Chapter 6 - ADRIAN VOSS DOESN’T KNOCK TWICE
Noah opened the door before Mara could stop him.
Later, he would admit this was partly anger.
Not courage.
Not strategy.
Anger.
He was tired of being the only person in his marriage who did not know what his marriage was about.
Adrian Voss stood on the porch with rain on his shoulders and a narrow wooden case under one arm.
“Mr. Hale,” he said. “You’re taller than your wedding photographs.”
Noah’s stomach tightened.
“You’ve seen our wedding photographs?”
“Public records are charmingly generous in small towns.”
Mara appeared behind Noah.
“Leave.”
Adrian smiled.
“Mara.”
“Don’t say my name like you know me.”
“I held you when you were three days old.”
Noah felt Mara go still.
Adrian noticed too.
He held up the wooden case. “May I?”
“No,” Mara said.
Noah said, “What’s in the box?”
Mara shot him a look sharp enough to cut.
Adrian’s smile widened by one millimeter.
“Your mother’s glasses.”
He opened the case.
Inside lay a pair of old black frames. One lens was cracked. The metal arms were stained brown near the hinges.
Mara made a small sound.
Noah had heard that sound only once before, when a hospital called to tell her that an aunt she barely spoke about had died.
Adrian’s voice softened.
“She fought hard.”
Mara’s hand closed around the doorframe.
“You said it was a car accident.”
“I said nothing of the sort. Your mother did, in advance. She prepared that story years before she needed it.”
“Needed it for what?” Noah asked.
Adrian looked at him.
“For disappearing.”
Mara whispered, “She’s alive?”
“No.”
Cruel timing. Clean delivery.
Noah hated him instantly.
Adrian closed the case.
“But she did not die in a car.”
“Then how?” Mara asked.
Adrian’s eyes moved to her glasses.
“She looked at the wrong man.”
Noah stepped forward.
“Get off my porch.”
Adrian did not move.
“Your wife turned Eli Trent into stone two nights ago.”
The sentence landed without sound.
Noah could hear rain running through the gutter.
A truck passed at the end of the street.
Mara whispered, “Noah…”
He did not look at her.
Adrian continued almost gently.
“I removed Mr. Trent before local law enforcement could make the evening complicated. You’re welcome.”
“Where is he?” Mara asked.
“Safe.”
“He’s a person.”
“Was.”
Mara’s breath hitched.
Adrian studied Noah’s face.
“You see? This is why people like Mara need someone practical.”
Noah punched him.
It was not a good punch.
His shoulder was too high and Adrian saw it coming. Still, his knuckles caught Adrian’s mouth.
Adrian stumbled into the porch rail.
For one beautiful second, Noah felt better.
Then two men stepped out of the black sedan.
Big men.
Noah muttered, “That was probably dumb.”
Mara said, “A little.”
Adrian touched blood at his lip and laughed.
“I like him.”
Then his gaze returned to Mara.
“You have forty-eight hours. Come to me willingly, and I leave him out of this.”
Mara’s face hardened.
“And if I don’t?”
Adrian glanced at Noah.
“Then I teach your husband exactly how fragile a human body is.”
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