Chapter 4 - THE COMPANY THAT HIRED ME FOR A REASON
Elena moved first.
She killed the lights.
Victor pushed himself upright despite Dr. Patel’s protest.
“Back door?”
The doctor pointed toward a storage hatch.
We slipped through one by one.
I crawled after Elena through a narrow maintenance passage while shouting erupted behind us.
My knees scraped concrete.
My dress tore.
And somewhere in the darkness, I realized my entire life had just split in half.
Before tonight, my biggest problem had been a collapsed floral arrangement.
Now armed men were chasing me because my dead father may have uncovered a financial conspiracy fourteen years earlier.
We emerged inside an empty conference room on the thirty-ninth floor.
Elena locked the hatch.
Victor leaned against a table.
His face was gray.
I looked toward him.
“You’re going to collapse.”
“Later.”
Then my phone buzzed again.
My boss.
I answered.
“Hazel, where are you?”
“Who hired me?”
Silence.
“What?”
“Who specifically approved my application three years ago?”
Another pause.
“Graham Mercer.”
My stomach dropped.
“He doesn’t normally handle staffing.”
“No.”
“Then why me?”
“I don’t know.”
I closed my eyes.
Victor watched.
I put the call on speaker.
“Where is Graham now?”
“He arrived ten minutes ago.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“At the gala?”
“Yes.”
Then my boss whispered:
“Hazel, there’s something strange.”
“What?”
“The keynote speaker disappeared.”
Nathan Brooks Jr.
The man pretending to be my nonexistent brother.
“Where did he go?”
“Nobody knows.”
Then she continued:
“And security is asking questions about you.”
Victor reached for the phone.
“What questions?”
My boss recognized his voice.
Her breathing changed.
“Mr. Castle?”
“Yes.”
She stammered.
“They want Hazel’s home address.”
My blood turned cold.
Victor ended the call.
I stared.
“My mother lives with me.”
His face changed.
“Where?”
“Lakeview.”
Elena was already dialing.
“We’ll get someone there.”
I shook my head.
“No Castle men.”
Victor looked surprised.
“I don’t know who I can trust in your organization.”
For one second, tension filled the room.
Then he nodded.
“Fair.”
We contacted a private attorney Elena trusted and requested a welfare check through legitimate channels.
My mother was safe.
For the moment.
Then Victor asked:
“Why would Mercer hire you?”
I thought about my interview.
The recruiter had barely looked at my résumé.
She asked strange questions about Dad.
Whether he left papers.
Whether I kept his old things.
At the time, I thought she was making conversation.
Now I understood.
“They were searching for something.”
Victor nodded.
“Something Nathan hid.”
My stomach tightened.
I thought of Dad’s old apartment.
The storage unit I inherited.
Boxes I hadn’t opened in years.
Then I remembered something.
A leather portfolio.
The one my boss had sent me upstairs to retrieve.
I looked toward Victor.
“What was in room 4201?”
His expression changed.
“Why?”
“The portfolio.”
I swallowed.
“I think this whole thing started because somebody wanted me to pick it up.”
Elena checked the hotel system through her attorney’s contact.
Room 4201 wasn’t registered to our keynote speaker.
It belonged to Graham Mercer.
May you like
And hotel footage showed someone placing the leather portfolio inside thirty minutes before I was sent upstairs.
Someone had deliberately directed me toward a floor where Victor was being hunted.
