Chapter 6 – Ten Seconds
I hated Adrian.
That part was easy.
Trusting him was impossible.
But the gunshots downstairs were real.
Hale pushed Rachel and me toward the bedroom.
“Bathroom window.”
“We’re four floors up.”
“Fire escape.”
Another shot cracked below us.
Adrian shouted from the hall.
“Claire!”
Hale opened the door suddenly and slammed Adrian against the wall.
Adrian raised both hands.
“I’m unarmed.”
“How did you get out?”
“Detective Samuel Price released me.”
Hale froze.
“Price?”
“He told the desk officer I was being transferred.”
“Price isn’t assigned to this case.”
“I know.”
Hale’s face changed.
Footsteps thundered up the stairs.
“Move.”
We ran.
Adrian reached for Emma.
I pulled away.
“Don’t touch her.”
His face twisted.
“I’m trying to save her.”
“You shoved me while I was holding her.”
The words hit him.
Good.
They should.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Hale opened the fire escape.
“Fight later.”
We climbed down into the alley.
A black SUV turned the corner.
Adrian shouted.
“DOWN!”
The rear window lowered.
Gunshots tore into the brick above us.
Rachel screamed.
Hale fired back.
Adrian threw himself over me and Emma.
I hated that too.
Because for one second, the man who had terrorized me was using his body to protect us.
The SUV sped away.
Hale called for backup.
Adrian rolled off me.
Blood covered his sleeve.
“You’re hit.”
“Just grazed.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why are they trying to kill us?”
Adrian sat against the wall.
His eyes met mine.
“Because File Seven isn’t about money.”
Thomas arrived at the bottom of the fire escape.
“What?”
Adrian looked at him.
“The shell companies were moving money, yes.”
He breathed through the pain.
“But that wasn’t their main purpose.”
“What was?”
“People.”
Nobody spoke.
Adrian swallowed.
“My mother used Whitmore shipping routes to move people under false identities.”
Rachel looked horrified.
“You mean trafficking?”
“Yes.”
Thomas went pale.
“And Daniel discovered it.”
“Yes.”
I wanted to be sick.
“How long did you know?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Two years.”
I slapped him.
Hard.
His head snapped sideways.
Nobody stopped me.
“You knew?”
“I tried to get out.”
“You knew!”
“My mother said she’d kill you.”
“So you protected me by becoming her?”
His eyes filled with something I had never seen before.
Shame.
“I became exactly what she needed me to become.”
“No.”
I stepped backward.
“You chose.”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
Sirens approached.
Adrian looked at me.
“And now I’m choosing differently.”
“Too late.”
“Probably.”
He reached into his jacket slowly.
Hale raised his gun.
“Easy.”
Adrian removed a key.
Old brass.
I recognized it.
The missing key from my father’s box.
My breath caught.
“Where did you get that?”
“Your father gave it to me the night he died.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“You saw my father that night?”
“Yes.”
“You told me you were in Boston.”
“I lied.”
“Was Margaret there?”
“No.”
“Dr. Reed?”
Adrian stared at me.
“No.”
“Then who?”
May you like
His answer was almost a whisper.
“Your sister.”
