Chapter 3 - The Photograph on the WallCaitlyn knew something was wrong before anyone told her.
Hamilton Tower had always been heavily guarded.
That afternoon, security doubled.
Two men appeared outside the executive elevators.
Another remained near Caitlyn's desk.
Employees were suddenly forbidden from using the underground garage without escorts.
Deari returned after dark.
There was blood on his cuff.
Caitlyn stood.
“Are you hurt?”
His eyes moved to her immediately.
“No.”
“Then whose—”
She stopped.
Deari looked down at the blood.
“Not mine.”
He entered his office.
Caitlyn followed.
He turned.
“I didn't ask you in.”
“No.”
She closed the door.
“But if there's a security problem involving this office, I need to know.”
“It doesn't involve you.”
“You're a terrible liar.”
Deari's eyes narrowed.
“Careful.”
Caitlyn's heart accelerated.
But she did not leave.
“You told every employee on this floor to use armed escorts.”
“That is temporary.”
“There is a man outside my desk who looks like he eats concrete.”
“Rafael is extremely competent.”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
Deari loosened his tie.
He had been awake nearly as long as she had on the flight.
Caitlyn suddenly recognized exhaustion in him.
“You should sit.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“That was an impressive change of subject.”
“You look terrible.”
“Thank you.”
“Sit.”
To her surprise, he did.
Caitlyn went to the cabinet and poured water.
Deari watched.
“You're not my nurse.”
“No. Nurses are better paid.”
She placed the glass in front of him.
Deari almost smiled.
Then Caitlyn saw something sticking from the inside pocket of his ruined jacket.
A corner of glossy paper.
Deari followed her gaze.
Too late.
“What is that?”
“Nothing.”
She reached.
Deari caught her wrist.
The movement was instantaneous.
Caitlyn froze.
So did he.
His fingers encircled her wrist.
Not painfully.
But firmly enough to remind her what he was capable of.
Deari looked at his hand.
Then released her immediately.
“Don't.”
Caitlyn's skin tingled.
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
“There you go again.”
“Caitlyn.”
She grabbed the paper.
Deari could have stopped her.
He didn't.
She unfolded it.
A partially burned photograph.
Her own face.
Airport.
Deari's jacket.
Red circle.
The lower portion had burned away.
Caitlyn stopped breathing.
“What is this?”
Deari stood.
“Someone trying to get my attention.”
“By photographing me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He did not answer.
Her eyes widened.
“Because of the plane?”
Deari's silence confirmed it.
Caitlyn stared.
“This is insane.”
“Yes.”
“I fell asleep.”
“I know.”
“On your shoulder.”
“Yes.”
“I didn't marry you.”
Deari's jaw flexed.
The wording created an image he absolutely did not need.
He pushed it away.
“To them, it doesn't matter.”
“Who are they?”
“Moretti.”
Caitlyn had spent nineteen months hearing the name.
She knew enough.
Vincent Moretti controlled competing shipping routes, clubs, gambling rooms, and dozens of legitimate companies.
He and Deari had maintained a violent peace for four years.
Until recently.
“So they think I'm…”
She struggled.
“What?”
“Important.”
Deari said nothing.
Caitlyn looked at him.
“Am I?”
There it was.
A simple question with no simple answer.
Deari had built his entire life around refusing emotional leverage.
His father had loved women carelessly.
Enemies used them.
His uncle had loved gambling.
Enemies bought him.
His older brother had loved power.
Power killed him.
Deari loved nothing anyone could steal.
That had been the rule.
Until Caitlyn fell asleep on him and his first instinct had been to keep everyone quiet so she could rest.
Until someone photographed her and Deari had spent twelve hours thinking about the easiest ways to dismantle Vincent Moretti piece by piece.
“You're my employee.”
Caitlyn flinched.
It was subtle.
Deari saw it.
He hated himself for seeing it.
“Right.”
She folded the photograph.
“Then I suppose HR should handle this.”
“Don't do that.”
“Do what?”
“Turn cold.”
Caitlyn laughed without humor.
“You're criticizing someone for becoming cold?”
“Yes.”
“That is almost impressive.”
Deari moved closer.
“You asked if you were important.”
“Yes.”
He looked at her.
“The answer is inconvenient.”
Caitlyn's pulse jumped.
“That's not an answer.”
“It is the only one you're getting.”
She stared.
Deari's phone rang.
He ignored it.
That frightened Caitlyn more than anything.
Deari never ignored calls.
“Go home with Rafael.”
“No.”
His expression darkened.
“I am not debating this.”
“I have to visit Tommy tomorrow morning.”
“Then Rafael drives you.”
“No armed men at his facility.”
“Fine. Plainclothes.”
“Deari—”
His head lifted at his first name.
Caitlyn noticed.
“So it only works when you want me to say it?”
“Apparently.”
Despite everything, her cheeks warmed.
Deari looked away first.
“Go home.”
She picked up her bag.
Then stopped.
“What happens if Moretti decides I'm useful?”
Deari's expression became terrifyingly calm.
“He regrets it.”
“That isn't reassuring.”
“It wasn't meant to be.”
She left with Rafael.
Deari stood alone.
His phone rang again.
This time he answered.
Luigi.
“We found the photographer.”
“Alive?”
“For now.”
Deari's voice became cold.
“I'm coming.”
The photographer was named Nolan Briggs.
Freelance surveillance.
Former police.
Expensive.
Deari found him tied to a chair in an empty Hamilton-owned garage.
Luigi stood nearby.
Nolan's face was bruised.
Deari approached.
“Who paid you?”
Nolan swallowed.
“Don't know.”
Deari looked at Luigi.
Luigi shrugged.
“He keeps saying that.”
Deari crouched.
“You followed my employee.”
“I photograph who I'm told.”
“Who told you?”
“Encrypted message. Cash drop.”
Deari studied him.
“You're lying.”
“No.”
Deari's hand moved.
Nolan flinched before being touched.
Deari stopped.
That reaction told him something.
Not guilt.
Terror.
“Who are you afraid of?”
Nolan looked away.
Deari lowered his voice.
“Moretti?”
No reaction.
“Someone inside Hamilton?”
Nolan's eyes flickered.
There.
Deari stood.
Luigi saw it too.
“Interesting.”
Nolan began sweating.
Deari leaned closer.
“Someone inside my organization hired you.”
Silence.
“Who?”
Nolan shook his head.
“They'll kill me.”
Deari smiled without warmth.
“You're confused about the room you're sitting in.”
Luigi's phone buzzed.
He checked it.
“Boss.”
Deari turned.
Luigi handed him the screen.
Security alert.
Evergreen Residential Center.
Tommy Elmore had been removed from the facility.
Deari's blood went cold.
“Who signed him out?”
Luigi scrolled.
“Authorized transport service.”
“Authorized by whom?”
Luigi looked at him.
“Hamilton Charitable Medical Foundation.”
Deari stopped.
Someone had used the new benefits policy.
Someone inside Hamilton knew exactly what Caitlyn cared about.
Deari took out his phone.
“Call her.”
Caitlyn answered on the second ring.
“Deari?”
“Where are you?”
“Almost home.”
“Turn around.”
“What?”
“Rafael is taking you to Hamilton Tower.”
Her voice changed.
“What happened?”
Deari could not soften it.
“Tommy is missing.”
Silence.
Then Caitlyn stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Someone signed him out using Hamilton medical authorization.”
“No.”
“Caitlyn—”
“No. No, he doesn't leave with strangers. Tommy knows that.”
“The paperwork was legitimate.”
“He gets confused!”
Her voice cracked.
Deari closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
She was crying now.
“You don't know anything about him. He gets scared when routines change. He hates cars he doesn't know. He has seizures when he's overstimulated.”
“Caitlyn.”
“Find him.”
Deari's hand tightened around the phone.
Not please.
Not can you.
Find him.
The same way Deari gave commands.
He understood why.
Because Caitlyn had nobody else.
“I will.”
“If something happens—”
“It won't.”
“You can't promise that.”
Deari stared at Nolan.
“Yes.”
His voice became deadly quiet.
“I can.”
He hung up.
Nolan had gone white.
Deari approached.
“New question.”
Nolan shook his head.
“I don't—”
Deari placed Caitlyn's burned photograph on his lap.
“Twenty-seven years ago, I learned something important.”
Luigi watched Deari change.
The controlled businessman disappeared.
The old syndicate heir emerged.
“When a man threatens me, I negotiate.”
Deari leaned down.
“When he steals money, I calculate.”
His eyes became empty.
“But someone just took a disabled twenty-one-year-old boy because they believe hurting him will control his sister.”
Nolan trembled.
Deari lowered his voice.
“There will be no negotiation.”
Ten minutes later Nolan gave them a name.
Owen Vale.
Chief financial officer of Hamilton Enterprises.
Deari stared.
Owen had worked for his family for sixteen years.
He had attended Deari's father's funeral.
Helped restructure the legal businesses.
Sat beside Deari during federal audits.
Luigi swore.
“Vale?”
Deari looked toward the door.
“Bring me everything on him.”
Within an hour, they discovered financial transfers between Owen-controlled shell companies and businesses connected to Moretti.
Not one betrayal.
Years of them.
Owen had been feeding information to both sides.
Profiting from conflict.
Manipulating contracts.
Selling weaknesses.
Deari felt something colder than anger.
He had trusted Owen.
And Owen had found Caitlyn's.
A burner phone rang.
Nolan stared at it.
Luigi answered on speaker.
Owen's voice.
“Mr. Hamilton.”
Deari spoke.
“You have five seconds to tell me where Tommy is.”
Owen laughed.
“Straight to business.”
“Five.”
“You've become sentimental.”
“Four.”
“The mighty Deari Hamilton.”
“Three.”
“Reduced to threatening his own CFO over a secretary's broken little brother.”
Deari's eyes went black.
Luigi took a step back.
“Two.”
“Pier Thirty-One. Come alone.”
“One.”
The line went dead.
Deari picked up his coat.
Luigi blocked him.
“No.”
“Move.”
“It's a trap.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Deari looked at him.
“Because Caitlyn asked me to find her brother.”
Luigi stared.
There it was again.
That dangerous softness.
Except this time Luigi understood.
It was not making Deari weak.
It was giving his violence direction.
“I go with you.”
“He said alone.”
“And since when do we take instructions from accountants?”
Deari almost smiled.
“Fine.”
Back at Hamilton Tower, Caitlyn stood beside the window, shaking.
Rafael remained outside.
She looked at the city.
Then at Deari's empty chair.
She had spent nineteen months afraid of him.
Now the only thing keeping her from completely falling apart was the certainty that Deari Hamilton was somewhere in the night hunting the people who had taken Tommy.
That realization terrified her for a completely different reason.
May you like
Because she trusted him.
And Caitlyn had learned long ago that the people you trusted were the ones whose loss could destroy you.
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