Chapter 2 - THE NAME SHE STOLE
Natalie didn’t sleep that night.
Adrian gave her a guest suite in his townhouse on East Seventy-Third Street.
He called it temporary.
She called it impossible.
The bedroom was larger than her entire apartment.
There were fresh clothes on the bed.
A glass of water beside it.
A lock on the door.
And, most importantly, the lock worked from the inside.
Still, every sound made her sit upright.
At 3:17 A.M., someone knocked.
Natalie gripped the lamp beside the bed.
“It’s me,” Adrian said through the door.
She relaxed slightly.
“Come in.”
He opened the door but stayed near the threshold.
“I thought you’d be asleep.”
“So did I.”
“Gabriel says you refused the pain medication.”
“I don’t like feeling foggy.”
Adrian nodded as if that answer mattered.
Then he held up a folder.
“Ethan made bail.”
Her stomach dropped.
“That fast?”
“He has friends.”
“So do you.”
“Yes.”
His expression suggested his friends were significantly less pleasant.
Natalie looked at the folder.
“What’s that?”
“The police report.”
“Why do you have it?”
“My attorney.”
“You get everything quickly?”
“Usually.”
She almost smiled.
Then Adrian’s expression changed.
“There’s another issue.”
Natalie knew.
“Your name.”
Her hands tightened around the blanket.
Adrian walked to the chair near the window and sat.
He didn’t move closer.
“Gabriel ran a security check because you’re inside my home.”
“You investigated me.”
“I investigate everyone.”
“That’s comforting.”
“It should be.”
She looked away.
Adrian opened the folder.
“Natalie Bennett does not exist before six years ago.”
Silence.
“No school records.”
She said nothing.
“No birth certificate.”
Still nothing.
“No family except a mother who appears to have the same documentation problem.”
Natalie swallowed.
Adrian closed the folder.
“I don’t care what your name is.”
She looked at him.
“What?”
“I care why Ethan does.”
Her throat tightened.
“You should care.”
“Why?”
“Because people connected to my real name die.”
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“Who are you?”
Natalie stood and walked toward the window.
Manhattan glittered below.
“My father was Daniel Vale.”
Adrian became completely still.
That reaction told her everything.
“You know the name.”
“Yes.”
Everyone in his world knew it.
Daniel Vale had been one of the most powerful federal prosecutors in New York twenty years earlier.
He had built organized-crime cases that sent dozens of men to prison.
Then, one night, his car exploded outside a courthouse garage.
His wife and young daughter had disappeared days later.
Officially, they were believed dead.
Adrian looked at her.
“You’re Emily Vale.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
“I was.”
He stood slowly.
“You were eight when your father died.”
“Nine.”
“And Witness Protection?”
“My mother and I were relocated.”
“Then how did Ethan find you?”
“I don’t know.”
Adrian’s voice lowered.
“But he knew.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Three months.”
“What did he want?”
Natalie wrapped her arms around herself.
“He said my father left something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Money?”
“No.”
“Evidence?”
Her silence answered.
Adrian walked toward her, stopping several feet away.
“Natalie.”
She looked at him.
“My father was investigating someone before he died.”
“Who?”
“My mother never told me.”
“And Ethan thinks you know?”
“He thinks I have something.”
“Do you?”
“I thought I didn’t.”
Adrian noticed the wording.
“Thought?”
Natalie reached beneath the collar of her borrowed sweatshirt.
A thin chain hung around her neck.
On it was a small brass key.
“My mother gave me this when we disappeared.”
Adrian stared.
“What does it open?”
“I never knew.”
“When did Ethan see it?”
“Last month.”
“And after that?”
“He changed.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“More violent?”
“Yes.”
“More questions?”
“Yes.”
Natalie unclasped the chain.
“I always thought it opened something my father left.”
She placed the key in Adrian’s palm.
He turned it over.
A number had been engraved into the back.
Adrian’s face changed.
Natalie noticed.
“You recognize it.”
He didn’t answer immediately.
“Adrian.”
His eyes met hers.
“Vault 731 belonged to my father.”
Natalie stopped breathing.
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
“Why would my father give me a key to something belonging to yours?”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“That’s exactly what I’d like to know.”
Then his phone vibrated.
Gabriel.
Adrian answered.
“What?”
He listened.
His face went cold.
“When?”
Another pause.
“I’m coming.”
He ended the call.
Natalie’s pulse jumped.
“What happened?”
Adrian looked at the key.
“Someone broke into my father’s old bank vault ten minutes ago.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Did they take anything?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“They left something.”
“What?”
Adrian’s voice was quiet.
“A photograph of your father and mine.”
May you like
He paused.
“Standing together the night Daniel Vale was murdered.”
