Chapter 2 - The Man Who Saw Callie Across the Ballroom Had Buried Her Ten Years Ago—Now She Was Sitting Beside Chicago's Most Feared BossNathaniel Cross could not stop staring.
The room continued around him.
Waiters moved.
Glasses filled.
People whispered.
But to Nathaniel, there was only one face.
Callie.
Or the woman he had known as Evelyn.
He had watched her die.
At least, that was what everyone had told him.
Ten years earlier, Evelyn Garrison had been twenty-four.
She was brilliant.
Beautiful.
Dangerous in the way intelligent people became dangerous when they stopped being afraid.
She had known too much about the Cross-Moretti network.
More than she should have.
Nathaniel had loved her.
Then he had betrayed her.
Or so she believed.
The night her father died, Evelyn disappeared.
A car was found near the river.
A body was never recovered.
Nathaniel had attended the funeral.
He had stood beside her mother.
He had cried.
He had spent ten years pretending his conscience was grief.
Now she was alive.
And sitting beside Adrian Stone.
Nathaniel looked at Adrian.
The most dangerous man in the room.
Then back at Callie.
“You're alive.”
Callie lifted her glass.
“Apparently.”
His voice shook.
“How?”
She smiled.
“That isn't your question to ask.”
Adrian stood.
“What the hell is going on?”
Callie looked at him.
“Sit down.”
He stared.
Nobody spoke to Adrian Stone like that.
Except, apparently, her.
He sat.
Nathaniel's men shifted.
Adrian's men shifted back.
The room was becoming a powder keg.
Callie leaned toward Adrian.
“Don't start anything.”
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“History.”
“What kind?”
She looked at Nathaniel.
“The kind that gets people killed.”
Adrian's eyes hardened.
Nathaniel tried to approach.
Callie raised one finger.
He stopped.
“You don't get to come closer.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“You helped make everyone think I was.”
His face crumbled.
“I didn't order it.”
Callie laughed softly.
“No?”
“You don't know what happened.”
“I know enough.”
Adrian watched them.
He had spent years around criminals.
He recognized hatred.
He recognized fear.
But what he saw between these two was older.
Personal.
And deeply unfinished.
Nathaniel looked at Adrian.
“She isn't who you think.”
Adrian's gaze narrowed.
“Neither are you.”
Nathaniel's expression changed.
“Adrian…”
“Don't.”
Adrian stood again.
“Leave.”
Nathaniel looked at Callie.
“I need to speak to her.”
“No.”
“I deserve—”
“You deserve nothing.”
Callie stood.
She placed money on the table.
Adrian looked at her.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“We're not finished.”
She looked at him.
“We've been unfinished for ten years.”
She walked away.
Adrian followed.
In the car, silence lasted five minutes.
Then he asked:
“Evelyn.”
Callie looked out the window.
“Yes.”
“That's your name.”
“Yes.”
“Callie Garrison isn't real.”
“It is now.”
“Why did you lie to me?”
“Because I needed to survive.”
“From Nathaniel?”
“From people like him.”
Adrian frowned.
“Then why work for me?”
She finally looked at him.
“Because you weren't him.”
That answer affected him more than she intended.
“What happened?”
“Not tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because I don't know if I trust you enough.”
Adrian laughed once.
“After three years?”
“Three years of employment isn't trust.”
He stared at her.
“Then what is?”
“Knowing what someone does when they have nothing to gain.”
He went quiet.
At her apartment, she opened the door.
Before she entered, Adrian said:
“Who killed your father?”
Callie froze.
She looked back.
“That's the question you should have asked first.”
Then she closed the door.
Adrian sat in the car.
Mason called.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found something.”
“What?”
“The vendor that received the three million.”
Adrian straightened.
“Who?”
“Cross International Holdings.”
He stared at Callie's apartment.
Everything suddenly connected.
Nathaniel wasn't just history.
He was the thief.
But if Callie knew, why had she stayed silent?
And why had she spent three years working directly beneath the man whose company had been robbed?
Unless she had been waiting.
For the right moment.
Adrian looked at the building.
May you like
He suddenly wondered whether he had hired Callie.
Or whether she had chosen him.
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