Chapter 4 - The Man Daniel Trusted MostDaniel had known Grant Holloway for nineteen years.
That was the private truth behind almost everything he had built.
Cross Meridian had begun in a borrowed office with six employees and secondhand computers because Daniel had refused his father’s money.
Charles had called it childish pride.
Daniel called it freedom.
Charles Cross belonged to an older generation of power.
He believed money existed to create obedience.
People were assets.
Friendships were transactions.
Family was leverage.
Daniel remembered being seventeen when his mother wanted to leave.
Charles had frozen every account in her name before breakfast.
By dinner, she had changed her mind.
She remained married to him for eleven more miserable years.
Daniel never forgot.
And now Evelyn was telling him his father might have stolen twenty-eight million dollars from a charitable foundation.
“Are you certain?”
Evelyn looked hurt.
“I wouldn’t accuse your father if I wasn’t.”
“I’m not doubting you.”
“It sounded like you were.”
Daniel immediately softened.
“I’m trying to understand.”
She closed her eyes.
He could see exhaustion pulling at her.
“We can talk tomorrow.”
“No.”
“Evelyn.”
“If someone killed Marcus because of this, tomorrow could be too late.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You heard?”
“A nurse mentioned police in the garage.”
Daniel cursed silently.
He had wanted to protect her from that detail.
Evelyn continued.
“Marcus called me yesterday.”
“What?”
“He said he knew I’d been asking questions.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I wasn’t sure who I could trust.”
Daniel flinched.
“Including me?”
Her silence answered.
That hurt more than he expected.
Evelyn squeezed his fingers.
“Daniel, the authorization records used your digital credentials too.”
His breathing stopped.
“What?”
“Some transfers were approved using your executive certificate.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
“You thought I was stealing?”
“No.”
“Then why didn’t you come to me?”
“Because if someone had access to your credentials, I didn’t know who was watching your communications.”
Daniel stood and walked toward the window.
New York glittered below.
He suddenly understood how thoroughly someone had invaded his life.
His company.
His foundation.
His marriage.
Possibly his father.
A knock sounded.
Grant entered.
“Sorry.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You found something.”
Grant nodded.
“Marcus didn’t jump.”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“Preliminary evidence. Bruising around his upper arms. Security cameras in the garage were also disabled.”
Evelyn went pale.
“Murder?”
“That’s what NYPD is considering.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“Where’s my father?”
Grant hesitated.
“He left.”
“Find him.”
“I tried. His driver says Charles dismissed him at JFK this afternoon.”
“Private jet?”
“Grounded in London.”
Daniel grabbed his jacket.
Evelyn immediately said, “Where are you going?”
“To find him.”
“Daniel, no.”
“My father appears unexpectedly in the hospital minutes before a man tied to this investigation dies.”
“You don’t know that he did anything.”
“I know enough to ask.”
Evelyn tried sitting up.
A monitor alarm changed.
Daniel rushed back.
“Don’t move.”
She gripped his arm.
“Do not become him.”
Daniel froze.
Her eyes held his.
“You’re angry. You’re scared. But don’t walk into this thinking power gives you permission to do anything you want.”
Daniel looked away.
She knew him too well.
“I’m not asking you to forgive him,” Evelyn whispered. “I’m asking you to stay Daniel.”
He nodded slowly.
“I’ll stay.”
Grant’s phone rang.
He answered.
“Say again.”
His eyebrows pulled together.
“What room?”
Daniel watched him.
Grant hung up.
“Vanessa is gone.”
“What?”
“The detective interviewing her stepped out after Vanessa requested medical attention. A nurse entered. Two minutes later they found the nurse unconscious in the restroom and Vanessa missing.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Security exits?”
“Locked down.”
“Then she’s still inside.”
Grant shook his head.
“They found a service uniform in the basement loading dock.”
Evelyn whispered, “Someone helped her.”
“Looks like it.”
Daniel’s phone vibrated again.
Another unknown message.
This time there was no photograph.
Only an address.
And beneath it:
MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE ORIGINAL VIDEO.
Grant read it over his shoulder.
“No.”
Daniel looked at him.
“That wasn’t a question.”
“It’s obviously a trap.”
“It’s also the footage showing what happened to Evelyn.”
“We already know what happened.”
“A jury doesn’t.”
“Daniel.”
Evelyn looked between them.
“Original video?”
Daniel explained the missing eleven minutes.
Evelyn’s expression changed.
“Someone deleted it?”
“Apparently.”
She stared at the ceiling.
“I thought Vanessa looked terrified when Grant mentioned the camera.”
“She probably didn’t know.”
“Then whoever erased the recording knew she was going to attack me.”
Daniel felt the same cold realization return.
The assault may have been arranged.
Not necessarily the exact violence.
But the confrontation.
Vanessa might have been bait.
“Midnight,” Grant said. “We have forty minutes.”
Daniel studied the address.
An old distribution warehouse in Brooklyn.
He knew the property.
Cross Meridian had owned it eight years earlier before selling to a shell investment group.
“Ashbury,” Evelyn whispered.
“What?”
“I saw that address.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Where?”
“One of Ashbury Strategic’s incorporation documents.”
Now Grant looked interested.
“That changes things.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “It makes it more dangerous.”
Daniel took her hand.
“I’m not going alone.”
The address sat on his phone like an invitation from a ghost.
At 11:57 p.m., Daniel’s armored SUV stopped two blocks from the warehouse.
Grant sat beside him.
Four former federal agents from Daniel’s private security team waited in separate vehicles.
Detective Morgan had been informed despite Daniel’s initial objections.
“You understand,” Morgan had told him, “that withholding information in a homicide investigation because you think you’re Batman is not acceptable.”
Daniel had almost laughed.
Almost.
At midnight exactly, lights appeared inside the warehouse.
Daniel entered through the front.
Grant remained thirty feet behind, hidden.
The building smelled like dust and engine oil.
“Hello?”
No answer.
A laptop sat on a folding table.
Its screen glowed.
Daniel approached.
A video file waited.
He pressed play.
The hospital suite appeared.
Timestamp: 9:50 p.m.
Evelyn and Vanessa stood facing each other.
The missing footage.
Vanessa shouted something.
Audio was clear.
“You should have left Ashbury alone!”
Evelyn said, “You’re stealing from sick children.”
“I’m not stealing anything!”
“Then tell me who is.”
Vanessa looked toward the door.
“They’ll destroy you.”
“Who?”
“I warned you.”
“No. You threatened me.”
“I’m trying to save you!”
Evelyn stared at her.
“By threatening my baby?”
Something inside Vanessa snapped.
She shoved Evelyn.
Daniel clenched his fists watching.
Then came the kick.
He forced himself not to look away.
Suddenly, after Evelyn fell, Vanessa crouched beside her.
The next words changed everything.
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel leaned closer.
Vanessa sounded horrified.
“I wasn’t supposed to hurt you.”
Then she looked toward the ceiling camera.
Not directly at it.
Toward something beside it.
“What do you want from me now?”
Daniel froze the video.
Evelyn wasn’t the only person Vanessa had been speaking to.
Vanessa was wearing a tiny communication device in her ear.
A voice answered faintly.
Male.
“Finish it.”
Daniel replayed.
The words were unmistakable.
Finish it.
Vanessa looked down at Evelyn.
“No.”
The man repeated,
“Finish it, Vanessa.”
She backed away.
“I said no.”
That was when Daniel entered the room.
The video ended.
Daniel stood completely still.
Someone hadn’t merely encouraged Vanessa to confront Evelyn.
Someone had ordered her to kill her.
A noise sounded behind him.
Daniel turned.
Vanessa stepped from the shadows.
She looked exhausted.
Terrified.
And she was holding a gun.
“Don’t move.”
Daniel stared at the weapon.
“You sent the message.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because this is the only copy.”
“Who was speaking through your earpiece?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Marcus is dead.”
“I know.”
“My wife almost lost our child.”
“I know!”
“Then tell me.”
Vanessa’s gun trembled.
“If I say his name, I’m dead.”
Daniel took one slow step.
“So was Marcus.”
“Stop!”
He stopped.
Vanessa looked behind him.
“You weren’t supposed to bring anyone.”
“I didn’t.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Daniel, you were always a terrible liar.”
Then headlights exploded through the warehouse windows.
Vanessa spun around.
A black SUV crashed through the side loading door.
Gunfire erupted.
Daniel threw himself behind the table.
Grant shouted from somewhere in the darkness.
Vanessa screamed.
The laptop shattered under a bullet.
Daniel looked up.
Vanessa had fallen.
Blood spread across her shoulder.
Masked men moved through the warehouse.
Not police.
Not security.
Professionals.
They had come for one thing.
The evidence.
Daniel grabbed the laptop drive from the shattered machine.
A gunman saw him.
Raised his weapon.
Then another shot cracked through the warehouse.
The gunman fell.
Detective Morgan emerged behind a concrete pillar.
“NYPD! DROP IT!”
Chaos exploded.
Within ninety seconds, the attackers retreated.
One was captured.
Two escaped.
Vanessa survived.
Barely.
Daniel crouched beside her as paramedics arrived.
She grabbed his sleeve.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
Her lips trembled.
“The voice…”
“Yes?”
She pulled him closer.
“It wasn’t your father.”
Daniel stared.
“Then who?”
Vanessa whispered the name.
Daniel’s entire body went cold.
Because the man who had ordered Vanessa to “finish” Evelyn wasn’t Charles Cross.
It was Grant Holloway.
Daniel slowly looked over his shoulder.
May you like
Grant stood twenty feet away.
Watching him.
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