Chapter 4 - Someone Was Watching NoraThree nights later, Nora noticed the gray sedan.
She noticed it because it was parked across from the Copperbird at eleven-thirty.
Then again at one.
Then at two-fifteen.
Nobody entered.
Nobody left.
Eastport was not a neighborhood where people sat inside parked cars for three hours because they enjoyed the scenery.
Nora carried trash bags toward the dumpster and glanced at the windshield.
The driver turned his head.
That was enough.
She went back inside.
Her manager, Dale, was counting receipts.
“You know that gray car?”
Dale looked through the window.
“No.”
“It’s been there all night.”
“Probably waiting for somebody.”
“Maybe.”
Nora finished wiping the counter.
She did not call Elias.
That was deliberate.
She refused to become the kind of person who saw danger everywhere because she knew a dangerous man.
At 3:06, she clocked out.
The sedan was gone.
Nora walked toward her Honda.
The parking lot was empty.
Halfway there, she heard footsteps.
Not behind her.
To her left.
She turned.
A man stepped from between two delivery vans.
“Ms. Voss?”
Nora stopped.
He was perhaps thirty-five. Ordinary coat. Ordinary face.
That was what frightened her.
Dangerous people rarely looked the way movies promised.
“Yes?”
“I have a message.”
Nora slid one hand into her jacket pocket around her keys.
“For who?”
“You.”
He smiled.
“Tell Mr. Crane that closing one pipeline doesn’t stop the river.”
Nora’s pulse accelerated.
“I’m not his messenger.”
“No?”
The man glanced toward her car.
“Funny. People have seen him here.”
Nora took one step backward.
The man did not follow.
“That’s all,” he said.
Then he walked away.
Nora waited until he disappeared around the building.
Her hands were steady.
They stayed steady while she got into the Honda.
They stayed steady while she locked the doors.
They stayed steady while she drove three blocks.
Then she pulled into a gas station and called Elias.
He answered on the first ring.
“Nora?”
“I need you not to overreact.”
His silence was terrifying.
“What happened?”
She told him.
By the time she finished, his voice had changed completely.
“Where are you?”
“Gas station on Mercer.”
“Stay inside.”
“Elias—”
“Please.”
That word stopped her.
Not an order.
Please.
“I’ll stay.”
“I’m eight minutes away.”
“You’re awake at three in the morning?”
“I’m always awake at three in the morning.”
“That’s unhealthy.”
“I’ll put it on the list.”
He arrived in six minutes.
Two vehicles came with him.
Nora watched through the gas station window as Elias stepped out.
He was wearing black trousers and a dark sweater instead of a suit. His hair was slightly disordered.
For some reason that made the situation feel more serious.
Marcus came from the second SUV.
Nora met them outside.
Elias walked directly toward her.
He stopped an arm’s length away.
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
“Did he show a weapon?”
“No.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“I told you everything.”
Elias looked over her face as though searching for damage.
Nora touched his wrist.
“Hey.”
His eyes met hers.
“I’m okay.”
He closed his eyes for one second.
When he opened them again, the rage was still there.
But contained.
“Marcus.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“Get the station footage and Copperbird cameras. Quietly.”
Nora looked at Elias.
“You’re not going after him?”
“I’m finding out who he is.”
“And then?”
“Then I’ll decide what is necessary.”
“That sounded suspiciously like the old you.”
“The old me would already have three men looking for a place to bury him.”
Marcus coughed.
Nora glanced over.
“Was that a joke?”
Marcus looked at Elias.
“I genuinely don’t know anymore.”
Despite everything, Nora laughed.
Elias didn’t.
He was staring at the street.
“This is because of me.”
“Yes,” Nora said.
He looked at her sharply.
She continued before he could turn guilt into violence.
“So we deal with the actual problem. We don’t create ten new ones because you’re angry.”
“They approached you because they believe you matter to me.”
Nora’s heartbeat changed.
She wished he had phrased it differently.
Or perhaps she didn’t.
“And do I?” she asked.
Marcus suddenly became extremely interested in the gas prices.
Elias looked at Nora.
“Yes.”
One word.
No hesitation.
Nora swallowed.
“Then you should probably learn how to protect people without owning them.”
“I’m trying.”
“I know.”
He looked toward her Honda.
“You can’t go home.”
“I absolutely can.”
“They know where you live.”
That stopped her.
Miller knew Elias had intervened.
Someone had photographed or watched him.
The stranger knew the diner.
Her apartment no longer felt separate.
Nora hated that Elias was right.
“I have a guest room,” he said.
She looked at him.
“No.”
“Nora.”
“Your house has twenty-three rooms.”
“Twenty-four.”
“That’s worse.”
“Petra would be there.”
Nora hesitated.
Elias noticed.
“That was manipulative,” she said.
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I’m learning.”
Nora looked toward the empty street.
“Two nights.”
Elias nodded.
“Two nights.”
“And I’m not being guarded in the bathroom.”
Marcus muttered, “Nobody wants that assignment.”
Nora looked at him.
Marcus looked away.
Elias almost smiled.
—
Petra was awake when they arrived.
She appeared at the top of the staircase wearing pajama pants and carrying a bowl of cereal.
“Nora?”
“Apparently I’m being temporarily kidnapped for my own safety.”
Elias closed the door.
“That is not an accurate description.”
Petra looked between them.
“Oh, this is going to be fun.”
“It is not,” Elias said.
“It already is.”
Nora followed Petra upstairs.
Elias watched them disappear.
Marcus stood beside him.
“You realize this is exactly what Vale wants.”
Elias turned.
“You think it’s Vale?”
“The footage gave us a face. The guy at the diner works for Adrian Vale.”
Elias’s jaw tightened.
Vale.
A name from another life.
Fifteen years earlier, Elias and Adrian had worked under the same man.
When the organization fractured, Elias had taken Eastport.
Vale disappeared south.
Rumors placed him in Baltimore, Newark, Montreal.
Apparently the rumors had been wrong.
“What does he want?”
“You.”
“Then why touch the distribution network?”
“To make you react.”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“And Rourke has been meeting somebody.”
Elias looked toward the staircase.
“Proof?”
“Not enough.”
“Get enough.”
Marcus nodded.
“And Nora?”
Elias looked up.
A laugh drifted faintly from the second floor.
Nora.
Petra.
Two sounds that did not belong in his silent house.
“Vale doesn’t get near either of them.”
Marcus studied him.
“That sounded like the old Elias.”
“No.”
Elias’s eyes remained on the staircase.
“The old Elias would burn the city down to guarantee it.”
“What does the new one do?”
Elias looked at him.
“Finds a way to win without making them afraid of me too.”
—
At two in the morning, Nora found Elias sitting in the kitchen.
“You really don’t sleep.”
He looked up.
“Apparently neither do you.”
“Your guest mattress costs more than my car. It’s intimidating.”
She opened the refrigerator.
“Do rich people not keep leftovers?”
“There are leftovers.”
“Where?”
Elias pointed.
Nora opened another compartment.
“Your refrigerator has departments.”
“I didn’t design it.”
She found pasta.
Five minutes later they were sitting at the island eating cold linguine from expensive ceramic bowls.
Nora looked around the dark kitchen.
“Petra told me about her mother.”
Elias stopped eating.
“She told you?”
“Some.”
He nodded.
“Her name was Catherine.”
“I know.”
“She was better than me.”
Nora frowned.
“That’s a strange way to describe your wife.”
“She was.”
He looked toward the windows.
“She believed people could change. I believed people behaved according to incentives.”
“And who was right?”
“Her.”
Nora twirled pasta around her fork.
“Maybe both.”
Elias looked at her.
“People respond to incentives,” Nora continued. “But sometimes the incentive is being loved by someone who expects better.”
He was quiet.
“What happened to her?”
Nora asked it carefully.
Elias’s face changed.
“Car bomb.”
Nora stopped.
“She wasn’t the target.”
His voice remained even.
“I was.”
The refrigerator hummed.
“I was supposed to be in the car. She changed plans. Took Petra to a recital rehearsal.”
Nora’s stomach tightened.
“Petra?”
“Catherine dropped her off ten minutes earlier.”
Elias looked down at his hands.
“I spent the next four years making sure nobody could ever get close enough to hurt Petra.”
“And she spent four years losing her father anyway.”
“Yes.”
No defensiveness.
That hurt more.
Nora reached across the counter.
She put her hand over his.
Elias stared at it.
“Catherine’s death wasn’t your fault,” she said.
His gaze lifted.
“You don’t know enough to say that.”
“Then tell me.”
“I chose the life that put the bomb under that car.”
Nora didn’t withdraw her hand.
“That means your choices had consequences. It doesn’t mean you planted it.”
“I killed the men responsible.”
“I assumed.”
“All of them.”
“Did it help?”
Elias looked toward the darkness.
“No.”
Nora squeezed his hand once.
“That’s probably important.”
“To what?”
“To whatever you do next.”
Their hands remained together.
Neither acknowledged it.
Not immediately.
Then footsteps sounded.
Petra stood in the doorway.
She looked at their hands.
Then at her father.
Then at Nora.
“I wanted water,” she said.
Nora pulled her hand back.
Petra opened a cabinet.
A smile was threatening to split her face.
“Don’t,” Elias warned.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“I literally came for water.”
“Petra.”
She filled a glass.
“Good night, Dad.”
“Good night.”
“Good night, Nora.”
“Good night.”
Petra reached the doorway.
Then she turned.
“Cold pasta is basically a date in this house.”
She disappeared.
Nora covered her mouth.
Elias stared at the doorway.
May you like
Then Nora started laughing.
And for the second time in four years, Elias Crane laughed too.
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