Chapter 1 - THE EYES I COULD NEVER FORGET
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I stared at Elena as if the room had suddenly tilted beneath my feet.
She stood at the library threshold, one hand gripping the wicker laundry basket so tightly her knuckles had turned white.
Chloe was still beside me.
The little girl had no idea what she had just done.
She had simply tucked a blanket beneath my chin because she thought I was cold.
But her eyes—
Those impossible emerald eyes—
They belonged to my brother.
“Say his name,” I whispered.
Elena's lips parted.
No answer.
“Say his name.”
Her face crumpled.
“Adrian.”
The word struck me harder than any bullet I had taken in thirty years.
I had buried Adrian Thorne four years ago.
At least, that was what I believed.
He disappeared after the Bellini ambush.
His vehicle was found burned along the Indiana line.
There had been no body.
Only blood.
My father had ordered me to accept it.
“Bodies don't matter,” he'd said. “Loyalty does.”
So I had signed the papers.
Declared Adrian legally dead.
And rebuilt the organization without him.
But now a four-year-old girl was standing inside my mansion with his eyes.
“How old is Chloe?” I asked.
Elena swallowed.
“Four.”
“Her exact birthday.”
“October seventeenth.”
My stomach tightened.
Adrian vanished four years ago in October.
I looked down at Chloe.
“What is your father's name, sweetheart?”
Elena stepped forward.
“Vincent, don't.”
I raised one hand.
Chloe answered first.
“My daddy's name is Adrian.”
Every security instinct inside me erupted.
I stood.
The child stepped backward.
Elena moved instantly in front of her.
Not like a spy.
Like a mother protecting her daughter.
“Do not point a weapon at my child.”
I hadn't realized one of my guards had drawn his pistol.
“Lower it,” I ordered.
The room fell silent.
I looked at Elena.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
She shook her head.
“Because the last man who found us didn't give us a second chance.”
“Who?”
She looked toward the windows.
“The Bellinis.”
My jaw tightened.
“They've been dead or missing for years.”
“No.”
She whispered the word.
“That's what they wanted you to believe.”
I stepped closer.
“Where is Adrian?”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
“I don't know.”
“You were with him.”
“Yes.”
“When did you last see him?”
“Three months ago.”
That answer froze me.
Three months.
If Adrian was alive, he hadn't merely survived.
He had been hiding.
From me.
Or from someone worse.
I turned toward the security console.
“Lock down the property.”
Every steel shutter in the east wing slammed into place.
The guards moved into position.
Chloe clung to Elena's cardigan.
Then she looked up at me.
“Mr. Vincent?”
“Yes?”
“My daddy said you were the only man he trusted.”
I stopped breathing.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Elena closed her eyes.
I looked at her.
“You came here to find me.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“We came here because someone found us first.”
A red light began flashing on my security monitor.
Perimeter breach.
One of my men spoke through the radio.
“Boss, we've got an unmarked vehicle at the north gate.”
“Who?”
The answer came a second later.
“License plate belongs to a federal judge.”
My blood turned cold.
May you like
Because that judge had been dead for six years.
And someone inside his car had just stepped out holding a photograph of my brother.
