was splintering.
We returned to the safehouse.
Vivian arrived before sunrise.
She walked through the front door as if nothing had happened.
She wore a gray coat.
Her hair was tied back.
Her expression was exhausted.
“What happened?”
I placed the photograph in front of her.
She stopped.
Her face changed.
Not much.
But enough.
“You know Emily.”
Vivian sat down.
“Yes.”
“Tell me everything.”
She looked at Marcus.
Then at me.
“Emily was my friend.”
“When?”
“Before you became what you are.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“She worked at one of your companies.”
“Why didn’t I know?”
“Because you stopped listening to people who weren’t part of your inner circle.”
That hurt because it was true.
“She discovered irregular financial transfers.”
“From my companies.”
“Yes.”
“Who was responsible?”
Vivian looked down.
“I never knew.”
“You’re lying.”
She looked up.
“I’m not.”
I pushed the photograph toward her.
“Why was she with you?”
“She came to me because she was afraid of Marcus.”
Marcus stood.
“That’s a lie.”
Vivian turned.
“Is it?”
They stared at each other.
Something passed between them.
Something old.
I noticed.
“You two know more than you’ve told me.”
Marcus said nothing.
Vivian finally whispered.
“I did one terrible thing.”
“What?”
“I helped Emily disappear.”
I felt the room close around me.
“Why?”
“Because somebody inside your organization was trying to kill her.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“You would have gone after everyone involved.”
“Yes.”
“That was the point.”
She looked at me.
“You would have started a war without knowing who your enemy was.”
“And instead, Emily died.”
Vivian’s eyes filled.
“I thought she was safe.”
“Where was she?”
“Canada.”
“Then how did she end up dead here?”
Vivian shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
I looked at Marcus.
“You said she came to you.”
“She did.”
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I thought someone inside your organization had turned on you.”
“Who?”
“I never found out.”
I walked to the window.
Rain slid down the glass.
For the first time, I understood something terrible.
This enemy had been inside my empire for seven years.
Maybe longer.
The poisoning wasn’t the beginning.
It was the latest chapter.
And Lily wasn’t just a witness.
She was the key.
That afternoon, we received a video.
Lily was sitting in a dark room.
Her face was bruised.
But she was alive.
A man stood behind her.
The same distorted voice spoke.
“Caleb.”
I stepped closer to the screen.
“You have twelve hours.”
“For what?”
“Bring me the key.”
I looked at the little metal key on the table.
“You could have taken it yourself.”
The voice laughed.
“That key opens something you buried without knowing it existed.”
“What?”
“A locker.”
“Where?”
“Saint Mercy Hospital.”
Then the screen went black.
Marcus stared at me.
Saint Mercy.
The hospital where my father had died.
The hospital where Vivian had been born.
The hospital where my mother had disappeared.
I looked at the key.
May you like
Suddenly, the past didn’t feel dead anymore.
It felt like it had been waiting.
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