Chapter 2
“You work out of the 12th Precinct. Your captain is Thomas Vargas. I had dinner with Tommy 2 nights ago at the Palmer House. We discussed the union pension fund.”
Riley went still.
“If you would like to continue harassing a traumatized woman, I can call Tommy right now and we can discuss your pension. Or you can take your notepad, walk out into the rain, and close this file.”
Silence followed.
Officer Riley recognized the name.
More importantly, he recognized the man.
Anyone who had worked Chicago’s streets for more than 5 years had heard whispers about Adrian Cross, the man who owned half the real estate in the South Loop and supposedly commanded a small army of ghosts.
Riley stepped backward.
He touched his partner’s arm.
“We have what we need for the preliminary report. Have a good night, Ms. Miller.”
They left.
The young resident was sweating.
“I just need to finish these 3 stitches, sir.”
Adrian nodded.
“Do it well.”
He remained beside the gurney.
Audrey watched him.
After 5 years, she understood the microscopic changes in his demeanor. The rigid shoulders. The stillness. The dead coldness in his eyes.
He was furious.
Not with her.
With the world that had dared to touch her.
Audrey opened her mouth, preparing to explain how the SUV had ambushed her near a stoplight in her neighborhood.
Adrian met her eyes.
He gave 1 small shake of his head.
Don’t speak.
Nothing else needed to be said.
She was hurt.
Someone had hurt her.
Everything after that was logistics.
“Done,” the doctor eventually said. “She needs rest. Painkillers for the ribs. They’re bruised, not broken. Keep the arm elevated. She should follow up with a primary care physician in a week.”
“She will,” Adrian said.
“Can she walk?”
“I can walk.”
Audrey lowered her legs from the gurney.
The moment her feet touched the floor, pain exploded through her ribs.
Her knees buckled.
Adrian caught her before she fell.
His arm closed around her waist and pulled her tightly against his side.
He was solid and warm, smelling of cedarwood, winter rain, and a trace of expensive whiskey.
It was the closest Audrey had been to him in 5 years.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured.
He supported most of her weight and guided her through the hospital.
When the automatic doors opened, freezing Chicago wind struck them.
Audrey shivered violently.
Adrian stopped.
Without saying anything, he removed his heavy wool overcoat and placed it over her shoulders.
The coat swallowed her frame, its silk lining trapping his body heat around her.
“Mr. Cross,” Audrey said through chattering teeth. “You’ll freeze.”
“Walk.”
He helped her into the passenger seat of the Audi, carefully keeping her injured arm away from the doorframe.
Then he drove.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Only the windshield wipers and the tires moving across wet asphalt disturbed the silence.
Audrey stared through the window.
The shock was fading.
Fear replaced it.
She had always known who Adrian Cross was. She knew the shell companies concealed gambling rings, protection rackets, and smuggling routes.
Until that night, however, the violence had remained numbers on a screen.
She balanced ledgers.
Filed taxes.
Kept the IRS away.
She had never seen the blood.
Now Adrian’s world had reached out and grabbed her by the throat.
“They were waiting for me,” she finally said.
“I know.”
“It was a message.”
“I know.”
She swallowed.
“Mr. Cross, I can’t go back to my townhouse. If they know my route, they know where I live.”
“You’re not going to your townhouse.”
Adrian turned away from Lincoln Park.
He was heading toward the North Shore.
Toward his private estate.
“I’m a liability now,” Audrey said. “If they’re targeting me to get to you, keeping me around makes you vulnerable. I have sufficient funds. I can relocate.”
She paused.
“I can resign.”
Adrian slammed on the brakes.
The Audi stopped on the shoulder of a deserted road.
Audrey lurched against the seat belt and gasped in pain.
Adrian put the car in park.
Then turned toward her.
He leaned across the center console until his face was inches from hers.
“Do not ever say that word to me again.”
“What word?”
“Resign.”
His gaze remained fixed on her.
“You don’t resign, Audrey. You don’t run. And you are not a liability.”
“They used me to send a threat.”
“And I will use them to send a massacre.”
There was no hesitation in his answer.
“They touched what is mine. They breached the wall.”
What is mine.
Not his employee.
Not his secretary.
Audrey stared at him.
Only then did she understand that his silence at the hospital had not been indifference.
It had been restraint.
Adrian pulled away and returned the car to the road.
“Doctor Orris is waiting at my compound,” he said. “He has an X-ray machine and proper medical supplies. You will stay in the East Wing guest suite until I deem it safe for you to leave.”
“And when will that be?”
Adrian watched the rain ahead.
“When there is no one left alive who remembers your name.”
The Cross estate appeared 20 minutes later behind towering wrought-iron gates.
Armed guards emerged from the darkness and waved Adrian’s car through.
The massive stone manor stood beyond them, isolated and impenetrable.
Adrian parked beneath the portico.
When he opened Audrey’s door, he did not merely help her stand.
He put 1 arm beneath her knees, the other behind her back, and lifted her from the car.
“I can walk.”
“Shut up, Audrey.”
He carried her inside.
Doctor Orris waited in the grand foyer with a medical bag.
Adrian carried Audrey past him and directly up the sweeping mahogany staircase to the East Wing.
Inside an enormous guest room, he gently placed her on the edge of the king-sized bed.
“Orris will look at you now,” he said. “Get some sleep. We will talk business tomorrow.”
“Adrian.”
He stopped.
It was the first time in 5 years she had used his first name.
“Thank you.”
Adrian looked back at her.
He did not smile.
He nodded once.
“Sleep.”
Then he closed the door.
Adrian remained alone in the hallway.
He removed a silver cigarette case from his pocket and lit 1 cigarette.
After a long drag, he took out his burner phone.
He dialed.
The call was answered after 1 ring.
“Boss.”
“Wake the boys up.”
May you like
Adrian stared at Audrey’s closed door.
“We’re going hunting.”
