Chapter 9

Julian appeared at the edge of the rotunda. He looked calm. He looked at Eli, then at Victor, and something cold moved behind his eyes.

“Let the boy go, Victor,” Julian said. “You have what you want.”

“I don’t have the clasp,” Victor said.

“I can get it,” I said. “It’s in my apartment. Let Eli stay with Julian.”

Victor laughed. “You think I’m a fool?”

“No,” Julian said. “I think you’re a murderer.”

Victor’s smile thinned. “Careful, Julian.”

Julian walked closer. His hands were loose at his sides. I saw the phone in his breast pocket, angled toward Victor. A red light blinked at the edge. Recording.

“Daniel Vaughn was a thief,” Victor said. “He stole my ledgers. He thought he could blackmail me. I went to his apartment to reason with him. He pulled a gun.”

“He didn’t,” I said. “I was there. You shot him twice.”

Victor looked at me. For a moment, he seemed almost pleased. “You should have stayed in the closet, Eliza.”

Julian’s voice was ice. “So you admit it.”

“I admit nothing.” Victor stepped closer to me. “But if you want your son to live, you will get me that clasp. Daniel hid everything in a safe deposit box. I want those ledgers. I want the number.”

I thought of Daniel’s face. The way he had fallen. The way Victor had wiped the gun on a dish towel. I had spent five years running from that memory.

“You killed him,” I said. “You killed my husband, and you made me believe my father was the monster.”

Victor shrugged. “Your father was a fool. You were a weapon. I used you. Now the weapon is rusty.”

Julian moved so fast I almost missed it. He grabbed Victor’s arm and twisted it behind his back. The man holding Eli let go. Eli ran to me.

But Victor’s other men closed in.

“Let him go,” Victor snarled. “Or everyone dies.”

Julian’s phone was still recording. “You just confessed. To witnesses. To a microphone.”

Victor went still.

At the service door, Marcus appeared. He was limping. He held up a small silver object wrapped in a tissue.

“The original clasp,” he said.