Chapter 6 - THE SAFE PLACE WAS A TRAP
The first place Eli called safe had a dead man in the bathtub.
I stood in the doorway of the motel bathroom and stared.
“Tell me that’s not your contact.”
Eli checked the man’s pulse anyway.
“It was.”
“Your safe place is amazing.”
“He was alive six hours ago.”
“So was my trust in people.”
He ignored that and searched the room.
I locked the door, shoved a chair under the handle, and called Tessa.
Straight to voicemail.
I tried again.
Nothing.
Eli found a burner phone taped under the desk.
One missed call.
One voicemail.
He played it on speaker.
A woman’s voice said, “Cross, Ward knows you have the ledger. Do not take the girl to the facility. Room Nine is bait.”
The message ended.
“Ward,” I said. “Who is Ward?”
Eli sat on the edge of the bed.
“Judge Helen Ward.”
I knew the name. Everybody did.
She ran charity drives. Opened schools. Spoke after hurricanes. Her face was on billboards for Mercy Foundation every winter.
“She’s Mercy?”
“She’s one of the people at the top.”
“One of?”
Eli nodded.
“That’s comforting.”
I opened the ledger again.
WARD — CUSTODIAN.
“What does custodian mean?”
“Keeper of the network.”
“And ‘Raven’?”
He went quiet.
“Noah’s code name.”
“Which means he worked for them.”
“Yes.”
I threw the book at him.
“You keep telling me the truth one inch at a time!”
“Because every mile of it gets somebody killed.”
“Tessa is already being hurt!”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
My voice shook.
“You don’t know what it’s like to watch someone you love disappear and have every person around you decide what you’re allowed to know.”
Eli looked down.
Then he said, “I watched Noah disappear.”
I stopped.
“He was in a warehouse outside the city. Seven years ago. We were stealing a server. The building exploded.”
“You were there?”
“Yes.”
“You told the police he was dead?”
“I identified what they found.”
“What did they find?”
He looked at me.
“Not enough to be sure.”
My hands curled into fists.
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“You don’t get credit for that anymore.”
A knock hit the motel door.
Three slow taps.
Eli raised his gun.
“Maya Reed?” a woman called. “Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
I almost laughed.
“Why not the circus?” I whispered.
She slid credentials under the door.
Special Agent Lauren Pike.
Eli checked the photo.
“I know her.”
“Good or bad?”
“Complicated.”
“Your whole life is complicated.”
Pike called through the door, “Detective Sloane is compromised. We have evidence tying him to Mercy. I can get your friend back.”
I looked at Eli.
He shook his head.
Then my phone rang.
Tessa’s number.
I answered.
Sloane said, “You have ten seconds to decide whether your friend keeps all her fingers.”
My blood went cold.
“Stop.”
“Bring the key to me. Alone.”
“I don’t know where you are.”
“You will.”
A location arrived on my screen.
Police headquarters.
I stared at it.
Sloane laughed softly.
“Come to the safest building in the city, Maya.”
Then he added, “That’s where we keep the monsters.”
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