Chapter 4 - The Man Outside the Door
Carl killed the lights.
Sadie stood motionless.
“Who?”
“Quiet.”
“Who are they?”
Carl moved toward the window.
“You need to leave.”
Sadie almost laughed.
“You've spent two years controlling where I go, and now you're telling me to leave?”
Carl looked at her.
Something in his face had changed.
Fear had stripped away the arrogance.
“Your father found something bigger than stolen money.”
“What?”
“A list.”
“Of what?”
“Names. Judges. Contractors. Police. Politicians. People taking money.”
Sadie's throat tightened.
“And you were looking for it?”
“Yes.”
“Who hired you?”
Carl didn't answer.
A car door closed downstairs.
Then another.
Carl whispered a name.
“Victor Sloane.”
Sadie knew it.
Everyone did.
Sloane Maritime was one of the largest shipping companies on the East Coast.
“Why would Victor Sloane care about me?”
“Because your father was tracing payments connected to his company.”
Footsteps entered the building.
Carl grabbed Sadie's coat.
“Fire escape.”
She didn't move.
“Go.”
“What about you?”
“I'll slow them down.”
Sadie stared.
The same man who had made her life unbearable was now standing between her and something worse.
It didn't erase anything.
But it complicated everything.
“Why did you hurt me?”
Carl's face changed.
He looked away.
“There is no excuse.”
Sadie waited.
“None,” he repeated.
For once, he didn't blame alcohol.
Or stress.
Or her.
The footsteps reached the second floor.
Carl opened the window.
“Go.”
Sadie climbed onto the fire escape.
Cold rain hit her face.
She descended.
Third floor.
Second.
A window opened above.
Voices.
Sadie moved faster.
Her ribs screamed.
She reached the alley.
A man stepped from the darkness.
Sadie stopped.
Black coat.
Broad shoulders.
She turned to run.
“Sadie.”
She recognized the voice.
Leo.
Ronan's lieutenant.
“Don't touch me.”
“I won't.”
“Why are you here?”
“Ronan sent me.”
“I told him to stay away.”
“He did.”
Leo looked toward the building.
“Then your boyfriend called him.”
Sadie stared.
“Carl called Ronan?”
“Six minutes ago.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Leo opened the rear door of a black SUV.
“We need to go.”
Sadie hesitated.
Another man appeared at the mouth of the alley.
Not Ronan's.
Leo saw him.
His posture changed.
“Sadie. Car.”
She got in.
Leo followed.
The SUV pulled away.
Ten minutes later, Sadie realized they weren't heading toward Ronan's penthouse.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“No.”
Leo looked back.
“What?”
“I am finished being taken places without being told where.”
Leo considered that.
“Fair.”
He gave her the address.
A townhouse on the Upper East Side.
“Whose?”
“Ronan's aunt.”
Evelyn.
Sadie relaxed slightly.
When they arrived, Ronan was waiting.
He stood beneath the entry light.
Sadie stepped from the SUV.
He looked at her.
Not her bruise.
Not her clothes.
Her eyes.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Ronan nodded.
“Carl?”
“I don't know.”
Leo answered.
“He was alive when we left.”
Sadie walked inside.
Evelyn waited with tea.
No interrogation.
No questions.
That kindness nearly broke Sadie.
Ronan remained across the room.
Finally Sadie looked at him.
“Carl said Victor Sloane hired him.”
Ronan's expression hardened.
“That makes sense.”
“You know Sloane?”
“Our families have competed for thirty years.”
“My father?”
“Daniel discovered Sloane was bribing people inside my father's company.”
Sadie sat.
“He hid a ledger.”
Ronan nodded slowly.
“I suspected.”
“He wrote that the evidence was with S.”
Evelyn entered.
“Sadie?”
“Maybe.”
Ronan shook his head.
“Daniel wouldn't put his daughter in danger.”
“Then who is S?”
Nobody answered.
Sadie suddenly remembered something.
Her father had called her Sunshine.
Always.
But that wasn't it.
Then she remembered another person.
“Susan.”
Ronan looked at her.
“My mother.”
Sadie stood.
“She kept all his things.”
Evelyn's face changed.
“Where?”
“Storage unit in Queens.”
They went at dawn.
Sadie insisted.
Ronan came.
So did Leo.
The storage unit contained twenty years of a family's forgotten life.
Christmas decorations.
Furniture.
Boxes.
Sadie found her father's belongings near the back.
She opened them.
Photographs.
Tax returns.
Old jackets.
Then a wooden chess set.
Her father loved chess.
Sadie picked up the king.
Something rattled.
She twisted the base.
A tiny brass key fell into her palm.
Ronan stared.
“What does it open?”
Sadie looked at the number engraved on it.
417.
“A bank box.”
Three hours later, they stood inside a private vault.
Box 417 waited.
Sadie inserted the key.
Inside was no ledger.
Only a cassette tape.
And a photograph.
Sadie picked it up.
Her father stood beside Ronan's father.
And Victor Sloane.
All three were smiling.
On the back, Daniel had written:
Trust neither family.
Sadie slowly looked at Ronan.
For the first time, doubt entered his eyes.
Then Leo rushed into the vault.
“Boss.”
“What?”
Leo held up his phone.
His expression was grim.
“Carl Jenkins was found this morning.”
Sadie's heart stopped.
“Is he alive?”
Leo hesitated.
“Yes.”
Relief came too quickly.
May you like
Then Leo finished.
“But he says Ronan Hayes ordered your father's death.”
