Chapter 4 - THE MAN OUTSIDE HER WINDOW|
We left the Grand Wellington through a secured exit.
Marcus had three vehicles waiting, two decoys and one armored SUV. Jenna sat beside me in the back seat, still holding the old bank record.
She hadn't spoken since we left the hotel.
I wanted to ask a dozen questions. Instead, I waited until the car was moving through the city before turning toward her.
"Tell me about the man outside your apartment."
She stared at the document.
"About a month ago, I noticed a dark sedan parked across the street. I thought it belonged to a neighbor. Then I saw the same man outside the building twice."
"Did you report it?"
"No. I thought I was being paranoid."
"Jenna."
"I know."
"You're allowed to be frightened. You're not allowed to dismiss your instincts when someone is stalking you."
She looked up.
"That's rich coming from a man who ignores every doctor's appointment his assistant schedules."
"This is not about my medical care."
"It is when you pretend you're invincible."
I exhaled slowly.
Even now, she could make me feel like an ordinary man who had forgotten to eat lunch.
"Why didn't you tell me Ryan was watching your apartment?"
"Because I didn't want to bring his problems into your life."
I stared at her.
"My life is a collection of problems."
"Exactly."
She looked away.
"I didn't want you to think I was weak."
I reached for her hand.
"Jenna, I have watched men with guns shake because I walked into a room. I've seen people betray their own families to save themselves. You think a woman asking for help is going to make me respect her less?"
Her eyes glistened.
"I don't know what you think of me."
The confession was so quiet that it nearly broke me.
"I think you're the bravest person I've ever met."
She looked at me as if she didn't know what to do with the words.
Then Marcus's voice came through the intercom.
"Boss, we're being followed."
I looked through the rear window.
A black sedan turned onto the same street.
"Change route."
The driver accelerated.
The sedan followed.
Jenna grabbed the seat.
"Is that them?"
"Probably."
"That's not reassuring."
"I'm trying something new. Honesty."
The driver took a sharp turn into an underground parking structure belonging to one of my hotels. Two security vehicles blocked the entrance behind us.
The sedan stopped outside.
No one emerged.
Marcus hurried down the ramp.
"Boss, we found something in the hotel room Ryan used."
He handed me a photograph taken from a security camera.
It showed Ryan entering the building three days earlier, carrying a leather briefcase.
Behind him was a man in a gray coat.
I recognized him.
Not personally, but from the files Marcus had shown me years ago.
A former associate of Victor Voss.
"Who is he?" Jenna asked.
"Someone who should be dead."
Marcus nodded.
"That's what makes this worse. The man was reported killed in a warehouse fire eleven years ago."
Jenna looked from the photograph to the bank record.
"My father died the same week."
I felt the pieces shifting, forming an outline too ugly to ignore.
The warehouse fire. My father's murder. Thomas Hart's car accident. Ryan's fabricated identity.
They weren't separate events.
Someone had arranged them.
"Get every record connected to Thomas Hart," I ordered Marcus. "Bank accounts, employment history, insurance, anything."
"Already started."
Jenna gripped the photograph.
"I need to go to my mother's house."
"No."
"My father kept old files there. She told me she never touched his study."
"Which means we need to search it with security."
"Then take me there."
I studied her face.
She wasn't asking me to rescue her.
She was asking me to stand beside her while she uncovered the truth.
"All right."
Marcus's phone rang.
He listened, then turned pale.
"Boss, we found the waiter."
"Where?"
"In an alley behind the hotel."
"Alive?"
Marcus hesitated.
"Yes. But someone carved a message into the wall above him."
I stared at him.
"What message?"
May you like
Marcus looked directly at Jenna.
ASK THE DAUGHTER WHAT HER FATHER STOLE.
