Chapter 7 - The Man Adrien Trusted With His LifeMarcus arrived at the penthouse the next morning carrying coffee and absolutely no idea that Adrien had spent the night wondering whether his oldest friend had betrayed him.
Grace watched from the kitchen.
Adrien stood near the windows.
Too still.
Marcus put the coffee tray on the island.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Marcus looked at Grace.
She lifted one eyebrow.
He looked back at Adrien.
“That is the least convincing ‘nothing’ you have ever produced.”
Adrien said nothing.
Grace intervened.
“We found Thomas Bell’s safe-deposit box.”
Marcus’s humor disappeared.
“What was inside?”
“A flash drive.”
“Anything useful?”
“Yes.”
Adrien finally turned.
“Security schedules.”
Marcus frowned.
“From when?”
“Three years.”
Now Marcus became alert.
“Who had them?”
“Robert.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because some of those schedules were never digital.”
Grace watched him carefully.
Marcus walked toward the table.
“After the warehouse shooting two years ago, I stopped putting certain rotations on the network.”
Adrien’s eyes sharpened.
“Who knew?”
“Me.”
“Who else?”
“Two shift commanders.”
“Names.”
“Anthony Vale and Peter Sloane.”
Grace knew both.
Anthony had been with the Morettis for eight years.
Peter for eleven.
Neither had appeared important during Robert’s investigation.
Marcus continued.
“If Robert had those rotations, somebody photographed the paper copies.”
Adrien studied him.
Marcus noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Stop saying nothing.”
Grace almost smiled.
Marcus looked between them.
Then his face changed.
“You think it was me.”
Adrien did not deny it.
Marcus went silent.
The silence hurt more than shouting would have.
Finally,
“Why?”
Grace placed the photograph on the table.
Marcus stared at it.
His expression became unreadable.
“That’s me.”
“Yes,” Adrien said.
Marcus picked it up.
“Where did you get this?”
“Bell’s box.”
Marcus looked toward Grace.
“You think it’s altered?”
“I don’t know yet.”
He put the photograph down.
“I met Robert that night.”
Adrien’s face hardened.
Grace had not expected that.
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“Why?”
Marcus looked at Adrien.
“Because he asked me to remove you.”
The room became very quiet.
Grace felt Adrien’s entire body change.
Marcus continued before he could speak.
“Not kill you.”
“Remove you from control.”
“He said you were becoming reckless.”
“That Grace was changing your judgment.”
Grace frowned.
“This was before we married.”
“Yes.”
Adrien’s voice dropped.
“And you never told me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I told him to go to hell.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“No.”
“It’s the beginning of one.”
Fourteen years of loyalty stood between the two men.
So did one secret.
Marcus looked tired.
“Robert said the council was worried you were becoming emotionally compromised.”
“He wanted me to document your decisions.”
“Your movements.”
“Anything he could use.”
Adrien’s eyes turned colder.
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“Because you were finally happy.”
Adrien said nothing.
“You had spent half your life treating every human being like a possible breach in a perimeter.”
“Then Grace happened.”
Marcus glanced toward her.
“You started leaving meetings before midnight.”
“You ate dinner at home.”
“You laughed occasionally.”
“Very occasionally.”
Grace almost smiled.
Marcus continued.
“And Robert hated it.”
“I thought if I told you, you’d do what you always did.”
“Close everything.”
“Push everyone away.”
“Maybe push her away too.”
Adrien stared.
“So you decided for me.”
“Yes.”
Marcus did not soften it.
“And I was wrong.”
Grace recognized something important.
Marcus was not asking forgiveness before admitting fault.
Adrien noticed too.
“What was in the envelope Robert gave you?”
“Photographs.”
“Of Grace.”
Adrien moved.
Grace caught his sleeve.
Marcus did not step back.
“Nothing threatening.”
“Pictures of her talking to men.”
“Clients.”
“A former boyfriend.”
“Robert wanted me to convince you she had another life.”
Grace felt sick.
Adrien’s voice became dangerous.
“What did you do with them?”
“Burned them.”
“And said nothing.”
“Yes.”
Adrien walked away.
Grace let him.
Marcus looked at her.
“I should have told him.”
“Yes.”
“You believe me?”
“I believe parts of what you’re saying fit the evidence.”
Marcus gave a humorless smile.
“Very romantic.”
“I restore documents.”
“Occupational hazard.”
Adrien turned.
“Anthony and Peter.”
Marcus nodded.
“I’ll bring them in.”
“No.”
Grace spoke.
Both men looked at her.
“If one is the Shepherd, bringing them in tells him we know.”
Marcus considered it.
“She’s right.”
Adrien exhaled.
“I am surrounded by people telling me not to do things.”
Grace smiled faintly.
“Growth.”
They designed a test.
Three false schedules.
Three different routes.
Only Marcus, Anthony, and Peter would receive one version each.
Adrien was supposedly traveling to a private meeting outside Chicago.
Marcus’s version placed him on Lake Shore Drive.
Anthony’s used Interstate 90.
Peter’s used a western route through Oak Brook.
Adrien would go nowhere.
They waited.
At 8:43 that evening, an unknown vehicle appeared along the Oak Brook route.
Peter Sloane’s route.
Marcus looked at the screen.
“Got you.”
Adrien did not celebrate.
“Follow.”
The vehicle led them to a storage facility.
Peter arrived twenty minutes later.
He entered unit 441.
Marcus’s team waited until he left.
Inside were burner phones.
Copies of security schedules.
Photographs of Grace.
And Robert’s payment records.
Peter was the Shepherd.
But Grace noticed something else.
A map.
Her studio was circled.
So was the penthouse.
And the new training center next door.
A date had been written beside the training center.
Tomorrow.
Grace stared.
“My first class.”
Adrien looked at her.
The opening of Grace’s conservation program was scheduled for 10:00 the next morning.
Twenty-three students.
Emily.
Two guest instructors.
Local press.
Adrien immediately reached for his phone.
“Cancel it.”
Grace’s answer came just as quickly.
“No.”
He stared.
“Grace.”
“If we cancel, Peter knows we found the map.”
“He already knows something may be wrong.”
“Not necessarily.”
Marcus examined the notes.
“There’s no attack plan.”
Adrien turned on him.
“You’re saying that like it helps.”
“I’m saying we need to know what the date means.”
Grace looked closer.
Beside the date was a single letter.
D.
Daniel arrived thirty minutes later.
“D could mean delivery.”
“Detonation,” Marcus said.
Grace looked at him.
“Thank you for that.”
“Sorry.”
Adrien was already done debating.
“The event is canceled.”
Grace faced him.
“No.”
“Twenty-three civilians.”
“I know.”
“Then there is no argument.”
“There is.”
Adrien stared at her.
Grace stepped closer.
“If Peter thinks tomorrow matters, he will watch.”
“We can evacuate everyone without announcing it.”
“Move the class online.”
“Keep the building appearing occupied.”
Marcus understood.
“Use it as bait.”
Adrien’s expression hardened.
“No.”
Grace ignored him.
“If Peter comes, we take him.”
“He may lead us to whoever is still working with him.”
“No.”
“Adrien.”
“No.”
Grace waited until Marcus and Daniel left the room.
Then she closed the study door.
“You’re doing it again.”
His face changed.
“Doing what?”
“Turning fear into authority.”
“This is different.”
“It always feels different.”
“Someone marked your building.”
“And I am listening to you.”
“You are arguing.”
“Yes.”
“That is what married people do.”
Despite himself, Adrien almost smiled.
Grace stepped closer.
“I am not asking to sit inside the studio tomorrow.”
“You’ll be somewhere secure.”
“Yes.”
“Marcus controls the operation.”
“Yes.”
“You do exactly what he says.”
Grace paused.
Adrien narrowed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Grace.”
“Yes.”
He exhaled.
“All right.”
The next morning, Grace’s studio looked normal.
Coffee sat on tables.
Lights glowed.
A recorded class announcement played near the front room.
But the students were home.
Emily was at a secure location.
Grace watched surveillance feeds from a building across the street with Adrien and Marcus.
At 10:17, Peter appeared.
He wore a delivery uniform.
Grace leaned forward.
“That’s D.”
Delivery.
Peter carried a rectangular case.
Marcus spoke into his radio.
“Hold.”
Peter entered the empty studio.
Grace watched him move directly toward the archive room.
Not the classroom.
Not the electrical system.
The archive.
He opened the case.
Inside were documents.
He began placing them inside Grace’s cabinets.
Daniel whispered,
“He’s planting evidence.”
Grace understood.
Robert’s final plan had not been to destroy her physically.
It was to destroy the one thing she depended on.
Credibility.
Peter planted forged Moretti records inside her studio.
Documents that would make it appear Grace had manufactured the evidence used against Robert.
Adrien’s face became terrifyingly calm.
Marcus gave the signal.
Security entered.
Peter ran.
He reached the rear alley before Marcus tackled him against a parked car.
Grace watched on the monitor.
Adrien did not move.
His restraint cost him.
She knew that.
Ten minutes later, Peter sat handcuffed in the neighboring building.
He looked at Grace and smiled.
“Robert was right about you.”
Grace sat opposite him.
“What did he say?”
“That you notice everything except what people think of you.”
She held his gaze.
“He was wrong.”
Peter laughed.
“You still think this ends with me?”
Adrien stood behind Grace.
Peter looked toward him.
“There’s a reason Robert kept me inside security.”
“Insurance.”
“Against what?”
Peter smiled again.
“Against Marcus.”
Marcus stiffened.
Peter continued.
“You think I’m the only one he recruited?”
Adrien’s eyes narrowed.
“Name.”
“No.”
Marcus stepped forward.
Grace raised one hand.
He stopped.
Peter looked amused.
“See?”
“He listens to her now.”
“Robert hated that.”
Grace leaned toward him.
“Robert is in federal custody.”
“And you are sitting in handcuffs.”
“Whatever he promised you is over.”
Peter’s smile weakened.
Grace continued.
“You planted evidence in my studio.”
“There are cameras.”
“You carried it in yourself.”
“You were caught with Robert’s burner phones.”
“You’re not his insurance anymore.”
“You’re evidence.”
Peter’s face changed.
Grace saw fear.
She lowered her voice.
“So the question is not whether Robert protects you.”
“He cannot.”
“The question is whether you want to be the last man carrying his secrets.”
Peter looked toward Marcus.
Then Adrien.
Then back to Grace.
“What do you want?”
“Everything.”
Three hours later, Peter gave them the name of the second man Robert had recruited.
Not Marcus.
Not Daniel.
Not a capo.
A federal investigator.
Special Agent Nathan Cole.
The same man supervising part of the case against Robert.
Adrien stared at Peter.
Grace felt cold.
Robert had not merely prepared to survive inside the Moretti organization.
He had built himself a door inside the investigation meant to imprison him.
And somewhere downtown, Special Agent Nathan Cole received a secure message.
PETER IS COMPROMISED.
Cole deleted it.
Then opened Robert Moretti’s evidence file.
May you like
He removed one document.
And began feeding it into a shredder.
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