Chapter 3 - THE DEAD MAN'S KEY
The silver key had been inside my wallet the entire time.
I had forgotten moving it there.
Adrian stared at it in my palm as though it might explode.
“You said it was in the jewelry box.”
“I thought it was.”
“When did you move it?”
“I don't remember.”
“That may have saved your life.”
I hated how calmly he said it.
“What does it open?”
“We'll find out.”
Daniel's letter contained an address in downtown Chicago.
Not a storage facility.
A private bank.
At nine the next morning, Adrian drove me there himself.
No chauffeur.
No bodyguards inside the car.
Just him.
“You own normal vehicles?” I asked as we stopped at a red light.
“This is an armored Mercedes.”
“Of course it is.”
His mouth twitched.
For the first time since this nightmare started, I noticed how tired he looked.
“You knew Daniel well?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He saved my brother's life.”
That was not the answer I expected.
Adrian's younger brother, Luca, had disappeared from public view three years earlier.
Rumors said he'd been killed.
Others said he'd betrayed the Moretti family.
“Daniel discovered someone inside my organization was feeding information to a rival crew,” Adrian continued. “He warned Luca before an ambush.”
“What happened to Daniel?”
Adrian's hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“He kept investigating people he should have been afraid of.”
We reached the bank.
The key opened a safe-deposit box registered under a company I'd never heard of.
Inside sat one flash drive.
A photograph.
And a sealed envelope marked FOR CLAIRE.
My hands trembled as I opened it.
The letter was short.
Claire,
I'm sorry.
I wanted to tell you everything, but by the time I realized I loved you, knowing the truth would have made you a target.
Nathan's company is moving money for men who have murdered people to keep their names out of court.
If anything happens to me, give the drive to Adrian Moretti.
He is dangerous.
But unlike Nathan, he doesn't pretend he isn't.
I stopped reading.
Adrian stood beside me.
He didn't ask to see the letter.
“Why would Daniel trust you?”
“Because I owed him.”
I continued.
There is one more thing you deserve to know.
The night we met was not an accident.
My breath caught.
I originally approached you because of Nathan.
I needed access to his financial records.
But I never expected to fall in love with you.
I never expected the baby.
And I never regretted either.
I sat down.
The words blurred.
Daniel hadn't abandoned me.
But he had lied to me.
Almost everything between us had begun as a lie.
Adrian crouched beside my chair.
“Claire.”
“Is he dead?”
Adrian didn't answer fast enough.
“Tell me.”
“We believe so.”
“Believe?”
“His car was recovered from Lake Michigan.”
“Body?”
“No.”
Hope hurt worse than grief.
Adrian placed the flash drive into a secure case.
“We'll find out what happened.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel asked me to protect you.”
“So that's what the grocery store was? A favor to a dead man?”
Something flashed in Adrian's eyes.
“No.”
“Then what?”
He stood.
“Not everything I do is because of Daniel.”
Before I could ask what that meant, the bank manager entered.
He looked nervous.
“Mr. Moretti, there's a problem.”
“What?”
“Someone accessed this box yesterday.”
Adrian went still.
“Impossible.”
The manager turned his computer screen toward us.
The access record showed a name.
Nathan Cole.
I stared at it.
But the manager shook his head.
“That's not the disturbing part.”
He enlarged the security photograph.
The man using Nathan's identification wasn't Nathan.
May you like
It was Daniel.
Alive.
