Chapter 3 - Friday Night
Adrian read the words twice.
Friday night.
Tomorrow.
He turned to Claire.
“Who wrote this?”
“I don’t know.”
“You worked for my brother for six years.”
“I worked for the man he pretended to be.”
“That answer doesn’t help me.”
Claire pushed herself upright.
“Then here’s one that will. Victor stopped being the only person in charge months ago.”
Mara shut the filing cabinet.
“Who took over?”
Claire looked toward the doorway as if expecting someone to be standing there.
“I never saw a face. We called him North.”
“Who is ‘we’?” Adrian asked.
Claire’s silence answered first.
Then footsteps thundered up the staircase.
A security officer appeared.
“Sir, local police are at the front gate.”
“Let them in.”
The officer hesitated.
Mara noticed.
“What?”
“They’re demanding we release Mason Crowe into their custody immediately.”
Adrian frowned.
“So?”
“They’re not asking about Miss Vale.”
The room went quiet.
Adrian descended with Mara while two guards stayed with Claire.
In the foyer, Mason was sitting in a chair with his wrists zip-tied behind him.
Emily was on the couch now, wrapped in a blanket. A medic examined the bruise on her face.
She looked at Adrian the second he came down.
“You found her?”
“Yes.”
Emily’s eyes closed in relief.
Outside, red and blue lights flashed across the windows.
Mara checked the security feed.
“Three patrol cars. Sheriff’s vehicle too.”
Adrian looked at Mason.
Mason smiled.
That was new.
Twenty minutes ago, he had been terrified.
Now he looked comfortable.
The front door opened.
Sheriff Daniel Pike entered with four deputies.
He was in his late fifties, thick around the waist, silver hair combed neatly back.
“Adrian,” he said. “I’m going to need you to step away from Mr. Crowe.”
“You’re going to need to take a statement from my daughter.”
“We’ll handle that at the station.”
“She was assaulted here.”
Pike’s eyes flicked toward Emily.
“According to whom?”
Emily stared at him.
“According to me.”
Pike didn’t respond.
Instead he nodded to Mason.
“Cut him loose.”
No one moved.
Adrian’s voice hardened.
“Sheriff.”
Pike sighed.
“You don’t want to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Turn a family dispute into something bigger.”
Emily stood so fast the blanket fell from her shoulders.
“He hit me.”
Pike looked annoyed.
“Miss Vale, lower your voice.”
Adrian stepped between them.
“No. You lower yours.”
For the first time, Pike’s expression cracked.
Mason laughed softly.
Then Adrian noticed something on the sheriff’s right hand.
A black signet ring.
The same symbol had been stamped in the corner of every blackmail folder upstairs.
May you like
A compass pointing north.
