Chapter 2 - The File With My Name on It
I stared at the folder for several seconds.
Nobody spoke.
Gabriel stood beside the door.
Declan had crossed his arms.
Roman remained closest to the bed, one hand resting beside the folder as though he had just placed evidence in front of a suspect.
I looked from him to Gabriel.
“Twelve thousand six hundred and seventeen dollars,” I repeated.
Gabriel's usual smile was gone.
“That is your current unsecured debt.”
My stomach tightened.
“You ran my credit?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
Roman answered.
“We ran you.”
I laughed once because the alternative was throwing something.
“You ran me.”
“You entered my house,” Roman said calmly.
“I came here to wash your sheets, Roman. Not marry into the family.”
Gabriel looked down, hiding the beginning of a smile.
Declan did not bother.
Roman ignored both of them.
“Open the folder.”
“No.”
Something passed across his face.
It might have been surprise.
Apparently nobody told Roman Falcone no very often.
“I wasn't asking.”
“And I'm not opening a creepy background file three strange men compiled on me while standing in a bedroom where I sleep.”
Declan lifted an eyebrow.
“You called us strange.”
“I was being polite.”
Gabriel actually laughed.
Roman turned his head slightly.
“Enough.”
The room fell quiet.
Then he opened the folder himself.
The first page had my photograph.
Not the terrible agency photograph taken three weeks earlier.
My driver's license photo.
Underneath it was my address, employment history, unpaid medical accounts, landlord's name, Chloe's hospital information, my high school graduation date, the used Honda I had owned before its transmission died, even the name of the grocery store where I had worked when I was sixteen.
My skin went cold.
“What the hell is this?”
“Security,” Roman said.
“This isn't security. This is stalking.”
“We investigate everyone who works inside this house.”
“Did you investigate the chef who disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“The valet?”
“Yes.”
“Mrs. Hess?”
Roman's eyes paused on mine.
“Yes.”
That pause bothered me.
I looked back at the pages.
Then I saw something highlighted in yellow.
RED HARBOR RECOVERY SERVICES.
I knew that name.
“They own Chloe's hospital debt.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Some of it.”
“So?”
Roman turned another page toward me.
A payment record.
My eyes moved across the numbers.
Then stopped.
Two weeks before I had applied to the staffing agency, Red Harbor Recovery Services had transferred twenty thousand dollars to a consulting company.
That consulting company had transferred six thousand dollars to the staffing agency that placed me at Falcone House.
I frowned.
“I don't understand.”
“You weren't randomly assigned here,” Roman said.
My heartbeat changed.
“What?”
“The agency received money to make sure you were offered this position.”
I looked at him.
“That makes no sense.”
“We agree.”
“I'd never even heard your name before the agency called.”
Declan made a skeptical sound.
I turned on him.
“You think I'm lying?”
“I think everybody lies.”
“Well, congratulations. That must make Thanksgiving fun.”
His jaw flexed.
Roman continued before Declan could answer.
“Three people applied for this position ahead of you. Two had better experience. One had worked for a foreign ambassador. All three applications were quietly rejected.”
“Why?”
“That is what we're trying to determine.”
I glanced toward the folder again.
My fear was slowly becoming anger.
“You knew this when I arrived?”
“No,” Gabriel said. “We discovered the agency payment this morning.”
“After you looked into my debt?”
“After your name triggered something in an old financial database.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
He and Roman exchanged a look.
I hated that look immediately.
“What?”
Roman closed the folder.
“Carter.”
“My last name?”
“Yes.”
“There are probably fifty thousand Carters.”
“Not connected to Red Harbor.”
I stepped closer.
“Stop speaking in riddles.”
Roman watched me.
For the first time since I had met him, I saw something beneath the control.
Not anger.
Concern.
“Eight years ago,” he said, “our father commissioned an internal investigation into money disappearing from several Falcone companies. One of the names connected to that investigation was Carter.”
I swallowed.
“My father was a mechanic.”
“What was his name?”
“Daniel Carter.”
Gabriel's expression changed.
Roman looked at him.
Gabriel moved immediately, pulling out his phone.
“What?” I demanded.
Nobody answered.
“What's wrong with my father's name?”
Gabriel tapped the screen several times.
Then his face lost all remaining amusement.
“Roman.”
Declan pushed away from the wall.
“What?”
Gabriel held out the phone.
Roman read whatever was displayed.
His entire body seemed to become still.
That frightened me more than Declan's temper ever had.
“Tell me.”
Roman looked at me.
“Daniel Carter isn't in the file.”
“Then why are you acting like that?”
“Because Daniel Carter had a wife.”
I froze.
“My mother?”
“What was her name?”
“Nora.”
Gabriel whispered something under his breath.
Declan walked toward the window.
I suddenly felt as if the walls were moving closer.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
“How?” Roman asked.
“A car accident.”
“Where?”
“Providence.”
“When?”
I gave him the date.
Roman's expression hardened.
Gabriel sat slowly on the edge of the desk.
Declan swore.
I looked between them.
“What aren't you telling me?”
Roman opened the folder again.
He removed a photocopied page that had been buried near the back.
At the top were the words:
FALCONE FOUNDATION — INTERNAL ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT.
Halfway down a list of names was one I recognized.
NORA CARTER.
For several seconds, I could not breathe.
“No.”
Roman said nothing.
“My mother was a hotel bookkeeper.”
“According to this,” Gabriel said carefully, “she worked for our family's charitable foundation for almost four years.”
“No.”
I grabbed the page.
“She would have told us.”
“Maybe she couldn't,” Roman said.
I looked up sharply.
“Why?”
He didn't answer.
That was when my phone rang.
The sound made all four of us jump.
I pulled it from my pocket.
CHLOE.
I answered immediately.
“Hey.”
My sister's breathing came through the line.
Fast.
Uneven.
“Maeve?”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“What happened?”
“Are you at work?”
“Yes.”
“Are those people with you?”
I looked at the brothers.
“What people?”
“The Falcones.”
Roman took one step closer.
“Chloe, where are you?”
“At the hospital.”
“Why are you whispering?”
There was a pause.
Then she said, “Because a man has been sitting outside my room for almost an hour.”
My blood went cold.
Roman held out his hand.
I ignored him.
“What man?”
“I don't know. He asked Nurse Erin if I was your sister.”
Declan was already reaching for his phone.
I put Chloe on speaker.
Roman's voice changed completely.
“Chloe, this is Roman Falcone.”
Silence.
Then my sister whispered, “That's not comforting.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
Roman didn't.
“Is your door locked?”
“Yes.”
“Do not open it.”
Declan walked out while speaking rapidly into his phone.
Roman continued.
“Can you see the man?”
“Not anymore.”
My heart stopped.
“What do you mean not anymore?”
“He left about thirty seconds ago.”
Roman looked at Gabriel.
“Have security pull exterior cameras.”
Gabriel nodded and left.
I gripped the phone.
“Chloe, listen to me. Declan is sending people to you.”
“Declan?”
“One of the brothers.”
“The scary one?”
From the hallway, Declan shouted, “I heard that.”
Despite everything, Chloe gave a tiny nervous laugh.
Then a noise sounded through the phone.
Her door handle moved.
Chloe stopped breathing.
So did I.
“Chloe?”
Someone knocked.
Three slow knocks.
“Miss Carter?” a man's voice said.
She whispered, “That's him.”
Roman took my phone gently but firmly.
“Chloe, move into the bathroom and lock that door too.”
“I can't move that fast.”
“Then don't speak. Just listen.”
The knocking came again.
“Miss Carter, hospital administration.”
Roman's mouth became a thin line.
“Hospital administration doesn't knock on patient rooms after visiting hours without a nurse.”
The handle shook harder.
“Open the door, Chloe.”
She whimpered.
I moved toward the hallway.
Roman caught my wrist.
“Where are you going?”
“To her.”
“You won't get there before Declan.”
“I don't care.”
“You will if you walk into whoever arranged this.”
I pulled against him.
“Let go.”
His grip loosened immediately.
But his voice remained firm.
“Maeve, think.”
I hated that he was right.
I hated even more that Chloe was alone.
Then someone shouted through the phone.
A crash followed.
Chloe screamed.
“CHLOE!”
The line went dead.
I don't remember moving.
One second I was beside Roman.
The next I was halfway down the stairs.
Roman caught up in the foyer.
“Declan is six minutes away.”
“She doesn't have six minutes!”
Gabriel appeared from the security room.
“He does.”
We stopped.
Gabriel turned his laptop toward us.
Hospital footage filled the screen.
A black SUV had pulled into the parking garage.
A man wearing a dark coat stepped from an elevator.
Then another camera showed two large men coming through the opposite stairwell.
Declan's security team.
Gabriel switched cameras.
The door to Chloe's hospital room burst open from the inside.
A man ran into the hallway.
Declan came around the corner.
The footage had no audio.
It didn't need any.
Declan hit the man once.
The stranger collapsed.
Chloe appeared in the doorway behind him, pale and terrified but alive.
My knees nearly failed.
Roman's hand touched my back.
Only for a second.
It was the first gentle thing I had seen him do.
Gabriel enlarged the image of the unconscious man.
His expression changed.
Roman noticed.
“You know him.”
Gabriel nodded.
“His name is Martin Vale.”
“Red Harbor?” Roman asked.
“Former Red Harbor.”
“Former?”
“He left their payroll eleven months ago.”
“For whom?”
Gabriel looked up.
“We don't know.”
Roman's phone rang.
Declan.
He answered.
“Talk.”
Declan's voice came through faintly.
“Chloe's safe. I'm bringing her to the house.”
I closed my eyes.
“Thank God.”
“But there's something else.”
Roman's gaze sharpened.
“What?”
“The guy had a photograph of Maeve.”
My eyes opened.
Declan continued.
“Taken today.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Roman asked, “Where?”
“Falcone House.”
A cold weight settled in my stomach.
Declan's next words made it worse.
“Someone photographed her through an upstairs window.”
Roman looked toward the ceiling.
That evening, Falcone House went into lockdown.
Nobody entered.
Nobody left.
Chloe was brought in through the underground garage just after ten.
I nearly knocked over two armed guards reaching her.
She hugged me so hard it hurt.
I didn't care.
Declan stood behind her with a split knuckle.
For once, I didn't have anything sarcastic to say.
“Thank you.”
His expression became uncomfortable.
“Don't make a thing out of it.”
“I wasn't planning a parade.”
“Good.”
Gabriel found Chloe a room beside mine.
Roman doubled security.
Mrs. Hess complained about strangers being brought into the residence until Roman looked at her once and she stopped talking.
At midnight, I finally convinced Chloe to sleep.
I walked back to my room.
My door was open.
I knew I had closed it.
I stood still.
Then turned on the light.
My mattress had been cut open.
My clothes were scattered across the floor.
The folder Roman had given me was gone.
And written across the mirror in red lipstick were five words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT YESTERDAY.
Below them, somebody had taped a photograph.
Chloe leaving the hospital three days earlier.
On the back, a message had been written in black ink.
FORTY-EIGHT HOURS, MAEVE.
THEN YOUR SISTER PAYS.
May you like
And directly beneath those words was a symbol I had not seen since I was twelve years old.
The same strange black crest engraved on the necklace my mother had been wearing the night she died.
