Chapter 6 - THE MAN IN THE ELEVATOR
Grace never left my arms after that.
Not for tests.
Not for photographs.
Not for anything.
The hospital drew a second blood sample with me watching.
Mia witnessed the seal.
A detective signed the chain-of-custody form.
Luka assigned two members of his security team to the door.
It should have made me feel safer.
It didn’t.
At three in the morning, I finally slept.
I woke to Luka standing beside the window.
“You need to leave.”
I sat upright.
“What happened?”
“One of my men recognized someone near the service elevator.”
“Who?”
“A contractor who used to work for Vale Security.”
My body went cold.
“Adrian sent him?”
“I don’t know.”
“You always say that when you know more than you want to tell me.”
Luka didn’t deny it.
Twenty minutes later, they moved Grace and me through a private corridor.
I wore sweatpants Mia had brought.
Grace was strapped against my chest.
Luka stayed close.
The elevator doors opened.
A man in blue hospital scrubs stood inside.
He smiled.
“Going down?”
Luka stopped.
Something about his posture changed.
“No.”
The man looked at me.
Then at Grace.
His right hand slipped into his pocket.
Luka moved instantly.
He shoved me behind him.
The man tried to step out.
Luka caught his wrist.
A plastic hospital identification card fell to the floor.
Then a syringe.
My stomach turned.
Security rushed forward.
The man struggled.
Luka pinned him against the elevator wall.
“Who sent you?”
The man said nothing.
Police took him away.
The syringe was later found to contain a sedative.
Not enough to kill anyone.
Enough to make an exhausted woman unconscious.
I sat inside Luka’s armored SUV afterward with Grace pressed against me.
My entire body shook.
Luka climbed into the front passenger seat.
“Where are we going?”
“A safe house.”
“I don’t want your safe house.”
“It belonged to your father.”
That silenced me.
We drove for almost an hour.
The city disappeared.
Then suburbs.
Then forest.
At sunrise we reached a small house beside a lake.
I had seen it before.
My father’s photograph.
The fishing cabin.
I stepped inside.
Dust covered the shelves.
A faded baseball cap hung beside the door.
My father’s cap.
I touched it.
My knees almost gave out.
Luka caught my elbow.
I pulled away.
“I’m okay.”
“You don’t have to be.”
That almost broke me.
Instead, I looked around.
On the kitchen table sat a locked metal box.
Mia had arrived before us.
She held a key.
“Thomas left instructions.”
She opened the box.
Inside were seventeen folders.
Sixteen were empty.
One remained.
M-17.
My hands shook.
I reached for it.
Then headlights swept across the cabin windows.
A car had stopped outside.
Luka drew a weapon from beneath his coat and moved toward the door.
I held Grace tighter.
Someone knocked three times.
Luka looked through the glass.
Then slowly lowered the weapon.
“Who is it?”
I whispered.
He looked at me.
May you like
His face had gone strangely soft.
“Your father.”
