Chapter 2 - KEVIN’S SECOND JOB
Paige did not go home.
She should have.
Instead, she sat in Gabriel’s office at 6:30 p.m. staring at a photograph of the man who had ruined her life.
Kevin.
Alive.
Not kidnapped.
Not dead.
Not hiding in some distant country.
Forty-two floors below.
That morning.
“You knew he worked here?”
Gabriel asked.
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
“I knew Kevin did freelance sales.”
“For who?”
“He said import companies. Warehouses. Small manufacturers.”
“Did he ever mention Martin Vale?”
“No.”
Gabriel looked toward Nico.
“Pull access.”
Nico left.
Paige rubbed her temples.
“Why would your CFO meet Kevin?”
“That’s what I’m going to learn.”
“We.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“What?”
“We’re going to learn.”
“No.”
Her exhaustion turned instantly into anger.
“You just told me my missing boyfriend is connected to your CFO.”
“Yes.”
“And my forged debt belongs to one of your associates.”
“Yes.”
“And now you’re going to send me back downstairs?”
“Home.”
“Same difference.”
“No.”
Gabriel moved closer.
“You are exhausted, being threatened, and currently visible to people I don’t trust.”
“That is exactly why I’m not going home without answers.”
His pale eyes narrowed.
Then:
“You argue more upstairs.”
“Maybe downstairs I enjoy having rent money.”
He stared.
Then surprised her.
“Fine.”
One word.
No battle.
Nico returned with access records.
Kevin Mercer had entered Moretti Logistics three times during the previous six months using temporary vendor clearance.
Sponsor:
Martin Vale.
Three visits.
One week after Kevin vanished.
Two months later.
And today.
Paige’s stomach twisted.
“He left me with the debt and came here?”
Apparently.
Then Nico produced visitor camera images.
First visit:
Kevin looked terrified.
Second:
Thin.
Bruised beneath one eye.
Third:
Today, carrying a black portfolio case.
“What’s in the case?” Paige asked.
“No idea.”
Gabriel studied the images.
Then Paige noticed something.
Kevin’s portfolio.
A white geometric mark in the lower corner.
She knew it.
“Zoom.”
Nico glanced at Gabriel.
Gabriel said:
“Do it.”
The mark enlarged.
A hexagon split by three diagonal lines.
Paige felt cold.
“I designed that.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“For Kevin?”
“Yes.”
Two years earlier, Kevin claimed he was launching a consulting company.
He asked Paige for a logo.
No money.
“Just help me, honey.”
She spent three nights designing it.
Company name:
Northstar Freight Consulting.
The business supposedly failed before launch.
Yet the logo was on Kevin’s portfolio.
Gabriel typed the name into an internal search.
Results appeared immediately.
Invoices.
Hundreds.
Northstar Freight Consulting had billed Moretti Logistics $4.7 million over two years.
Paige stood.
“No.”
Gabriel’s eyes sharpened.
“You said the company never launched.”
“That’s what Kevin told me.”
Northstar invoices listed compliance reviews.
Dock assessments.
Routing optimization.
Work Paige knew nothing about.
Then she saw the logo on the invoices.
Her logo.
Slightly changed.
One diagonal line reversed.
Why?
Paige leaned closer.
“That isn’t my final design.”
“What?”
“It’s an earlier draft.”
She remembered sending Kevin twelve drafts in one PDF.
The reversed-line version was draft seven.
Gabriel opened invoice metadata.
Uploaded by:
MVALE.
Martin Vale.
Every invoice.
Paige looked at Gabriel.
“Your CFO has been paying a company my boyfriend told me never existed.”
Gabriel’s expression became unreadable.
Then one final record loaded.
Northstar’s registered managing member.
Not Kevin Mercer.
Not Martin Vale.
May you like
Paige Winslow.
Her own name appeared on a company that had collected nearly five million dollars from Gabriel Moretti.
