Chapter 5 - What Dominic Knew About My Husband
I ripped the card from the guard's hand.
ANNA REYES.
My photograph.
My employee number.
My access level.
"This isn't mine."
Dominic took it back.
"I know."
"How?"
"Your card is in your phone case."
My hand flew to my pocket.
It was there.
Marco stepped closer.
"Clone."
I looked at him.
"How hard is that?"
"Depends who has access."
"Who does?"
He did not answer fast enough.
Dominic did.
"Security administration."
I laughed once.
Nothing about it was funny.
"So the people protecting us can manufacture proof that I helped a sniper enter the estate."
"Anna, listen to me."
"No. You listen. You knew something about Michael."
Dominic's shoulders tightened.
"Not outside."
He took me to his study and locked the door.
Marco stayed in the hall.
I noticed that too.
Dominic poured whiskey.
"If you offer me that, I'll throw it at you."
He put the bottle down.
"Michael did security work for me."
"I knew that."
"Not the work I'm talking about."
I waited.
Dominic opened a hidden panel behind a bookcase.
A steel safe clicked.
"Two years before he died, we started seeing surveillance failures. Small ones. A camera would miss a delivery. A door log would lose six minutes. Nothing big enough to trigger panic."
"Until?"
"Until money started disappearing from shipping subsidiaries."
My fingers curled against my palms.
"What does that have to do with Michael?"
"He installed part of the old system. He knew how the audit trail worked. I asked him to find out whether someone was deleting footage from inside."
My jaw shook.
"You recruited my husband to investigate your people."
"He volunteered after he found the first anomaly."
"And then he died."
Dominic looked at the floor.
That did it.
I slapped him.
The sound filled the study.
He did not move.
My palm burned.
"You let me bury him thinking it was an accident."
"I didn't know it wasn't."
"You suspected."
"Yes."
"And you said nothing."
"I had no proof."
"I was his wife."
"And you had a one-year-old daughter."
"Don't use Lily to excuse this."
His jaw flexed.
"I'm not."
"Then what are you doing?"
"Telling you why I kept you employed here when you tried to resign after Michael died."
I went still.
I had forgotten that.
Three weeks after the funeral, I had asked to leave.
Dominic doubled my salary and offered the staff apartment instead.
At the time, I thought it was pity.
"You were watching us."
"Protecting you."
"Those are not the same thing."
"I know."
He reached into the safe.
"Michael left a report."
My breath stopped.
Dominic pulled out a black folder.
He opened it.
Empty.
For one second, neither of us understood what we were seeing.
Then Dominic tore the folder out completely and checked behind it.
Nothing.
"When did you last open this?"
"Three months ago."
"Who knows the combination?"
His eyes lifted.
"Me."
"Nobody else?"
"Nobody."
A scream ripped through the hallway.
Lily.
I hit the door before Dominic reached it.
Marco was already running from the elevator.
"Fourth floor!"
I took the stairs two at a time.
My foot slipped on the last one.
Dominic caught my arm.
We reached the bedroom.
Lily stood in the hall crying.
"Mommy!"
I dropped to my knees and grabbed her.
"Where's Ethan?"
She pointed toward the private elevator.
The doors were open.
Empty.
One of the guards lay on the floor, breathing but unconscious.
Dominic crouched beside him.
A dart stuck from his neck.
"Where is my son?"
The guard's eyelids fluttered.
"Tablet... message... said Anna was hurt..."
I looked at Lily.
"Ethan went downstairs?"
She nodded through tears.
"He said he had to help you."
The elevator display blinked.
B2.
Underground service level.
Dominic punched the call button.
Nothing happened.
Then the intercom above us crackled.
A child's voice came through.
"Dad?"
Ethan.
Dominic grabbed the speaker.
"Ethan, where are you?"
A man's voice answered instead.
"Eleven minutes, Dominic."
May you like
The line died.
