Chapter 4 - The First Betrayal
Rebecca moved fast.
“Basement. Now.”
Claire grabbed her coat.
Thomas blocked the kitchen doorway long enough to look through the glass.
Four men approached the front entrance.
Two circled toward the rear.
“They knew exactly where to come,” Rebecca said.
Thomas’s face hardened.
“Someone followed me.”
Claire stared at him.
“You led them here?”
“Not intentionally.”
“That won’t matter if they kill us.”
Rebecca opened a narrow basement door.
“Go.”
Claire descended carefully, one hand gripping the railing, the other protecting her stomach.
The basement was unfinished except for shelves, a furnace, and an old exterior hatch.
Rebecca pushed a key into the lock.
Above them, glass shattered.
Claire flinched.
Thomas remained upstairs.
“What about him?”
“He bought us seconds. Use them.”
They emerged behind the house.
Snow reached Claire’s ankles.
Rebecca guided her toward a wooded slope.
Then a gunshot cracked behind them.
Claire stopped.
“Thomas—”
“Move!”
A second shot.
Then shouting.
Claire forced herself forward.
Her lungs burned.
Her abdomen tightened.
Not labor.
Please not labor.
They reached a narrow road where another vehicle waited.
Rebecca shoved open the passenger door.
A familiar man sat behind the wheel.
Claire recoiled.
Marco Bellini.
One of Adrian’s men.
“Get in.”
“No.”
“Claire, we have thirty seconds.”
“You work for Adrian.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because he told me to find you before Miles did.”
Another shot echoed.
Rebecca climbed into the back.
Claire had no better option.
She entered.
Marco accelerated.
Five minutes later, his phone rang.
Adrian.
Marco put it on speaker.
“I have her.”
Claire stared at him.
Adrian’s voice filled the car.
“Claire?”
She said nothing.
“Claire.”
“I’m here.”
The relief in his exhale made her furious.
“You need to come home.”
She laughed once.
It was not a happy sound.
“Home?”
“Miles is compromised.”
“I knew that eight months ago.”
Silence.
Marco glanced at her.
Adrian spoke more quietly.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Claire looked out at the snow.
“Would you have believed me?”
“Yes.”
“No, Adrian. You would have asked Miles whether Miles was betraying you.”
He had no answer.
“You trusted him more than you trusted me.”
“Claire—”
“You proposed to your mistress in our house.”
Marco looked determinedly through the windshield.
Rebecca almost appeared uncomfortable.
Adrian’s voice changed.
“I was wrong.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Three words.
Once, she would have given anything to hear them.
Now they were painfully insufficient.
“Your father may have been shot because of this.”
“What?”
“He found us. Miles’s men followed him.”
Adrian swore.
“I’m sending a team.”
“No.”
“Claire—”
“No more teams. No more armed men. No more pretending your power makes people safe.”
“Where are you going?”
“Somewhere you don’t know.”
“Claire, listen to me.”
She disconnected the call.
Marco raised an eyebrow.
“You know he’s going to hate me for letting you do that.”
“You survived nine years working for him.”
“Barely.”
Rebecca’s phone rang.
She listened for twenty seconds.
Then looked at Claire.
“Thomas is alive.”
Claire released a breath.
“Gunshot wound to the shoulder. His driver got him out.”
Marco nodded.
“Good.”
Rebecca did not look relieved.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The safe house was confidential. Thomas knowing its location explains how he arrived. It doesn’t explain how Miles’s people found him so quickly.”
Marco looked in the mirror.
“You think someone inside your organization leaked it.”
“Yes.”
Claire felt trapped again.
Every refuge had a door someone else could unlock.
Marco turned onto the interstate.
“I know somewhere.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No Cole property.”
“It isn’t.”
“Whose?”
“My mother’s.”
Claire looked at him.
Marco shrugged.
“She’s seventy-four, makes lasagna on Sundays, and believes Adrian works in commercial real estate.”
Despite everything, Claire almost laughed.
“Does she have armed security?”
“She has three Chihuahuas.”
Rebecca considered it.
“Perfect.”
They disappeared toward a small town near the Massachusetts border.
Back in Greenwich, Adrian stood in his study with Miles Carter across from him.
He had not told Miles that Claire had been found.
“She took the ledger,” Adrian said.
Miles’s expression remained neutral.
“That’s unfortunate.”
“Is it?”
“Obviously.”
Adrian poured two glasses of bourbon.
He handed one to Miles.
Miles accepted it.
Adrian watched his oldest lieutenant carefully.
“You know what I keep wondering?”
“What?”
“Why Claire took that specific book.”
Miles drank.
“She probably grabbed whatever looked important.”
“My wife was a senior forensic analyst at Halpern Capital before we married.”
Miles said nothing.
“She doesn’t grab random things.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“So either Claire discovered something…”
He paused.
“…or somebody told her.”
Miles’s jaw tightened almost invisibly.
Adrian saw it.
Then his phone vibrated.
A message from Marco.
THOMAS ALIVE.
CLAIRE SAFE.
Adrian put the phone away without looking relieved.
Miles set down his glass.
“I can find her.”
“I know.”
“Then let me.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
That was when Miles knew.
Not everything.
But enough.
“You don’t trust me anymore,” Miles said.
Adrian’s smile disappeared.
“I trust evidence.”
Miles reached inside his jacket.
Adrian’s hand moved toward his own weapon.
But Miles pulled out a phone instead.
He placed it on the desk.
A photograph filled the screen.
Brooke.
She was sitting inside a car.
Beside her was Claire.
Adrian stared.
The image was dated three months earlier.
“What is this?”
Miles spoke calmly.
“Your wife and your mistress have been meeting behind your back.”
Adrian looked at him.
“And if you want to know why Claire really disappeared…”
Miles tapped the next photograph.
May you like
It showed Brooke handing Claire a folder.
“…you should ask the woman you proposed to.”
