Chapter 2 - THE MAN WITH THE SCAR
“Because the bad man came back.”
Noah’s words were so soft I almost convinced myself I had heard him incorrectly.
Adrian didn’t.
The amusement disappeared from his face so completely it was frightening.
“What man?”
Noah immediately looked down at his sneakers.
The hallway seemed to shrink around us.
Three employees who had been pretending not to listen suddenly found reasons to disappear through nearby doors. One of Adrian’s security men moved closer without being told.
Adrian crouched until he was eye level with his son.
“Noah.”
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
“Look at me.”
Noah slowly raised his head.
“What man came back?”
“The one with the scar.”
Adrian’s fingers tightened around his knee.
I noticed because I had spent two years noticing things about Adrian Kane no one else seemed brave enough to notice.
He never fidgeted.
Never tapped a pen.
Never tugged at a cuff.
Never showed fear.
Now his hand had gone completely white.
“What scar?” he asked.
Noah touched his own cheek.
“Here.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
At least, that was what it looked like.
I stepped closer. “Where did you see him, Noah?”
“At school.”
Adrian turned sharply toward me before looking back at his son.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Noah’s lower lip pushed forward.
“Because he said not to.”
Every muscle in Adrian’s body changed.
Not visibly enough that another person might have noticed.
But I did.
The man kneeling in front of his son disappeared.
In his place was the Adrian Kane Manhattan whispered about.
Cold.
Lethal.
Terrifyingly focused.
“What exactly did he say?”
Noah hesitated.
Adrian’s voice softened.
“You’re not in trouble, buddy.”
Noah looked relieved.
“He asked if I remembered him.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“What else?”
“He said he knew Mommy.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Only for one second.
When they opened again, the warmth was gone.
“He said she used to sing that dinosaur song to me.”
Something twisted painfully in my chest.
Noah’s mother, Evelyn Kane, had died nearly four years earlier.
Officially, it had been a car accident.
Adrian almost never spoke about her.
There were only two photographs of Evelyn in his office. One beside Noah’s baby picture and another tucked behind a framed photograph on a bookshelf most people would never notice.
I knew because I noticed everything in Adrian’s office.
Apparently, including the things Adrian thought no one saw.
“What happened after that?” Adrian asked.
“He said Daddy was going to lose me like he lost Mommy.”
Silence.
I felt cold despite the perfectly controlled temperature of the building.
Adrian stood.
“Russo.”
The head of security appeared from the conference-room doorway almost instantly.
Marco Russo was in his early forties, broad-shouldered and perpetually expressionless.
“Lock the floor.”
Russo didn’t question him.
“Done.”
“Get the school’s security footage from yesterday. Every camera. Every entrance.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Find out who signed in, who came through staff access, who parked within three blocks.”
Russo nodded and disappeared.
Adrian took Noah’s hand.
Then Noah said, “That’s why I picked Claire.”
Both of us looked at him.
“What?” I whispered.
Noah shrugged as though this should have been obvious.
“Mommy said if a bad person ever came back and Dad wasn’t there, I should find someone Dad trusted.”
A strange expression crossed Adrian’s face.
“And you think I trust Claire?”
Noah rolled his eyes.
Actually rolled his eyes at Adrian Kane.
“You trust her the most.”
I wanted the marble floor to open beneath me.
Adrian stared at his son.
Noah continued.
“You let her tell you when you’re wrong.”
“I do not.”
“You do.”
“Noah.”
“And you look at her when she leaves.”
My heart stopped.
Adrian slowly turned his head toward me.
I stared at the opposite wall.
“That is enough.”
Noah grinned.
The tension broke for half a second.
Then Russo returned carrying a tablet.
Whatever was on the screen made his jaw harden.
“We have him.”
Adrian took the tablet.
I saw the image over his shoulder.
A man in a dark coat stood outside Noah’s school.
Tall.
Gray at the temples.
A pale scar ran from the corner of his left eye toward his jaw.
Adrian stared at the photograph without blinking.
“Victor Sloane,” he said.
Russo looked at me.
That tiny movement didn’t escape Adrian.
“Say it.”
Russo hesitated.
“We watched Sloane die.”
Adrian’s eyes remained on the photograph.
“No. We watched a warehouse burn.”
My stomach dropped.
“Who is he?” I asked.
Neither man answered immediately.
Adrian handed the tablet back to Russo.
“Take Noah to my office.”
“No.”
It came from Noah.
Adrian looked down.
“I want Claire.”
Noah grabbed my hand.
Normally, I would have gently extracted it.
Instead, I squeezed his fingers.
Adrian watched the gesture.
Something complicated passed across his face.
“Claire stays with him,” Adrian said.
Russo nodded.
Adrian turned to leave.
“Adrian.”
It was the first time in two years I had used his first name inside the office without Mr. Kane attached to it.
He stopped.
“Who is Victor Sloane?”
His back remained toward me.
When he finally answered, his voice was nearly empty.
“The man I believe killed my wife.”
Then he walked away.
Noah’s fingers tightened around mine.
I looked down at him.
“Did the man say anything else?”
Noah nodded.
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“He said something weird.”
“What did he say?”
Noah’s brows pinched together as he tried to remember.
“He asked if you still wore it.”
I froze.
“Wore what?”
“The necklace.”
My hand automatically went to my throat.
A thin gold chain disappeared beneath my blouse.
Hanging from it was a small antique key my father had given me shortly before he died.
I had worn it every day since I was seventeen.
Noah pointed.
“That.”
The world suddenly felt very far away.
“How did he know about my necklace?”
Noah shook his head.
Then the office lights went out.
Instantly.
Complete darkness.
Somewhere behind us, someone shouted.
A second later, the emergency lighting turned the hallway red.
Adrian appeared from the darkness with astonishing speed.
“Claire!”
“I have him!”
Noah crashed into me.
Adrian reached us and pulled both of us behind him.
“Russo!”
No response.
Adrian drew a gun from beneath his jacket.
I had known exactly what Adrian Kane was since the day I accepted the job.
But knowing something and watching him become it were different experiences.
The elevator display flashed.
Floor 34.
Someone was leaving.
Adrian pulled out his phone.
“Seal the building.”
Then mine vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
I looked down.
My blood went cold.
There was a photograph attached.
Me.
Leaving my apartment that morning.
Beneath it were seven words.
ASK ADRIAN WHY HE REALLY HIRED YOU.
May you like
I looked at the man standing in front of me.
For the first time in two years, I wondered whether Adrian Kane had been hiding something from me from the very beginning.
