Chapter 3 - THE PHOTOGRAPH
Caprice knew something had changed before Diamond said a word.
For six weeks, he had watched her with irritation, curiosity, and occasionally something softer he clearly hated himself for feeling.
Tonight his eyes were ice.
She entered the study carrying fresh coffee.
"Put it down."
She did.
Diamond tossed the photograph onto his desk.
"Know him?"
Caprice looked.
Her face changed.
Diamond saw it.
"Yes."
"Who?"
"My father."
The room went silent.
Diamond had prepared for lies.
That answer was worse.
"Thomas Thompson."
Caprice nodded.
Diamond rolled closer.
"He worked for me."
"I know."
"He disappeared the night I was shot."
"I know."
"Interesting collection of things you know."
Caprice swallowed.
Diamond's voice became quieter.
"Did you come into my house because of him?"
"No."
"Wrong answer."
"It's the truth."
Diamond slammed his fist against the desk.
"Your father delivered my route to the sniper."
Caprice flinched for the first time since Diamond had known her.
Not from fear.
From anger.
"You don't know that."
"He vanished."
"He died."
Diamond stopped.
Caprice's eyes filled, but she refused to let the tears fall.
"Three days after you were shot."
"That's impossible."
"I identified his body."
Diamond stared at her.
Caprice reached into her apron, removed her phone, and opened an old photograph.
Thomas Thompson lay in a hospital bed.
Bruised.
Bandaged.
Barely recognizable.
A timestamp sat in the corner.
Three days after the ambush.
"My father didn't betray you," Caprice said.
Diamond looked at the screen.
"Where was this?"
"Saint Joseph's."
"Why wasn't I told?"
"Because whoever brought him there used a fake name."
She took back the phone.
"He lived fourteen hours."
"What did he say?"
Caprice's jaw trembled.
"Almost nothing. His lungs were damaged."
She turned away.
"He kept repeating one sentence."
Diamond waited.
Caprice looked back.
"'Tell Kelly the wolf is already inside.'"
The silence that followed felt alive.
Diamond's mind moved backward through two years of rage.
The ambush.
Thomas disappearing.
Security routes compromised.
Victor Hale blamed.
War started.
Bodies accumulated.
And all along—
The wolf is already inside.
Diamond looked toward the door.
"Levi."
His second-in-command entered seconds later.
Diamond gave him the phone.
"Verify everything."
Caprice stared at him.
"You investigated me?"
"Of course."
"After I scrubbed your floors for weeks?"
"Especially after you scrubbed my floors for weeks."
Her expression hardened.
"I quit."
She turned.
"Caprice."
She kept walking.
Diamond accelerated the chair and blocked the doorway.
"Move."
"No."
"You're not my jailer."
"And you're not leaving until I know whether someone deliberately put you here."
Her face changed.
"What?"
Diamond explained the debt.
The shell company.
Victor Hale.
Caprice's anger slowly became confusion.
"I applied through an agency."
"Which agency?"
"Northbridge Domestic."
Levi spoke from behind them.
"Northbridge doesn't exist anymore. Closed eleven months ago."
Caprice turned pale.
Diamond saw the realization.
Someone had wanted her inside his house.
But why?
A crash sounded downstairs.
Then gunfire.
One shot.
Two.
Three.
Levi drew his weapon.
"Security breach."
The lights died.
Darkness swallowed the east wing.
Caprice stopped breathing.
Diamond reached for the pistol mounted beneath his chair.
"Behind me."
"Diamond—"
"Behind me."
For once, she obeyed.
Footsteps thundered downstairs.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Levi moved toward the stairwell.
Diamond caught his arm.
"No. They're expecting us to defend the main stairs."
Another shot echoed.
Diamond looked toward Caprice.
"Service corridor?"
She blinked.
"What?"
"You clean this place. Fastest route downstairs."
Caprice understood immediately.
"Laundry chute corridor. It connects behind the pantry."
Diamond almost laughed at the absurdity.
His expensive security team knew tactical maps.
His maid knew the house.
Tonight the maid mattered more.
They moved.
Caprice led them through the narrow service hall.
Halfway down, Diamond's chair stopped.
The motor died.
He looked at the controls.
"Battery line's been cut."
Caprice stared.
"Cut?"
Someone had sabotaged it before the attack.
Levi looked toward Diamond.
The wolf was not merely inside.
The wolf had been close enough to touch his wheelchair.
Caprice grabbed the manual release.
"What are you doing?"
"Pushing."
"You can't push this thing."
"Watch me."
She leaned forward.
The chair moved.
Slowly.
Diamond looked over his shoulder.
Caprice's face strained with effort.
"You're insane."
"I'm underpaid."
Even now.
Even here.
Diamond felt the impossible urge to smile.
Then a man stepped from the darkness.
Gun raised.
Caprice saw him first.
She shoved Diamond's wheelchair sideways.
The shot exploded.
Wood splintered beside Diamond's head.
Levi fired back.
The attacker collapsed.
Caprice stood frozen.
Diamond grabbed her wrist.
"You hit?"
She shook her head.
His hand remained around her wrist longer than necessary.
Then Diamond noticed the attacker's face.
He knew him.
"Levi."
Levi crouched.
His expression darkened.
The dead man was one of their own guards.
Diamond looked toward the house.
Thomas Thompson's dying warning suddenly had teeth.
May you like
The wolf was inside.
And whoever it was had been waiting two years to finish the job.
