Chapter 14 - The Last Man Loyal to Victor
Six months passed without an attack.
That made Marco nervous.
Victor remained in federal custody awaiting trial. His assets were frozen. Most of his political allies denied knowing him.
Yet one person from Victor’s network had not been found.
Caleb Rourke.
Rourke had served as Victor’s private security commander for seventeen years. He had arranged the surveillance of Norah, recruited the men who sabotaged Gabriel’s boat, and supervised the counterfeit medication operation.
He disappeared the night Victor was arrested.
Dominic increased security around Lily.
Norah resisted at first.
Then a photograph arrived at Mercy.
It showed Lily on a playground behind her preschool.
The image had been taken that morning.
No written threat accompanied it.
None was needed.
Marco removed Lily from school immediately.
Dominic wanted to move the family to a secure property in Vermont.
Norah refused.
“We cannot keep teaching her that every danger requires losing her normal life.”
“Rourke has killed people.”
“Then find him.”
“We are trying.”
“Try without turning Lily’s childhood into a bunker.”
Dominic looked exhausted.
His trial was scheduled to begin in three weeks. He spent each day meeting attorneys and federal investigators, then returned home determined to behave as though he was not afraid.
Lily noticed anyway.
“Daddy checks the windows,” she told Norah.
“Yes.”
“Are the windows bad?”
“No.”
“Then why does he look at them?”
“Because sometimes grown-ups keep checking things after the danger is gone.”
“Is the danger gone?”
Norah could not lie.
“Not completely.”
Lily thought for a moment.
“Can I check too?”
“No. Your job is to be a child.”
“What’s Daddy’s job?”
Norah looked toward Dominic standing in the hall.
“To learn that he cannot check every window.”
The next morning, Marco discovered how Rourke had tracked Lily.
One of the Reyes security officers had been transmitting school schedules.
His name was Daniel Frost.
He had worked under Marco for nine years.
Dominic entered the security room as Frost sat restrained in a chair.
“Why?” Dominic asked.
Frost looked ashamed.
“Rourke has my brother.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did he contact you?”
“Two months ago.”
“You gave him photographs of Lily.”
“He said he only needed proof of the security patterns.”
“You photographed a child for a man who helped kidnap her.”
Frost lowered his head.
Dominic stepped closer.
Marco watched him carefully.
Months earlier, Frost would not have left the room unharmed.
Now Dominic asked, “What does Rourke want?”
“He wants the ledger.”
“The government has it.”
“He believes you copied the pages concerning offshore accounts.”
“I did not.”
“He does not believe that.”
May you like
“Where will he contact you next?”
“Tonight. Public Garden. Nine
