Chapter 2 - THE YELLOW ROOM
The crash echoed through the little house.
Emma screamed.
Grace pulled both children into the hallway.
Adrian moved toward the stairs.
“Back room.”
Grace stared at him.
“Go.”
She ran.
Adrian reached inside his jacket.
Then stopped himself.
There were children twenty feet away.
This was not one of his warehouses.
This was not one of his clubs.
This was Lily’s home.
He grabbed the heavy wooden chair beside the wall instead.
The first man reached the top of the stairs.
Adrian swung once.
The man dropped.
A second man rushed upward.
Adrian drove him back against the railing.
“Who sent you?”
The man said nothing.
Adrian slammed him against the wall.
“Who?”
A voice came from below.
“Vale wants the house cleared.”
Adrian froze.
Vale.
That was deliberate.
Whoever sent them wanted Grace to believe Adrian himself had ordered it.
The second man reached for his waistband.
Adrian twisted his arm and sent him down the stairs.
Then he heard sirens.
Not police sirens.
Private security.
Two vehicles stopped outside.
Men shouted.
The intruders fled through the kitchen.
Adrian went to the window.
A second Vale security team entered the property.
These men belonged to Captain Elias Ward, one of the few commanders Adrian had personally hired rather than inherited through Marcus.
Elias came through the door.
“Boss.”
“How did you find me?”
“Emergency GPS in the sedan.”
Adrian looked at him sharply.
“Who has access?”
Elias hesitated.
“You.”
“Me.”
“Marcus.”
“And?”
“No one.”
Adrian looked toward the street.
Marcus had known almost immediately where he was.
That answered one question.
Elias noticed the unconscious man near the stairs.
“Who are these guys?”
“Check every one of them.”
“Quietly.”
“No central database.”
Elias nodded.
Adrian went back upstairs.
Grace was sitting on the bathroom floor with Lily against her chest.
Emma was hiding behind the tub.
Adrian crouched.
“It’s over.”
Emma looked at him.
“Bad men?”
“Yes.”
“Are they coming back?”
Adrian looked at Lily.
“No.”
It was a promise he intended to keep.
He moved everyone to a small apartment above an old printing company Adrian owned through a legitimate subsidiary.
Only Elias knew the location.
No staff.
No household employees.
No security network Marcus could access.
By midnight, Lily was asleep in a portable crib.
Emma slept beside her mother.
Adrian sat alone at the kitchen table.
The brass key lay in front of him.
Union Station.
Locker 314.
He turned it between his fingers.
Grace entered quietly.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I can’t.”
“Neither can I.”
She sat across from him.
For the first time, Adrian looked at her without anger.
“You raised her.”
Grace lowered her eyes.
“My aunt did most of it.”
“You fed her.”
“Yes.”
“You stayed awake when she was sick.”
Grace nodded.
“You took her to doctors.”
“Yes.”
“You kept her alive.”
Grace’s eyes filled.
“I was afraid you’d hate me.”
“I did.”
She looked up.
“For about ten minutes.”
A faint, exhausted smile appeared on her face.
Adrian looked toward the room where Lily slept.
“Now I understand.”
Grace hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
Adrian turned.
“Emma calls Lily her baby sister because that’s what I told her.”
“I couldn’t tell a three-year-old she was hiding the daughter of Adrian Vale.”
“She would’ve told the mailman.”
Despite everything, Adrian almost smiled.
Grace continued.
“But lately, Emma started asking why Lily never left the house.”
“She heard my aunt and me talking.”
“She heard your name.”
“That’s why she spoke to you.”
Adrian stared at the brass key.
“A three-year-old just broke open the biggest lie in Chicago.”
Grace folded her arms.
“Children are bad at secrets.”
“Apparently adults are worse.”
His phone vibrated.
Marcus.
Adrian watched the screen.
Grace whispered.
“Are you going to answer?”
“Yes.”
He picked up.
“Marcus.”
“Where the hell are you?”
Marcus sounded worried.
Perfectly worried.
Too perfectly.
“You vanished from your own memorial.”
“Something came up.”
“Elias just reported an incident involving one of your cars.”
Adrian’s eyes hardened.
“Did he?”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
Adrian paused.
Then deliberately said, “I found Thomas Kane.”
Silence.
Only half a second.
But Adrian heard it.
Marcus recovered quickly.
“Thomas is dead.”
“So I thought.”
Another pause.
“Adrian, listen to me.”
“If Thomas is alive, don’t trust anything he says.”
“Why?”
“He was responsible for that convoy.”
Adrian leaned back.
“You told me the route was your decision.”
“It was.”
“But Thomas handled execution.”
Marcus was rewriting history already.
Adrian looked at Grace.
She could see the answer in his eyes.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Adrian—”
He ended the call.
Grace whispered.
“He’s scared.”
“Yes.”
Adrian picked up the brass key.
“And tomorrow, I’m going to give him something worth being terrified of.”
At 6:10 the next morning, Adrian and Elias entered Union Station.
Locker 314 sat in the oldest section of the baggage corridor.
Adrian inserted the key.
The lock clicked.
Inside was a black backpack.
A burner phone.
A flash drive.
A bloodstained security badge.
And Evelyn’s silver bracelet.
Adrian stared at it.
Not Lily’s.
Evelyn’s.
The bracelet she had worn the day she died.
Beneath it was a folded note.
Adrian opened it.
May you like
Three words were written across the page.
SHE WAS ALIVE.
