Chapter 2 - THE SECRET HER FATHER LEFT
Isa had buried her father when she was fifteen.
Now his handwriting was sitting in Rhett Valin’s hand.
“That isn’t possible.”
Rhett gave her the paper.
Isa touched the faded letters.
FOR ISA. TRUST NO ONE.
Her father had written notes on everything when she was young.
Lunch bags.
Birthday cards.
Receipts left beside the refrigerator.
She knew the crooked shape of his R.
She knew the way his T leaned too far right.
“It’s his.”
“Who was your father?”
“Samuel Ward.”
Rhett’s head lifted sharply.
Isa caught it.
“You know that name too?”
Rhett walked toward the window.
“Samuel Ward was a city forensic auditor.”
Isa frowned.
“He worked for the Department of Transportation.”
“He investigated it.”
“That’s not what my mother told me.”
Rhett looked back at her.
“Your father investigated public contracts tied to organized crime, political kickbacks, and shell companies.”
Isa’s throat tightened.
“How do you know?”
“Because one of the companies was mine.”
The room went silent.
Isa tried to stand despite the doctor’s warning.
“Did you hurt him?”
“No.”
“Did your people?”
“No.”
“How do I know that?”
“You don’t.”
The answer surprised her.
Rhett didn’t defend himself.
He simply stood there and allowed her suspicion.
“I was twenty-four when your father died,” he said. “My father was still running the family. Samuel Ward discovered someone was using Valin shipping contracts to move money without authorization.”
“Someone inside your organization?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“We never found out.”
The doctor interrupted.
“Mr. Valin, she needs a hospital.”
“No hospitals,” Isa said immediately.
The doctor sighed.
“She has two cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and a head injury. She needs observation.”
Rhett looked at Isa.
“You can stay at my residence.”
“No.”
“Mason knows this address.”
“I’m not moving into your house.”
“You already spend eight hours a day there.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“I can leave.”
Something passed over Rhett’s face.
Then he stepped back.
“You can leave whenever you want.”
The words were quiet.
Important.
Unlike Mason, Rhett understood what they meant.
Isa finally nodded.
An hour later, Rhett’s men carried her few belongings downstairs.
Isa insisted on taking an old brown suitcase herself.
When Rhett reached for it, she pulled it away.
“I’ve got it.”
He looked at the battered case.
“You’re protecting that more carefully than yourself.”
“It belonged to my father.”
Rhett’s attention sharpened.
Isa realized too late what she had said.
At Valin House, the doctor settled her into a guest room.
Rhett waited until Isa was asleep.
Then his security chief, Cole Mercer, entered.
“We traced the numbers from the pendant.”
“To what?”
“A bank.”
Rhett looked toward Isa’s closed door.
“Which one?”
“Lakefront Federal.”
Cole lowered his voice.
“Safe-deposit box 614.”
Rhett frowned.
“Registered to Samuel Ward?”
“No.”
Cole handed him a printout.
The owner was listed under an old corporate alias.
Rhett recognized it immediately.
It belonged to his father.
Samuel Ward had hidden something inside a Valin-controlled bank box.
But the bigger surprise was the date it had last been opened.
May you like
Fourteen months ago.
The exact week Isa started working for Rhett.
