Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Hannah didn't scream.
Her nursing instincts took over before fear could.
She turned off the lights.
Moved silently into the bedroom.
Locked the door.
Then called 911.
The apartment door opened downstairs.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Hannah pressed herself against the wall.
She had no weapon.
No security system.
No neighbor she trusted enough to call.
Then another sound came.
A car stopping outside.
Doors opened.
Several men's voices echoed from the street.
The footsteps inside the apartment stopped.
A moment later, the front door slammed.
Hannah waited.
Thirty seconds.
A minute.
Two.
She finally looked through the blinds.
A black sedan sat beneath the streetlamp.
She recognized the man standing beside it.
Marco Bell.
Damen's driver.
He looked up directly at her window.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Hannah answered without speaking.
“Ms. Brooks.”
Damen.
Her heartbeat jumped.
“How did you get my number?”
“That isn't important.”
“It is to me.”
“You received a photograph.”
Hannah looked at the picture on her bed.
“How do you know?”
“Because someone wanted you to find it.”
“Who?”
“I don't know yet.”
“Then why are you calling me?”
Silence.
Then Damen said something that changed the room.
“Because Sophia Moretti wasn't the woman you think she was.”
Hannah's fingers tightened around the phone.
“What does that mean?”
“It means she was investigating something before she died.”
“What?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
“Then why tell me?”
“Because your sister's name appears in the same investigation.”
Hannah stopped.
“My sister?”
“Yes.”
Emily Brooks.
Six years dead.
Damen continued.
“Your sister worked at a private medical research company.”
Hannah swallowed.
“That was never connected to Sophia.”
“They weren't supposed to be connected.”
“Who killed Sophia?”
Damen didn't answer.
Hannah's voice hardened.
“Who?”
“My father believed she was killed by an organization called Black Meridian.”
She stared at the photograph.
“What is Black Meridian?”
“A network.”
“Criminal?”
“Yes.”
“Why would my sister be involved?”
“That is what we're trying to discover.”
Hannah laughed bitterly.
“Who is we?”
“Myself.”
She almost hung up.
Then Damen said:
“And someone who has been protecting your sister's secrets for six years.”
Hannah went still.
“Who?”
The line went dead.
The next morning, Hannah returned to West Haven.
She tried to behave normally.
It lasted fourteen minutes.
Her supervisor, Mrs. Alvarez, approached her.
“Someone left this for you.”
An envelope.
No return address.
Inside was a hospital bracelet.
Hannah recognized it immediately.
She had seen it before.
At her sister's funeral.
The bracelet carried Emily's name.
EMILY BROOKS — ROOM 714
Hannah's hands began shaking.
There was another photograph.
Emily walking into a building.
Behind her was a man Hannah didn't recognize.
A tall man wearing a gray coat.
On the back:
ASK WHO PAID FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS.
Hannah couldn't breathe.
Her sister had died without life insurance.
Without savings.
Without assets.
Yet somehow, every month for six years, Hannah had received a mysterious payment covering Emily's remaining student debt.
She had always assumed it came from a legal settlement.
Maybe it hadn't.
That afternoon, Hannah went to the hospital where Emily had died.
The records office was reluctant to help.
“Those files are archived.”
“I’m her sister.”
“I'm sorry.”
Hannah placed the photograph on the counter.
“Who was the man standing beside her?”
The clerk looked at it.
His expression changed.
“I've never seen him.”
“You're lying.”
The clerk glanced toward the hallway.
Then lowered his voice.
“Room 714 wasn't a normal patient room.”
“What does that mean?”
“Your sister wasn't supposed to be there.”
“Where was she supposed to be?”
“Transferred to another facility.”
“Which one?”
The clerk looked frightened.
“Ma'am, you should leave.”
A shadow appeared behind Hannah.
She turned.
Damen stood at the end of the hallway.
Black suit.
Gray eyes.
Expression unreadable.
“You shouldn't have come alone,” he said.
Hannah walked toward him.
“You knew this would happen.”
“I suspected.”
“My sister was murdered.”
Damen's jaw tightened.
“I believe so.”
“And you knew.”
“I knew there were questions.”
“You knew she was connected to your sister.”
“Yes.”
“You knew someone was watching me.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't know whether you were part of it.”
Hannah stared at him.
The answer hurt.
“You thought I was working for the people who killed your sister?”
“I didn't know.”
“And now?”
Damen looked at her.
“Now I'm beginning to think you were another victim.”
Before Hannah could respond, the lights flickered.
A gunshot echoed somewhere outside.
People screamed.
Damen grabbed Hannah's hand.
“Down.”
They dropped behind a concrete pillar.
Another shot shattered a window.
Damen pulled her closer.
His body shielded hers.
Hannah heard Marco shouting.
Then footsteps.
Then silence.
Damen looked at her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“You said my sister was investigating something.”
“She was.”
“What?”
Damen's eyes hardened.
“A list.”
“What list?”
“Names.”
“Whose names?”
“People who were paying to make patients disappear from hospitals.”
Hannah stared at him.
She suddenly remembered Emily's final conversation.
Six years earlier.
Emily had called her at two in the morning.
Her voice had sounded terrified.
She had said:
“Han, if anything happens to me, don't trust the people wearing white coats.”
Hannah had forgotten those words.
Until now.
And somewhere inside Damen's coat, his phone vibrated.
He read the message.
His expression changed.
Marco approached.
“What is it?”
Damen handed him the phone.
Marco's face went pale.
Hannah saw the screen.
A single photograph.
Hannah entering the hospital.
Taken five minutes earlier.
Underneath it were five words.
SHE IS NEXT, MORETTI.
Damen slowly looked at Hannah.
The distance between them disappeared.
“You're coming with me.”
Hannah shook her head.
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because every person who gets close to you seems to die.”
May you like
For the first time, something vulnerable crossed Damen's face.
“That's exactly why I need to keep you alive.”
