Chapter 3 - The Woman They Were Watching
Marco found Tessa’s sedan abandoned beside a wooded service road.
The driver’s door stood open.
Her phone lay on the pavement.
There was blood on the steering wheel.
Marco’s entire body went still.
Cal reached for the phone.
Marco caught his wrist.
“Don’t.”
Cal nodded.
Marco examined the ground.
Broken branches.
Mud.
A shoe impression.
Then movement came from behind the trees.
Marco drew his weapon.
“Marco?”
Tessa emerged holding a thick branch in both hands.
Her blouse was torn at one shoulder. Blood ran from a cut above her eyebrow.
Marco lowered the gun.
Tessa lowered the branch.
Cal looked between them.
“Nice weapon.”
“It was available.”
Marco crossed to her.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m irritated.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I noticed.”
He touched her chin gently, turning her face toward the light.
Tessa went quiet.
So did Marco.
His thumb stopped beneath the cut.
The moment lasted one second too long.
Tessa stepped back.
“One man followed me into the trees. He won’t be following anyone for a while.”
Cal raised an eyebrow.
“You killed him?”
“No. His knee and I had a disagreement.”
They found the attacker unconscious 30 yards away.
Marco’s men secured him.
In the SUV back to the estate, Tessa stared through the window.
Marco watched her reflection.
“Tell me about the van.”
“It started appearing 4 days ago.”
“Before you came to my house?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t mention it?”
“I thought it belonged to a client.”
“Which client?”
Tessa hesitated.
Marco caught it.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
She turned.
“My company was hired to assess your estate through an intermediary.”
“Cal hired you.”
“No.”
Cal frowned.
“I contacted her.”
“You contacted me after someone had already recommended my company to you.”
Cal’s face changed.
Marco looked at him.
“Who?”
Cal pulled out his phone.
“A private risk-management firm. Harrow Consulting.”
Tessa’s expression hardened.
“I’ve never worked with Harrow.”
The SUV became very quiet.
Marco called his office.
“Find everything on Harrow Consulting.”
Twenty minutes later, the answer came back.
The company existed.
On paper.
Its address belonged to an empty suite.
Its website was 6 months old.
Its executives were fabricated identities.
Someone had engineered Tessa’s arrival.
Marco looked across the library at her.
“You weren’t hired to test me.”
Tessa closed her laptop.
“We were introduced deliberately.”
“Why?”
“That’s what worries me.”
Cal entered carrying the attacker’s wallet.
“No identification.”
Marco inspected the contents.
Cash.
Disposable phone.
A small photograph.
He turned it over.
Tessa froze.
The picture showed her leaving her apartment.
On the back were 2 words.
Morgan first.
Marco looked at her.
“First before whom?”
Tessa didn’t answer.
He saw fear for the first time.
Not fear of him.
Fear of the photograph.
“Tessa.”
She stood.
“I need to leave.”
“No.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“Someone tried to take you.”
“Which is exactly why I’m not staying in the house they attacked.”
“You’re safer here.”
“You scored 6.”
Cal coughed.
Marco stared at her.
“Now?”
“Seven.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“I know.”
That silenced him.
Tessa looked down at the photograph.
“My father was a security engineer.”
Marco waited.
“Twenty years ago, he designed private systems for people with money and enemies. Banks. Executives. Government contractors.”
“What was his name?”
“Daniel Morgan.”
Cal went completely still.
Marco noticed.
“You know that name.”
Cal didn’t answer quickly enough.
“Cal.”
“Daniel Morgan designed the original security architecture for this estate.”
Tessa turned.
“What?”
Marco stared at Cal.
“The estate belonged to my father then.”
Tessa’s face drained of color.
“My father died 18 years ago.”
Marco knew that.
He also knew something else.
His own father had died the same year.
Same month.
Within 6 days.
Tessa slowly sat down.
“That can’t be coincidence.”
Marco looked at the photograph again.
Morgan first.
First.
Not only target.
A message arrived on Tessa’s laptop.
No sender.
No subject.
One sentence.
ASK MARCO WHAT HIS FATHER BURIED UNDER THE HOUSE.
Tessa looked up.
Marco didn’t move.
Because there was something beneath the Duca mansion.
May you like
Something his father had forbidden him from opening.
And until that moment, Marco had believed only 2 living people knew it existed.
