Chapter 4 - The Seventeen NamesEric survived.
Barely.
The shot had struck high in his shoulder, missing anything immediately fatal.
David refused to let us go outside until he was certain the shooter had left. By the time we dragged Eric into the building, he was barely conscious.
Claire knelt beside the husband she had spent months trying to escape.
Her hands shook.
That surprised me.
“Pressure here,” David said.
She obeyed.
Eric opened his eyes.
He saw Claire.
“Hey.”
She stared down at him.
“You’re an idiot.”
A weak smile.
“You married me.”
“Worst decision I ever made.”
“Fair.”
I hated that exchange.
Because it sounded human.
For a year, I had turned Eric into something simple in my mind.
Monster.
Abuser.
Coward.
He was still all three.
But monsters can tell the truth.
Cowards can become frightened enough to betray worse men.
And even an abuser can be someone’s pawn.
None of that excused what he did to my daughter.
But it complicated everything.
David opened Eric’s envelope.
Inside was a printed list.
Seventeen names.
Marcus Vale.
Two defense contractors.
A retired intelligence officer.
Three executives.
A senator’s chief of staff.
Two foreign intermediaries.
Several names I did not recognize.
Eric Dalton.
Thomas Mercer.
And number seventeen:
Daniel Harrow.
I nearly dropped the paper.
Claire noticed.
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
Daniel was my brother.
My younger brother.
The man who had spent Thanksgiving at our house for twenty-two years.
Daniel had built a successful shipping company along the East Coast.
He was loud, charming, perpetually late, and impossible not to forgive.
He adored Claire.
Or I thought he did.
“What does Daniel have to do with this?”
Eric’s eyes opened.
“Containers.”
I turned.
“What?”
He spoke with effort.
“Meridian needed commercial routes. Harrow Shipping gave them clean lanes.”
“No.”
“He’s been in for years.”
“You’re lying.”
“I lied about plenty.”
Eric grimaced.
“Not this.”
Claire looked at me gently.
“Mom.”
I hated the softness in her voice.
I didn’t want sympathy.
I wanted my old life back.
David took the list.
“This isn’t enough.”
Eric nodded.
“The drive is.”
“Where did it come from?”
Eric’s face tightened.
“Thomas.”
I stepped forward.
“He gave it to you?”
“No. He took it from Marcus.”
“When?”
“Five days ago.”
Claire frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if your father finally decided to burn Meridian down.”
I stared at Eric.
“You said Thomas set you up.”
“He did.”
“For what?”
Eric laughed weakly and immediately winced.
“For you to hate me.”
Claire’s face turned cold.
“You earned that yourself.”
“I know.”
No excuses.
Again, that unsettled me.
Eric looked at her.
“I was ordered to monitor you.”
“You hit me because somebody ordered you?”
“No.”
His answer came quickly.
“That was me.”
Claire’s eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t look away.
“I was angry. Afraid. Weak. I told myself I was controlling a problem.”
He swallowed.
“You were my wife.”
Claire whispered, “Don’t.”
“I’m not asking forgiveness.”
“Good.”
“I don’t deserve it.”
Something changed in the room.
Not redemption.
Accountability.
There is a difference.
Eric looked toward me.
“Thomas hired my firm because Marcus recommended us. Thomas didn’t know Marcus would assign me to Claire.”
“So that payment—”
“Legitimate contract.”
“Why did you tell Claire her father brought you into her life?”
“Because I wanted her isolated.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“I wanted her to believe nobody was safe.”
He looked ashamed.
“And because Marcus told me Thomas would sacrifice her if necessary.”
“Would he?”
Eric didn’t answer.
David did.
“I don’t know.”
That hurt most.
We finally had seventeen names.
But no one knew which belonged to traitors, which belonged to informants, and which were people Thomas had been watching.
A list without context was a weapon pointed in every direction.
“We need the USB,” David said.
I looked at him.
“It’s still at my house.”
Claire shook her head.
“Not anymore.”
“How do you know?”
“If the assault team searched the house, they found it.”
Eric whispered, “No.”
We turned.
“Blue drive?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Decoy.”
David crouched beside him.
“You’re sure?”
“Thomas used blue drives for false ledgers.”
Claire stared at him.
“Then where’s the real one?”
Eric smiled faintly.
“Ask your mother.”
Everyone looked at me.
“I don’t have another drive.”
Eric’s eyes moved toward my hand.
My wedding ring.
“What?”
He closed his eyes.
“Not everything that stores information looks like a USB.”
David’s gaze sharpened.
“Thomas gave Eleanor something.”
“The coin,” I said.
“No.”
I thought back through the last week.
Thomas had returned unexpectedly from a trip.
He had been distracted.
Quiet.
Then on Tuesday night, he brought me a bottle of wine.
Nothing unusual.
Except—
“He replaced my phone.”
David stepped closer.
“What?”
“I dropped mine in the kitchen. He said the screen had cracked. The next morning he handed me a new one.”
“Where is it?”
My stomach dropped.
“At home.”
Claire cursed.
Then I remembered.
“No.”
I reached inside my sweater.
I had taken it when I escaped.
I hadn’t realized it.
The phone was still tucked into the inner pocket of my cardigan.
David took it carefully.
He powered it off.
Removed the case.
Nothing.
Then Claire noticed a slightly raised edge inside the case lining.
David peeled it back.
A wafer-thin storage device was embedded beneath it.
Claire stared.
“Dad hid the ledger on Mom’s phone.”
I felt violated all over again.
“He turned me into a courier without telling me.”
David nodded grimly.
“Yes.”
A knock sounded from upstairs.
Everyone froze.
Then another.
David checked the camera.
This time there was no gunman.
No assault team.
Only a woman in a beige coat holding an umbrella.
I recognized her instantly.
Susan Vale.
Marcus’s wife.
My friend.
She stood in the rain and stared directly into the security camera.
Then she raised a handwritten sign.
ELEANOR, MARCUS KNOWS YOU HAVE THE LEDGER. THOMAS IS WITH HIM.
Below that:
DON’T CALL THE POLICE.
And one final line.
THEY HAVE DANIEL.
My brother.
I grabbed the table to steady myself.
Claire whispered, “It’s a trap.”
I knew that.
Of course it was.
But Susan reached into her pocket and held up a photograph.
Daniel sat tied to a chair.
Bruised.
Terrified.
Beside him stood my husband.
Thomas.
Alive.
Unrestrained.
May you like
Looking directly at the camera.
And holding a gun.
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