Chapter 1 - THE DEAD MAN AT THE DOOR
The man outside Isa’s apartment was supposed to be dead.
That was the first thing Rhett Valin thought when he heard the voice through the door.
“Isa, sweetheart. Open up. We need to finish our conversation.”
Rhett’s entire body went still.
Isa saw the recognition in his face.
“You know him.”
Rhett didn’t answer.
The key turned again.
It caught against the new deadbolt.
Outside, the man laughed softly.
“Smart girl. You finally changed one of them.”
Isa’s breathing became shallow.
Rhett crossed the kitchen and moved her behind the counter.
“Stay there.”
“Don’t open it.”
“I’m not.”
He removed his phone and sent one message.
COME UP QUIETLY.
Then he faced the door.
“Mason.”
Silence.
Isa stared at him.
She had never told Rhett her husband’s first name.
A beat passed.
Then the voice outside changed.
No sweetness now.
“Well.”
Another pause.
“Don Valin.”
Isa’s stomach dropped.
Rhett’s eyes never left the door.
“You have five seconds to walk away.”
Mason chuckled.
“Still giving orders like you own the city?”
“Four.”
“You don’t know what she took.”
“Three.”
“You should ask your housekeeper why she really came to work for you.”
Isa’s face went white.
“Two.”
Footsteps thundered up the stairwell.
Rhett’s security men.
Mason heard them too.
His shoes scraped against the hallway floor.
Then he ran.
Rhett’s men reached the landing seconds later.
“South stairs!” Rhett ordered.
Two men disappeared after him.
Isa tried to stand.
Pain shot through her ribs, and she nearly collapsed.
Rhett caught her before she hit the floor.
“Easy.”
She looked up at him.
“What did he mean?”
Rhett didn’t answer.
“Rhett.”
It was the first time she had ever called him by his first name.
He noticed.
So did she.
His voice lowered.
“Mason Voss worked for me.”
Isa stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Three years ago.”
Rhett helped her into a chair.
“He handled transportation, security, and certain problems I didn’t trust to anyone else.”
Isa’s eyes filled with disbelief.
“Mason told me he worked in corporate logistics.”
“He lied.”
“That part I figured out.”
Rhett’s expression hardened.
“He disappeared after stealing something from me.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Isa stared at him.
“And you never found him?”
“We found a body.”
Her skin prickled.
Rhett continued.
“Burned beyond recognition. Dental records matched.”
Isa shook her head.
“That’s impossible.”
“Apparently.”
His phone buzzed.
One of his men.
Mason had escaped through an alley and entered a waiting SUV.
Professional extraction.
Not a desperate husband running from a crime scene.
Someone had been waiting for him.
Rhett looked toward Isa.
“When did you marry him?”
“Five years ago.”
“And when did you leave?”
“Eighteen months ago.”
Four months before she started working at Valin House.
Rhett’s gaze sharpened.
“Why did you choose me?”
Isa looked away.
That was the question she had hoped he would never ask.
“Because Mason was afraid of you.”
Rhett said nothing.
“I heard your name once during one of his phone calls. He sounded terrified. After I escaped, I needed a job somewhere he wouldn’t come looking.”
“So you came into my house.”
“Yes.”
“Knowing your husband had worked for me.”
“No.”
Isa’s answer came instantly.
“I only knew your name frightened him.”
Rhett believed fear when he saw it.
And Isa was terrified.
Not of him.
Of whatever Mason had just started.
Rhett’s doctor arrived ten minutes later.
As he examined Isa, Rhett walked toward the broken phone on the kitchen floor.
Something metallic gleamed beneath it.
He bent down.
A small silver pendant had broken open during the attack.
Inside was a tiny folded piece of paper.
Rhett unfolded it.
There were six numbers and one handwritten word.
HARTWELL.
His face changed.
Isa saw it.
“What?”
Rhett slowly looked up.
“The ledger Mason stole from me was called the Hartwell Ledger.”
Isa stared at the paper.
“I’ve never seen that before.”
Rhett turned it over.
On the back, written in faded ink, were four words.
FOR ISA. TRUST NO ONE.
Isa recognized the handwriting immediately.
May you like
It belonged to her father.
A man who had been dead for twelve years.
