Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN SHE USED TO BE
Samantha considered the question.
“Tuesday.”
Alexander stared at her.
“It’s Friday.”
“I’m aware.”
“No, I mean actually sleep.”
“About three hours yesterday morning.”
“That’s insane.”
“That’s nursing.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
Tonight, Samantha lacked the energy to explain the difference.
She leaned her head against the window.
“Just have your driver drop me at West Eighty-Ninth.”
Alexander reached toward the intercom.
Then stopped.
The driver spoke first.
“Mr. Cole.”
Something in his voice changed the atmosphere.
Alexander straightened.
“What is it, Marcus?”
“A gray sedan has been behind us since the hospital.”
Samantha opened her eyes.
Alexander glanced through the rain-covered rear window.
“Security?”
“No.”
“How long?”
“Seven blocks.”
The tired nurse disappeared.
It happened so quickly Alexander almost wondered whether he had imagined her exhaustion.
Samantha sat upright.
“Don’t look back again.”
Alexander turned toward her.
“What?”
“You already confirmed you noticed them. Don’t give them another reason to think we’re worried.”
Marcus’s eyes appeared in the mirror.
He had heard her.
Samantha reached across Alexander and pressed the button lowering the privacy partition.
“Do you have security behind us?”
“One vehicle,” Marcus answered.
“Where?”
“Two cars back.”
“Call them.”
Alexander watched her.
“Why?”
She ignored him.
Marcus spoke into his headset.
Nothing.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Samantha’s expression hardened.
“Your security car isn’t answering.”
Alexander’s jaw tightened.
Marcus accelerated.
The gray sedan accelerated too.
Samantha looked through the side window instead of behind them, using reflections in storefront glass.
“Two men in front.”
“You can see that?”
“Reflection.”
Alexander stared at her.
The woman who had joked about respiratory therapy five minutes earlier was gone.
“Marcus,” Samantha said, “don’t go to Mr. Cole’s residence.”
Marcus looked toward Alexander.
Alexander nodded once.
“Listen to her.”
A traffic light turned red ahead.
Marcus slowed.
Samantha saw the sedan change lanes.
Her breathing changed.
“Run it.”
“What?”
“Run the light.”
A horn screamed as the SUV shot through the intersection.
The sedan followed.
Alexander reached into his jacket.
Samantha caught his wrist.
“Whatever you’re reaching for, don’t.”
His eyes dropped to her hand.
She released him.
“Sorry.”
“Why?”
“Because if this is what I think it is, they want you scared enough to make a mistake.”
“What do you think it is?”
Before she could answer, headlights appeared from a side street.
A delivery van surged into the intersection.
“Marcus!”
The SUV swerved.
Metal screamed.
The van clipped their rear quarter panel.
Alexander was thrown sideways.
Samantha caught the headrest and stayed upright.
The SUV spun halfway across the wet pavement before Marcus regained control.
“Everyone okay?”
“Yes,” Alexander said.
Samantha didn’t answer.
She was watching the van.
Its side door opened.
“Drive.”
Marcus punched the accelerator.
A man stepped out.
Samantha saw something in his hand.
Not a gun.
A phone.
He photographed the SUV.
Then the van turned away.
The gray sedan did the same.
Within seconds, both vehicles disappeared into Manhattan traffic.
Silence filled the SUV.
Alexander looked at Samantha.
She was pale now.
Not frightened.
Recognizing.
“You knew,” he said.
She looked at him.
“Knew what?”
“That wasn’t random.”
“No.”
“How?”
Samantha slowly sat back.
“Because they weren’t trying to kill you.”
Marcus looked into the mirror.
Alexander’s voice dropped.
“Then what were they doing?”
“Testing your security.”
Alexander said nothing.
Samantha rubbed both hands over her face.
“I need coffee.”
“You need to explain how an emergency-room nurse knows that.”
“No.”
“Samantha.”
Her eyes snapped toward him.
It was the first time he had used her first name.
“You don’t get to interrogate me because I accidentally entered your vehicle.”
“Someone just staged a collision around my car.”
“Then call the police.”
“I will.”
“Good.”
“And you recognized it before my security team did.”
“That’s their problem.”
Alexander studied her scars again.
The eyebrow.
The palm.
Small details suddenly became questions.
“What were you before St. Catherine?”
Samantha became very still.
“A nurse.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“It’s my answer.”
Marcus interrupted.
“Sir, we have another problem.”
Alexander’s phone vibrated.
A notification filled the screen.
He opened it.
A photograph had already been uploaded to a financial gossip account.
Alexander Cole leaving St. Catherine Medical Center with mystery woman.
The picture showed Samantha climbing into his SUV.
Her face was unmistakable.
Alexander swore.
Samantha stared.
“That was fast.”
“Too fast.”
The image had been posted less than two minutes after the collision.
Then another notification arrived.
This one was not public.
It came from Alexander’s chief financial officer, Jonathan Pierce.
CALL ME NOW.
Alexander pressed the number.
Jonathan answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“In the car.”
“Alone?”
Alexander looked at Samantha.
“No.”
A pause.
“Get somewhere secure.”
“Why?”
“The Harbor Renewal transfer.”
Alexander’s expression changed.
“What about it?”
“Someone moved forty-eight million dollars.”
Marcus looked back.
Alexander sat forward.
“That’s impossible.”
“It happened six minutes ago.”
“To where?”
“We’re tracing it.”
“Freeze everything.”
“We tried.”
Another pause.
Jonathan’s next words came quietly.
“The authorization came from your credentials.”
Alexander’s face emptied.
Samantha watched him.
“What?”
He lowered the phone.
“Forty-eight million dollars was just stolen from my company.”
Samantha frowned.
“And somebody used your identity?”
“Yes.”
She looked toward the street.
Then toward the phone.
Then toward the wet windows.
“Your security gets tested at the exact moment someone moves forty-eight million dollars?”
Alexander understood.
“They wanted everyone watching the car.”
“And they wanted proof of where you were.”
The photograph.
A timestamped public photograph establishing Alexander was nowhere near his office when the transfer occurred.
Not merely theft.
A setup.
His phone rang again.
This time, Marcus answered his own line.
His face changed.
“Say that again.”
Samantha looked at him.
Marcus turned toward Alexander.
“Sir, your head of cybersecurity collapsed at headquarters.”
Alexander froze.
“What?”
“Possible poisoning. Ambulance is en route.”
Samantha’s eyes sharpened.
“Symptoms?”
Marcus listened.
“Vomiting. Confusion. Trouble breathing.”
“How long after eating?”
Marcus relayed the question.
“Twenty minutes.”
Samantha was already reaching for her hospital phone.
“Tell them not to throw away anything he ate or drank.”
Alexander stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because if your money disappeared at the same time your cybersecurity chief suddenly became critically ill, I’d stop calling tonight a coincidence.”
She dialed St. Catherine.
Then stopped.
Her phone showed a message.
No sender name.
Only six words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN THE HOSPITAL.
Samantha’s face went white.
Alexander saw it.
“What?”
She locked the screen.
“Nothing.”
“Samantha.”
“Take me home.”
His eyes narrowed.
“What did you receive?”
“Take me home.”
Alexander held out his hand.
“Show me.”
“No.”
Then another message appeared.
This time there was a photograph attached.
Samantha opened it.
And stopped breathing.
It was a picture of her apartment door.
Taken from inside the hallway.
Beneath it were four words.
WE REMEMBER WHO YOU WERE.
Alexander saw enough to understand.
He looked at her.
“What exactly did you do before you became a nurse?”
For several seconds, Samantha said nothing.
Then she looked toward Marcus.
“Change of plan.”
“Where?”
She swallowed.
May you like
“Anywhere except my apartment.”
And for the first time that night, Alexander realized the person in danger might not be him.
