Chapter 4
Linda hid the replica ring beneath her pearl bracelet.
Badly.
I held out my hand.
“Give it to me.”
She smiled.
“It’s jewelry.”
“Give it.”
“No.”
My bodyguard stepped forward.
Linda’s smile vanished.
She removed the ring and dropped it onto the dresser.
“Happy?”
I examined it.
Old Bennett access symbol.
Not enough to command men.
Enough to open legacy doors and authenticate certain storage systems.
“How did you get this?”
“No idea.”
Ryan laughed.
“She found it.”
“Where?”
“In your precious daughter’s things.”
Emily stared.
“That’s a lie.”
Linda turned toward her.
“Careful.”
One word.
Emily recoiled.
I saw it.
The training.
Linda continued:
“Remember what happened last time you accused me.”
I looked at Emily.
“What happened?”
She shook her head.
Ryan smiled.
“Nothing.”
“What happened?”
Emily whispered:
“She took my food.”
Linda rolled her eyes.
“For one evening.”
“You withheld food from a pregnant woman.”
“She refused dinner.”
Emily looked at me.
“She put it outside the locked door.”
My hands went still.
Linda smiled coldly.
“She could smell it. Perhaps that sounds cruel to you.”
“Yes.”
“It worked.”
“For what?”
Emily’s voice broke.
“I told them your Thursday route.”
I closed my eyes once.
Not at her.
At myself.
My daughter had been tortured inside a suburban apartment while I believed she was happily preparing a nursery.
When I looked again, Ryan was smiling.
“She told us eventually.”
I walked toward him.
He lifted his chin.
“See? Everyone talks.”
“No.”
I stopped inches away.
“Everyone has a breaking point.”
His smile slipped.
“Who wanted Thursday?”
No answer.
I turned to Linda.
She said nothing.
Then I noticed Emily staring at the pink teddy bear on the floor.
Something inside its gift bag blinked.
Not mine.
A tiny red light.
I picked up the bag.
A tracking device had been taped beneath the cardboard base.
My bodyguard immediately drew his weapon.
I looked at Ryan.
He actually looked surprised.
Linda did not.
That distinction mattered.
“You tagged the gift I brought?”
Linda said nothing.
I had purchased that bag at a Bennett-controlled shop twenty minutes earlier.
May you like
Which meant someone had known I was coming before Ryan did.
And the leak was closer than this apartment.
