Chapter 2 - The Job Gideon Mercer Couldn’t Understand“What kind of work do you do?”
Hannah looked across the sitting room at Gideon Mercer.
The question sounded simple, but coming from him, it felt like an interrogation.
“I’m a caregiver at Magnolia Harbor Memory Center.”
Gideon’s eyebrows moved slightly.
“You work with dementia patients?”
“Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, stroke recovery. Mostly people whose families are too busy, too tired, or too uncomfortable to sit with them.”
There was something sharper in her voice than she intended.
Gideon noticed.
“Do you dislike wealthy families, Ms. Brooks?”
“I dislike anyone who treats people like inconvenient furniture.”
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he sat in the chair opposite her.
“Why were you walking home instead of driving?”
“My car died three months ago.”
“You couldn’t repair it?”
Hannah laughed once.
“That depends. Does your mechanic accept rent money and grocery coupons?”
Gideon’s face changed.
Not pity.
Calculation.
Hannah hated calculation.
“I don’t need money,” she said immediately.
“I haven’t offered any.”
“You were about to.”
“Perhaps.”
“Then don’t.”
His gaze hardened slightly.
“You saved my son’s life.”
“And if you try to pay me for it, I’ll feel like I sold it back to you.”
That seemed to surprise him.
Gideon Mercer was probably accustomed to people wanting something from him.
Jobs.
Contracts.
Favors.
Protection.
Money.
Hannah wanted dry socks and eight uninterrupted hours of sleep.
Before Gideon could answer, footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Noah appeared in the doorway wearing dark blue pajamas and carrying a blanket around his shoulders.
Gideon stood instantly.
“What are you doing out of bed?”
Noah ignored the question.
“Hannah’s still here.”
“I told you I wouldn’t leave.”
“You said that at the river.”
“And I meant it.”
Noah crossed the room and sat beside her.
Gideon watched them with an expression Hannah could not read.
Noah reached for Hannah’s bandaged hand.
“Does it hurt?”
“Only when scary eight-year-olds ask questions.”
“I’m not scary.”
“Your father says otherwise.”
For the first time, Noah smiled.
It changed his entire face.
Gideon stared at that smile as if he had not seen it in a very long time.
Then Noah looked at him.
“Dad, can Hannah stay tonight?”
“Noah—”
“She’s cold.”
“The doctor said she’s stable.”
“She doesn’t have a car.”
Hannah turned toward him.
“You were listening?”
“No.”
“You’re terrible at lying.”
“Yes.”
Gideon rubbed a hand across his jaw.
“You may stay in one of the guest rooms.”
“I really should go home.”
“At two in the morning?”
“I’ve done it before.”
“That does not improve the argument.”
Hannah opened her mouth, but Noah leaned against her shoulder.
The gesture was small.
Trusting.
And devastating.
She stayed.
At 6:15 the next morning, Hannah woke to someone knocking softly on the guest-room door.
Margaret Ellis entered carrying coffee.
The housekeeper was in her early sixties, with silver-streaked hair pinned neatly behind her head.
“Mr. Mercer asked that you be allowed to sleep.”
“And yet you’re waking me.”
Margaret smiled.
“I am rescuing you.”
“From what?”
“Mr. Mercer’s idea of gratitude.”
That woke Hannah immediately.
“What did he do?”
Margaret handed her the coffee.
“There’s a car in the driveway.”
Hannah closed her eyes.
“No.”
“A very expensive car.”
“No.”
“And Daniel Reed has been instructed to drive you to the dealership to sign paperwork.”
“Absolutely not.”
Margaret’s smile widened.
“I rather thought you might say that.”
Twenty minutes later, Hannah walked into Gideon’s breakfast room wearing borrowed jeans, a cream sweater, and an expression that made Daniel Reed quietly step aside.
Gideon was reading something on a tablet.
Noah ate pancakes beside him.
Hannah placed a set of car keys on the table.
“No.”
Gideon looked up.
“Good morning.”
“No.”
“It’s a Volvo.”
“I don’t care if it grows wings.”
“It’s one of the safest vehicles available.”
“Wonderful. Give it to someone who asked for one.”
Noah stopped chewing.
Gideon set down the tablet.
“You need transportation.”
“I need my old Honda to stop sounding like a lawn mower being murdered.”
“I can arrange that.”
“You can stop arranging my life.”
Silence dropped over the room.
Daniel looked very interested in the curtains.
Gideon rose slowly.
“I am trying to thank you.”
“Then say thank you.”
“I already did.”
“Try again.”
Something flickered in Gideon’s eyes.
No one spoke to him this way.
Hannah could tell.
That realization should have frightened her.
Instead, it irritated her.
Gideon stepped closer.
“Thank you, Hannah Brooks, for saving my son.”
There was no authority in the words this time.
No command.
Only the exhausted father she had seen on the riverbank.
Hannah’s anger softened.
“You’re welcome.”
Noah resumed eating.
Problem solved.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
His entire posture changed.
“Mr. Mercer.”
Gideon turned.
Daniel handed him the phone.
“This came through the east gate camera archive.”
Gideon watched the screen.
His face went completely still.
“What is it?” Hannah asked.
He didn’t answer.
Daniel did.
“Someone disabled the cameras near the river route last night.”
Gideon looked at him.
“How long?”
“Eleven minutes.”
“When?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“From 11:47 to 11:58.”
Hannah felt a cold sensation move through her chest.
Noah had gone into the river at 11:53.
“That’s not random,” she said.
“No,” Gideon replied.
Noah stared between them.
“Dad?”
Gideon immediately changed his expression.
“Finish breakfast.”
Noah’s eyes narrowed.
He was clearly his father’s son.
“Did someone push me?”
Hannah froze.
Gideon slowly turned toward him.
“What did you say?”
Noah looked down at his plate.
“I don’t remember everything.”
Gideon crouched beside him.
“Noah. Look at me.”
The child hesitated.
Then raised his eyes.
“I was in the car with Mr. Pierce.”
Gideon’s face sharpened.
Caleb Pierce was the Mercer family’s longtime driver.
“He said you were sending me to Aunt Evelyn’s house because you had a meeting.”
“I never gave that instruction.”
Noah’s fingers tightened around his fork.
“He stopped near the pier.”
Hannah moved closer.
“What happened then?”
“There was another man.”
“What man?”
“I couldn’t see his face.”
Noah swallowed.
“He opened my door.”
Gideon’s voice became dangerously calm.
“What did he do?”
Noah looked at Hannah.
“He said my dad needed to learn what it felt like to lose everything.”
Nobody moved.
Then Noah whispered the words that changed the room.
“He threw me in.”
Gideon rose.
The father disappeared.
In his place stood the man Savannah feared.
“Daniel.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Find Caleb Pierce.”
Daniel was already dialing.
Hannah looked at Noah’s white face.
She knelt beside him and reached for his hand.
“Hey.”
He looked at her.
“You’re safe.”
His fingers closed around hers.
Across the room, Gideon noticed.
And for perhaps the first time in his life, Gideon Mercer understood that all his money, guards, gates, and influence had failed at the one thing that mattered most.
A woman with six dollars in her checking account had protected his son better than his entire security network.
Daniel returned three minutes later.
His expression was grim.
“We found Pierce’s car.”
“Where?”
“Abandoned near Interstate 16.”
“Pierce?”
“Gone.”
Gideon stared at him.
Daniel continued.
“There’s blood in the front seat.”
Hannah’s stomach tightened.
Then Daniel added something worse.
“And a message written on the windshield.”
Gideon’s eyes darkened.
“What message?”
May you like
Daniel looked toward Noah before answering.
“They wrote, ‘THE RIVER WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING.’”
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