Chapter 2 - THE HUNT BEGINS
Claire did not learn Miles had ordered her death until the following morning.
By then, every television station in New York seemed to have footage of Adrian’s proposal.
Someone had uploaded it before midnight.
By sunrise, it was everywhere.
Powerful businessman Adrian Cole proposes to socialite Brooke Lawson at lavish Christmas celebration.
Nobody mentioned the pregnant wife standing thirty feet away.
At least not initially.
Then another video appeared.
Shot from the opposite side of the ballroom.
This one showed Claire.
She stood beneath the archway.
One hand against her stomach.
Still as stone while her husband proposed.
The internet did what it always did.
It chose sides before breakfast.
Rebecca switched off the television in the rented apartment.
“Don’t read the comments.”
“I’m not.”
Claire was.
Some called her pathetic.
Others called Adrian evil.
A woman with six million followers posted a freeze-frame of Claire watching the proposal and wrote:
This is the exact moment a woman realizes silence is no longer loyalty.
Claire stared at the words longer than she wanted to admit.
Rebecca took the phone from her.
“You have bigger problems.”
She placed Atlas on the kitchen table.
Claire had slept less than two hours.
“Did you open it?”
“No. And we’re not trying.”
“Why?”
“Because if this device has authentication protections, one wrong attempt could wipe it or alert someone.”
Claire looked at the small black object.
“Adrian will know it’s gone.”
“I assume he already does.”
Rebecca’s phone vibrated.
She checked the screen.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“My investigator found something.”
“What?”
“Two vehicles were parked near my Boston office yesterday.”
Claire felt cold.
“You said the office was safe.”
“I said attorney-client privilege protected what you gave me. I never said Adrian’s world respected privilege.”
“Was it Adrian?”
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca turned the laptop around.
Grainy security photographs showed a black SUV.
A man standing near it.
Claire recognized him immediately.
She stopped breathing.
“Who is that?”
“Evan Pike. Warren Pike’s nephew.”
Claire stared.
Warren Pike.
Miles’s secret financial partner.
Rebecca saw the recognition.
“You know him?”
“Not personally.”
“Then why does your face look like that?”
Claire explained.
By the time she finished, Rebecca was no longer sitting.
She paced to the window.
“This changes things.”
“How?”
“I assumed your greatest risk was Adrian.”
Claire almost laughed.
“So did I.”
Rebecca looked at Atlas.
“If Miles is working with Pike and Pike’s people were watching my office, they may already know you discovered something.”
Claire put both hands over her stomach.
“Then we go to the federal government.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Today.”
Back in Greenwich, Adrian had not slept.
Neither had Miles.
The difference was Adrian was searching for Claire.
Miles was searching for Atlas.
By eight o’clock, Adrian had security footage from every camera surrounding the estate.
Claire entering the service hallway.
Claire walking outside.
Claire disappearing beyond the property line.
Then nothing.
A camera at the gate showed no vehicle leaving.
“She walked?” Adrian asked.
Miles stood beside the monitor.
“Maybe someone picked her up beyond camera range.”
“Who?”
“We’re checking.”
“Check faster.”
Brooke entered without knocking.
She wore one of Adrian’s shirts beneath a fur-trimmed robe.
The engagement ring sparkled on her hand.
Adrian looked at her.
For one terrible second, he could not remember why he had proposed.
Brooke crossed her arms.
“You disappeared last night.”
“My wife disappeared last night.”
“She’s angry.”
Adrian turned back to the monitor.
“She’s pregnant.”
“She’s also an adult.”
Miles studied Brooke.
Something passed between them.
Adrian missed it.
Brooke moved closer.
“She wanted you to chase her. Don’t give her the satisfaction.”
Adrian slowly looked at her.
“Claire has never done anything for attention.”
“Everybody does things for attention.”
“No.”
His voice was flat.
“Not Claire.”
Brooke stiffened.
“Then why leave in the middle of our engagement party?”
Our engagement party.
The phrase irritated him.
It had been his Christmas party.
His house.
His wife’s work.
Brooke had simply become the center of it.
Miles intervened.
“We’ll locate her.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Privately.”
“Of course.”
“No police.”
Miles nodded.
Adrian continued.
“And nobody touches her.”
A pause.
Then Miles smiled faintly.
“Why would anyone touch her?”
Adrian did not answer.
That tiny reaction in the study still bothered him.
Miles had gone pale when Atlas disappeared.
But Miles did not know Atlas existed.
At least Adrian had never told him.
That thought stayed with Adrian all morning.
At 9:17, his longtime driver, Patrick O’Donnell, entered the office.
Patrick had worked for Adrian’s father before Adrian.
Seventy years old.
Former police officer.
Completely unimpressed by expensive suits.
“You wanted me?”
“Did Claire contact you?”
“No.”
“Did you take her anywhere recently?”
Patrick paused.
Adrian noticed.
“Recently?”
“Last six months.”
Patrick looked toward Miles.
“Can I speak to you alone?”
Miles’s expression hardened.
Adrian nodded.
“Miles.”
“Adrian—”
“Out.”
Miles left.
Patrick shut the door.
“Mrs. Cole went to Boston six weeks ago.”
Adrian stood.
“Why?”
“Medical appointment, she said.”
“She has no doctor in Boston.”
“I figured that.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Patrick looked disgusted.
“Because she’s your wife, not your prisoner.”
Adrian’s eyes hardened.
Patrick did not care.
“She asked me to drop her near a law office.”
“What law office?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
Patrick shook his head.
“No.”
Adrian stared at him.
“You’ve worked for my family thirty years.”
“That’s why I’m telling you this. Whatever happened last night, don’t make it worse.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“You saw the proposal.”
“Whole country saw it.”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
Patrick laughed once.
“No? You accidentally got down on one knee?”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Patrick lowered his voice.
“Your father made plenty of mistakes. But he once told me something about you.”
Adrian said nothing.
“He said your biggest problem was that people feared disappointing you so much, eventually nobody would tell you when you were becoming a fool.”
Patrick opened the door.
“Last night, you were a fool.”
Then he left.
Adrian stood alone.
In Boston, Rebecca drove Claire to a federal building using a different car.
They never arrived.
Three blocks away, Rebecca noticed the SUV.
Black Chevrolet Tahoe.
Two men.
Same vehicle had turned behind them twice.
“Claire.”
“I see it.”
Rebecca turned right.
SUV followed.
Another right.
Still there.
Claire’s heartbeat accelerated.
“Is it Adrian?”
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca accelerated.
The Tahoe did too.
“Call 911.”
Claire reached for her phone.
Before she dialed, the Tahoe moved beside them.
A passenger window lowered.
Rebecca shouted, “Down!”
Claire ducked.
The sound was not a gunshot.
It was metal.
The SUV slammed into their rear quarter panel.
Rebecca lost control.
Their car fishtailed across wet pavement.
A horn screamed.
Claire grabbed the dashboard.
“Baby—”
Rebecca regained control seconds before they hit a delivery truck.
The Tahoe disappeared into traffic.
Rebecca pulled onto the sidewalk.
Claire was shaking.
“Are you hurt?”
“I don’t know.”
“Claire.”
“My stomach.”
Pain tightened across her abdomen.
Rebecca’s face drained of color.
“Is it the baby?”
“I don’t know.”
Another cramp.
Harder.
Rebecca called emergency services.
Twenty minutes later, Claire was inside Massachusetts General Hospital under an assumed registration protocol Rebecca arranged.
A doctor examined her.
“No bleeding. Baby’s heart rate is good. You’re having stress-induced contractions.”
“Am I in labor?”
“Not yet. But you need observation.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Rebecca stood beside the bed.
“I’m calling federal authorities here.”
Claire nodded.
“Do it.”
The doctor left.
Rebecca turned away to make the call.
Claire touched her stomach.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Her daughter moved.
Claire started crying.
Not loudly.
She had become very good at crying quietly.
Back in Greenwich, Adrian finally identified Rebecca Shaw.
He stood over a laptop looking at a photograph of the Boston attorney.
Domestic violence advocacy.
Financial crimes litigation.
Federal cooperation agreements.
His blood went cold.
Miles entered.
“We may have something.”
Adrian closed the laptop.
“What?”
“A contact says Claire might be in Massachusetts.”
“How do you know?”
Miles hesitated.
“Cell tower information.”
Claire’s phone had been turned off since leaving the estate.
Adrian knew because he had personally checked.
He stared at Miles.
“What cell tower information?”
Miles realized the mistake.
Too late.
Adrian walked around the desk.
“Show me.”
“It’s from a source.”
“Show me.”
Miles’s face changed.
Just slightly.
Adrian suddenly understood.
Miles was not helping him find Claire.
Miles was already tracking her.
“Where is she?” Adrian asked.
“Boston area.”
“And how long have you known?”
Silence.
Adrian stepped closer.
Nine years.
Miles had stood beside him at funerals.
Weddings.
Business deals.
Shootings.
Hospital rooms.
Nine years.
“Did you send someone after my wife?”
Miles laughed.
“That’s ridiculous.”
Adrian grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
“Did you send someone after my pregnant wife?”
Security outside heard the impact but did not enter.
Miles’s calm finally cracked.
“If Claire took something that threatens this organization, she becomes a liability.”
Adrian went perfectly still.
Miles knew.
Not suspected.
Knew.
Adrian released him.
“What did she take?”
Miles straightened his jacket.
“You tell me.”
That answer was enough.
Adrian smiled.
It was not a pleasant smile.
“All right.”
Miles watched him carefully.
“All right what?”
Adrian returned to his desk.
“Find her.”
Miles relaxed slightly.
Adrian continued.
“And bring her home alive.”
“Of course.”
Miles left.
The door closed.
Adrian waited ten seconds.
Then pulled a second phone from a hidden drawer.
There was only one number saved inside.
A man named Luca Moretti answered.
“You only use this phone when something is very wrong.”
Adrian stared at the closed door.
“It is.”
“What happened?”
Adrian lowered his voice.
“I need you to follow Miles.”
Luca went quiet.
May you like
Adrian added four words he never thought he would say.
“I think he betrayed me.”
