Chapter 4 - The Man From Mina's Past
His name was Daniel Reeves.
At least, that was the name Mina knew.
Eight years earlier, he had been her older brother's best friend.
Three months before her brother died, Daniel disappeared.
Police told Mina he'd probably fled the country.
She had believed them.
Now Daniel was standing inside Alfred Costello's bedroom beside Marino.
Alfred watched her study the frozen security image.
“Tell me everything.”
So she did.
Her brother, Owen, had worked as a junior accountant for a Boston import company. He had started noticing unusual transfers. Containers arrived with mismatched weights. Payments were routed through construction firms that existed only on paper.
Owen became frightened.
Then obsessed.
“He told me he'd found something big,” Mina said.
“What company?”
She hesitated.
“Costello Maritime.”
Alfred went still.
“My company?”
“Your father's company then.”
“And Owen?”
“He died in a car accident.”
Alfred understood immediately.
“You don't believe it was an accident.”
“No.”
“Why did you come work for me?”
Mina looked at him.
“Because six years after Owen died, I saw one of the account numbers from his notebook on a Costello tax filing.”
Alfred stood.
Everything rearranged itself.
Four years.
She had worked beside him for four years partly because she'd been investigating his family.
“Did you ever love me?”
Mina flinched.
“Don't do that.”
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
“Was that part of your investigation?”
“No.”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“Because falling in love with you ruined my plan!”
The answer silenced him.
Mina rose from the examination table.
“I was supposed to stay invisible. Find out what happened to Owen. Copy the evidence and leave.”
“But you stayed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She stared at him.
“You know why.”
Alfred looked away.
For all his anger, the answer hurt.
She had stayed because of him.
And eventually she had run because of him too.
Lev entered.
“Boss, Marino's gone.”
Alfred turned.
“Gone where?”
“House empty. Phones dead. Two of his men disappeared.”
“Daniel?”
“Nothing.”
Alfred picked up his jacket.
Mina stepped in front of him.
“No.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“You don't get to tell me no right now.”
“That's exactly the problem. You hear danger and become the man everyone fears.”
“That man keeps people alive.”
“That man is why I was leaving.”
He stared at her.
Then Mina said the one thing nobody in Alfred's organization would have dared say.
“If you want to be this baby's father, start acting like one instead of acting like a boss.”
Lev suddenly became interested in the floor.
Alfred's jaw flexed.
“What exactly does that mean?”
“It means don't walk into whatever trap Marino prepared because you're angry.”
Alfred considered her words.
Then he looked at Lev.
“Call Bennett. Lock every account Marino can access. Nobody moves without authorization.”
Lev nodded.
“And Daniel Reeves?”
“Find him.”
Mina exhaled.
Alfred looked at her.
“Happy?”
“No.”
“Good. Neither am I.”
Despite everything, she nearly smiled.
That night, Alfred moved her to a townhouse nobody in the organization knew he owned.
No guards inside.
No cameras in the bedroom.
He slept downstairs.
Mina discovered that only because she woke at two in the morning and found him sitting on the floor outside her door.
“You have a couch,” she said.
“I know.”
“Then why are you sitting there?”
“Because somebody tried to take you today.”
His voice contained none of the authority she knew.
Only fear.
Mina sat opposite him.
For several minutes they said nothing.
Then Alfred asked, “Boy or girl?”
“I don't know.”
“Do you want to know?”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
Another silence.
“Were you really going to leave forever?”
“Yes.”
“Would you have told our child about me?”
Mina swallowed.
“Eventually.”
“What would you have said?”
“That his father was complicated.”
“His?”
“Or her.”
Alfred almost smiled.
Then Mina's phone rang.
Unknown number.
They both stared at it.
Alfred reached for the phone.
Mina answered first.
“Hello?”
A man's voice.
“Mina?”
Her blood froze.
She knew that voice.
“Daniel?”
Alfred was instantly alert.
Daniel whispered, “You need to get away from Costello.”
Mina looked at Alfred.
“Why?”
“Because Marino isn't the one who killed Owen.”
Her fingers tightened around the phone.
“Who did?”
A pause.
Then Daniel said:
“Alfred's father ordered it.”
Mina looked directly into Alfred's eyes.
May you like
“And Alfred was there.”
The line went dead.
