Chapter 2 - Several men disliked that.
She did not care.
One afternoon, a contractor stared at her while asking, “Does he understand what I’m saying?”
Emma smiled politely.
“Ask him.”
The contractor flushed.
Adrian looked amused for the next twenty minutes.
Their working rhythm became effortless.
Adrian signed.
Emma voiced.
Someone answered.
Emma signed the response.
But she refused to become another Nolan.
If Adrian signed something cruel, she translated it cruelly.
If he was wrong, she did not soften him.
If he insulted someone, she made sure the insult survived intact.
After one particularly brutal negotiation, he asked why she looked annoyed.
“You were being an ass.”
His eyebrows rose.
Emma signed it too.
Ass.
Adrian laughed silently.
It transformed his entire face.
That was the moment Emma realized she was in trouble.
Not because Adrian Voss frightened her.
Because increasingly, he didn’t.
She began noticing ordinary things.
He hated olives.
He read history at breakfast.
He always loosened his cuffs when angry.
He kept old photographs of his mother in a locked desk drawer.
He checked every building they entered for visual fire alarms, not because he feared fire, but because he had once been trapped during an evacuation when everyone else heard the warning.
And behind all the money and control, Adrian possessed a loneliness so deep he had learned to disguise it as independence.
Emma understood loneliness.
Her father had disappeared when she was twelve.
Her mother had spent years drifting in and out of illness.
Hannah had moved across the country.
Emma had become good at surviving alone.
One rainy evening, she and Adrian were working in his study at the Lake Forest house when the power failed.
The emergency lights came on.
Emma jumped.
Adrian did not.
He looked at her.
“You don’t get startled by thunder either, do you?” she asked.
He signed.
One advantage.
Emma moved toward the windows.
Lightning flickered over the lake.
“Sometimes I wonder what it’s like.”
Adrian’s face changed.
Emma immediately regretted the sentence.
“I didn’t mean—”
He interrupted.
What what is like?
“Your world.”
He considered that.
Then he crossed the room and placed Emma’s palm against the glass.
Thunder rolled.
She felt the vibration through the window.
Adrian pointed toward the storm.
Then toward the floor where another faint tremor traveled beneath their shoes.
Then to her throat.
Emma understood.
He was not showing her what he lacked.
He was showing her what he had.
Vibration.
Movement.
Light.
Faces.
Hands.
The world did not disappear because sound did.
It rearranged itself.
Emma looked at him differently after that.
“Beautiful,” she whispered.
Adrian read her lips.
Yes.
She was not sure whether he meant the storm.
Then his phone vibrated.
The moment vanished.
The message on the screen came from a security officer.
Nolan Pierce had disappeared.
So had three company accounts.
And before midnight, Adrian’s people discovered the worst part.
Nolan had taken copies of every file Emma had assembled.
He knew exactly what they could prove.
“He’ll run,” Emma said.
Adrian shook his head.
No.
“Why?”
Because money was never the thing he loved most.
“What was?”
Adrian looked at her.
Being necessary.
Two days later, Emma’s old boss called.
Frank Moran.
She almost ignored him.
Then she answered.
“Emma?”
His voice was shaking.
“What do you want?”
“I need to see you.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“You sold me.”
“I made a mistake.”
“You offered me as collateral to people you thought were criminals.”
“Emma, listen—”
“No, Frank. You listen. I spent five years working doubles for you. I covered holidays. I drove through snowstorms. I brought soup to your apartment when you had pneumonia. And the first time your mistakes became expensive, you decided my life was cheaper than yours.”
Frank began crying.
Emma hated that part of herself that still felt something.
Then he said the sentence that changed everything.
“Nolan says if I don’t bring you to him, he’s going to kill me.”
Emma went completely still.
“Where are you?”
“Moran’s.”
“Is Nolan there?”
A pause.
“Frank?”
The line went dead.
Emma turned.
Adrian stood in the doorway.
He had seen enough of her face.
What?
Emma signed everything.
His expression hardened immediately.
She expected guards.
Cars.
Weapons.
Instead Adrian signed one command.
Stay here.
Emma laughed without humor.
“Absolutely not.”
Emma.
“No.”
Dangerous.
“I know.”
He moved closer.
His hands were sharper now.
Nolan wants you because of me.
“No. Nolan wants me because I caught him.”
I will not risk you.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
Adrian froze.
Emma stepped closer.
“You told me my choices were mine.”
His jaw tightened.
“So don’t become Frank just because you’re scared.”
That landed.
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Adrian looked away.
When he turned back, his anger was gone.
He signed slowly.
Together.
Emma nodded.
“Together.”
But they did not storm Moran’s Grill with an army.
That was what Nolan expected.
Instead Emma called him.
He answered immediately.
“There’s my favorite waitress.”
“What do you want?”
“Bring Adrian.”
Emma looked at Adrian.
Nolan continued.
“Just the two of you. No security. No heroic nonsense.”
“And if we don’t?”
“Frank dies first.”
Emma closed her eyes.
Then Nolan added, “After that, I release enough evidence to destroy everything Adrian still owns.”
“You stole that evidence.”
“I improved it.”
Emma understood.
He had altered files.
He intended to frame Adrian for crimes Nolan himself had ordered.
“Why?”
Nolan laughed.
“Ask your boyfriend.”
Emma glanced at Adrian.
“He isn’t my boyfriend.”
Adrian raised an eyebrow.
Nolan laughed harder.
“Sure.”
The call ended.
Emma and Adrian arrived at Moran’s Grill at 11:40 p.m.
The OPEN sign had been switched off.
Chairs stood upside down on tables.
Rain streaked the windows.
Emma had spent thousands of hours inside that room.
Tonight it looked unfamiliar.
Adrian touched her elbow before they entered.
You can still leave.
Emma signed back.
So can you.
He almost smiled.
They went inside.
Nolan was waiting in booth seven.
Frank sat beside him.
His lip was split.
Two unfamiliar men stood near the kitchen.
No one pointed a gun.
That somehow made the scene more frightening.
“Sit,” Nolan said.
Emma and Adrian sat opposite him.
Nolan looked at Adrian.
Then deliberately turned toward Emma.
“Tell him he’s finished.”
Emma did not translate.
Nolan smiled.
“Already disobedient.”
Adrian signed.
Emma voiced exactly.
“He says if you have something to say, look at him.”
Nolan’s face tightened.
But he turned.
“You were nothing without me.”
Emma signed.
Adrian watched him.
“I gave you a voice.”
Emma translated.
“I made men fear you.”
She translated that too.
“When your father died, everybody laughed behind your back. They called you the deaf prince. The broken heir. I fixed that.”
Adrian’s face remained unreadable.
Nolan leaned forward.
“I made them think every quiet order was a death sentence. I made you legendary.”
Adrian signed.
Emma translated.
“You made me stupid.”
Nolan blinked.
Adrian continued.
“You made decisions for me and let me carry the consequences.”
“Those decisions built your empire.”
“They built yours.”
Nolan’s smile vanished.
He reached beneath the table and placed a thick folder on top.
“I own copies of everything. Every shipment. Every payoff. Every dirty property deal your father ever handed you.”
Adrian glanced at it.
Then back at Nolan.
“One message,” Nolan continued, “and every rival you have learns where your money is. Another message and investigators receive enough to bury you.”
Frank began shaking.
Emma looked at him.
Nolan noticed.
“Oh, don’t feel sorry for Frank. He sold you once. He was ready to do it again.”
Frank whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Emma looked at him for a long moment.
“I believe you.”
Hope appeared in his face.
Then Emma finished.
“I also believe being sorry doesn’t erase what you did.”
His head dropped.
Nolan rolled his eyes.
“Touching.”
He looked at Adrian.
“Here are my terms. You sign over Voss Freight’s private logistics division. You step away from the city. Emma comes with me until the transfer is complete.”
Adrian became very still.
Emma’s stomach tightened.
Nolan smiled at her.
“Don’t worry. I won’t sell you. Apparently we’re all very sensitive about that now.”
Adrian’s fist closed.
Nolan saw it.
“See? That’s your problem, Adrian. You still think intimidation works without me.”
He leaned back.
“You can’t hear the men behind you.”
Emma felt the blood leave her face.
A tiny sound had come from the kitchen.
A shoe against tile.
Adrian could not hear it.
Nolan smiled.
Emma did not turn.
Instead she lifted one hand beneath the table.
Someone behind us.
Adrian’s eyes remained on Nolan.
How many?
May you like
Emma listened.
Two visible.
