Chapter 2 - “GET HER OUT”Twenty minutes earlier, Dominic Vance had believed Riley Dawson was a trap.
People had tried worse.
A frightened teenager was exactly the sort of thing enemies assumed would make him lower his guard.
He had survived too long by distrusting coincidence.
The number made it worse.
Dominic had created that private line twenty-three years earlier.
Not for business.
Not for lieutenants.
Not for anyone who wanted favors.
Five people.
That was all.
His younger brother Samuel.
His wife Margaret.
Dr. Elias Mercer.
Grant Holloway.
And Nathan Dawson.
Samuel had been dead eleven years.
Margaret six.
Elias had retired and lived under security in Vermont.
Grant stood behind Dominic.
Which left Nathan.
A man Dominic had not heard from in more than a decade.
A man he had searched for until every lead died.
Then Riley appeared.
Seventeen.
Bruised.
Holding Nathan’s number.
Dominic had immediately assumed manipulation.
He studied her for almost a minute.
The girl did not beg.
That interested him.
People usually begged Dominic.
Riley looked at exits instead.
Grant noticed too.
Dominic asked:
“How do you know that number?”
Silence.
The suspicion returned.
Dominic had enemies capable of learning old names.
Maybe even Nathan’s.
He gestured.
“Get her out.”
Grant stepped forward.
Not aggressively.
Riley immediately turned.
“Wait!”
Grant stopped.
“My father gave me that number.”
Dominic’s fingers tightened around crystal glass.
He did not look at her.
“Who is your father?”
She stared.
“My dad told me…”
Her voice trembled.
“If I’m ever truly in danger, call you.”
Dominic slowly stood.
“Name.”
“Nathan Dawson.”
The world shifted.
Nathan.
Not a memory.
A face.
Thirty years old.
Mud across his uniform.
Laughing while blood ran from his eyebrow.
Dominic saw another image.
Nathan dragging him through smoke.
Another.
Nathan standing between Dominic and men who wanted answers.
Another.
Nathan barely conscious but still saying:
Don't tell them anything.
Dominic moved toward Riley before realizing.
“Nathan?!”
Riley flinched.
Dominic stopped himself.
“Is he alive?”
Her expression told him first.
Then:
“My father was set up and killed years ago.”
Dominic felt something he had not felt in years.
Grief without preparation.
He had believed Nathan disappeared.
He had resented him for it.
Called him coward once in anger.
Said Nathan had chosen to vanish rather than trust him.
And Nathan had been dead.
Dominic whispered:
“How?”
Riley’s face hardened.
“I don’t know everything.”
“Who told you?”
“They called it an accident.”
“They lied.”
Dominic knew before she finished.
Nathan Dawson had survived artillery, captivity, infection, bullets, and enough bad luck to fill several lifetimes.
An accident was possible.
But Riley had scars.
And someone was hunting her.
Dominic turned to Grant.
“Lock the floor.”
Grant moved instantly.
“No one enters without my permission,” Dominic added.
Two guards left.
Riley stepped back.
“No.”
Dominic looked.
“What?”
“You’re locking me in?”
Understanding struck him.
He softened his tone.
“No.”
He pointed toward door.
“You can leave anytime.”
Riley stared.
“Then why lock it?”
“To keep everyone else out.”
She did not relax.
Dominic removed his phone.
Placed it on table.
Then his watch.
A small gesture, meant to make himself less imposing.
It probably failed.
“Sit.”
“No.”
“Fine.”
He sat instead.
Riley remained standing.
Dominic said:
“Tell me what happened tonight.”
She glanced at Grant.
Dominic noticed.
“Grant has known me twenty-one years.”
“He’s one of the five.”
Riley looked.
Grant nodded once.
Dominic continued:
“If Nathan gave you that number, he believed there could come a day when you needed something from me.”
His voice lowered.
“I failed to know that day had already come.”
Riley’s jaw tightened.
“You didn’t know me.”
“I knew your father.”
“That doesn’t mean you knew him when he died.”
That hit.
Dominic accepted.
“No.”
“I didn’t.”
Riley looked at his expensive suit.
Restaurant.
Guards.
“You’re different from what he said.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“What did he say?”
“He said you were stubborn.”
Grant coughed, suspiciously like hiding laugh.
Dominic glanced back.
Grant returned expressionless.
Riley added:
“And that you never knew when to shut up.”
Dominic laughed once.
It startled the entire room.
Nathan.
That sounded exactly like Nathan.
Dominic felt grief again.
He asked:
“Did he ever tell you how we met?”
“No.”
“About the war?”
“A little.”
“What?”
“That you saved each other.”
Dominic looked down.
“Your father saved me more.”
Riley frowned.
“That’s not what he said.”
“Of course not.”
Dominic looked back.
“Nathan never kept score.”
Riley slowly lowered herself into leather chair.
Not trust.
Exhaustion.
Dominic poured water and slid glass across table.
She inspected it before drinking.
That broke something in him.
A seventeen-year-old should not know to inspect water offered in a private room.
“How long have you been running?”
“Tonight?”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“What does that mean?”
Riley looked at scars on her arm.
“Tonight, about two hours.”
“And before tonight?”
She shrugged.
“Years.”
Dominic went silent.
Then:
“Who raised you after Nathan?”
“A woman named Marissa Cole.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened?”
“Tonight?”
Riley’s eyes sharpened.
“Two men came to apartment.”
“They asked for my father’s things.”
“What things?”
“I don’t know.”
“They didn’t believe me.”
Dominic looked at fresh scratches.
“They hurt you?”
“I got away before they could do much.”
Before.
That word mattered.
Dominic asked carefully:
“Those older scars?”
Riley’s face closed.
“No.”
He stopped.
No pressure.
Not yet.
Grant returned.
“Floor is secure.”
Dominic looked at Riley.
“Get Dr. Mercer.”
Grant raised eyebrow.
“Elias?”
“Yes.”
Riley frowned.
“Who’s that?”
Dominic replied:
“One of the other five.”
Then he looked at Grant.
“And find out everything that happened to Nathan Dawson after the last day I saw him.”
Grant nodded.
Dominic added:
“Quietly.”
Grant left.
Riley watched him.
“You really didn’t know my father was dead.”
It was not question.
Dominic answered anyway.
“No.”
She studied him for the first time with something besides suspicion.
“What did you think happened?”
Dominic looked toward window.
“I thought he walked away from me.”
Riley said:
“He wouldn’t.”
Dominic’s voice turned quiet.
May you like
“I know that now.”
And that knowledge was already becoming something dangerous.
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