Chapter 2 - The Ghost Inside His House
For twenty years, Adrian Vale had ruled Blackridge by making certain no one ever saw him hesitate.
Men twice his size lowered their voices when he entered a room. Politicians returned his calls before their own spouses'. Business owners who had never met him knew the shape of his reputation. Adrian rarely raised his voice, because men who truly possessed power did not need to announce it.
Then, on the coldest night of December, a starving dog made him stop.
Rain had begun before sunset and turned vicious after midnight, striking the pavement hard enough to bounce from the gutters. Snow mixed with it in wet, useless flakes that melted the moment they touched the street.
Adrian had left a private meeting three blocks away after discovering that someone inside his organization had been selling information to a rival syndicate. His driver waited around the corner, but Adrian had chosen to walk.
He needed the cold.
He needed silence.
Instead, halfway through an alley behind an abandoned theater, he heard a growl.
Adrian stopped.
Beside two overflowing dumpsters, a little girl sat curled against the brick wall on a collapsed sheet of cardboard. Her hair was soaked. Her mustard-colored coat looked too thin for October, much less December. One battered boot had split near the toe.
Pressed against her was a golden retriever so thin Adrian could count its ribs.
When Adrian took another step, the dog stood.
Barely.
Its left rear leg trembled violently, but it planted itself between Adrian and the child.
Then it showed its teeth.
Adrian stared.
He had watched armed men lose control of their hands while pointing guns at him.
This starving animal could barely remain upright, yet it had decided Adrian Vale would have to go through it first.
“Easy,” Adrian said.
The dog growled louder.
The girl stirred.
“Bear,” she whispered. “Stay.”
Adrian felt something unexpected tighten inside his chest.
She couldn't have been older than eight.
Her face was pale from the cold, but what struck him was not her condition.
It was her eyes.
Dark.
Watchful.
Too old for her face.
And familiar.
Adrian crouched slowly, keeping several feet between them.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
The girl stared at him.
Adults had lied to her before. He could see that immediately.
“Bad men came to our house,” she said.
Her voice was weak but steady.
“Daddy told me to run.”
Adrian’s expression sharpened.
“What happened to your father?”
“There was shooting.”
She looked down at Bear.
“Then fire.”
Adrian glanced toward the alley entrance.
Blackridge had experienced plenty of violence, but tonight had already been unusual. Three shootings had been reported in the eastern neighborhoods, all tied to properties belonging to people once connected to Adrian’s former lieutenant, Marcus Rourke.
Marcus had been dead six years.
At least, Adrian had believed that.
The girl continued.
“Daddy gave me something. He said if he didn't come back, I had to find somebody.”
“Who?”
“The strongest man in the city.”
Something almost resembling amusement crossed Adrian’s face.
“And who would that be?”
Her gaze lowered.
Not to his expensive suit.
Not his watch.
To the tattoos across his hands.
“The man everybody is afraid of.”
Adrian stopped breathing for a second.
The child pressed one hand firmly beneath her sweater.
He had noticed that gesture immediately.
“What are you hiding?”
Bear growled.
Adrian raised his hands.
“I won't take it.”
The girl searched his face.
Then slowly, reluctantly, she reached beneath her clothing.
A silver chain emerged.
Adrian’s heartbeat changed.
The pendant hanging from it was small, oval, badly scratched, and darkened by age.
But the engraving remained visible.
A rose wrapped around a small crescent moon.
The alley disappeared.
Twelve years vanished.
He was thirty-one again, standing beside Lake Hawthorne beneath summer rain while Elena Marlow laughed because he'd spent a ridiculous amount of money having the locket made.
He remembered fastening it around her neck.
Remembered her touching the rose symbol.
“You’re impossible,” she'd said.
“And yet you're still here.”
“Unfortunately.”
She'd kissed him immediately afterward.
Four months later, Elena disappeared.
Adrian had searched for years.
No ransom demand.
No body.
Nothing.
Eventually, even a man like Adrian had been forced to accept the conclusion everyone else already had.
Elena was gone.
Now her locket hung from the fingers of a freezing child.
“Where did you get that?”
The girl flinched at the change in his voice.
“My dad.”
“What's his name?”
She hesitated.
“He said I wasn't supposed to tell anybody.”
“I’m not anybody.”
Her eyes rose toward him.
“He said only if I found you.”
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
“What name did he give you?”
The girl leaned closer.
“Marcus Rourke.”
For the first time in twenty years, Adrian Vale forgot to control his expression.
Marcus.
His former friend.
His former lieutenant.
The man Adrian had watched fall from a warehouse pier after being shot twice.
The man whose funeral Adrian had personally attended.
Impossible.
Adrian stood too quickly.
Bear barked.
The girl recoiled.
Adrian immediately crouched again.
“Sorry.”
That word almost never left his mouth.
The girl studied him.
“Is my daddy bad?”
Adrian looked at the locket.
Marcus had betrayed him once. Or at least every piece of evidence had said so.
But Marcus had also taken a bullet for Adrian when they were nineteen.
People were rarely one thing.
“I don't know anymore,” Adrian said.
She seemed to accept that answer more easily than a comforting lie.
“What’s your name?”
“Lily.”
“Lily what?”
“Rourke.”
Another blow.
“And your mother?”
The child looked confused.
“I don't have one.”
Adrian swallowed.
“What did your father tell you about this woman?”
He pointed toward the photograph inside the locket.
Lily stared at Elena’s face.
“He said her name was Elena.”
Adrian waited.
“He said she saved me.”
The rain suddenly seemed colder.
“Saved you from what?”
“I don't know.”
Before Lily could continue, Bear spun toward the alley entrance.
The dog’s entire body changed.
Hackles rose.
A vicious bark ripped from his throat.
Headlights swept across the brick wall.
Adrian turned.
Three black SUVs stopped at the curb.
Doors opened.
Six men stepped out.
None carried visible weapons, which meant all of them were armed.
Lily grabbed Adrian’s coat.
“They found me.”
The fear in her voice erased every remaining question.
Adrian rose.
One of the men called from the alley entrance.
“Vale.”
Adrian recognized him.
Victor Kane.
A former soldier who now handled enforcement for Dominic Sloane, Adrian’s greatest rival.
Adrian moved in front of Lily.
“What do you want?”
“The kid.”
“No.”
Victor laughed.
“Don't make this complicated.”
Adrian glanced behind him.
Lily had wrapped both arms around Bear’s neck.
The dog was shaking from cold and exhaustion but continued growling.
Adrian looked back.
“You brought six men for an eight-year-old girl.”
“You don't know what she has.”
“I know enough.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Dominic said you'd say that.”
Adrian's face became expressionless.
“Then Dominic should also know what happens next.”
The men shifted.
Victor smiled.
“You’re alone.”
A car door slammed behind them.
Then another.
Adrian’s driver, Tomas Reed, appeared at the alley entrance with four of Adrian’s security men.
Tomas looked irritated rather than frightened.
“Boss,” he called. “You really have to stop wandering off.”
Adrian almost smiled.
Victor's confidence vanished.
“This isn't finished.”
“No,” Adrian said. “It isn't.”
Victor retreated.
The SUVs disappeared into the rain.
Adrian turned toward Lily.
She was staring at Tomas and the armed security team with fresh fear.
“We need to leave,” Adrian said.
“No.”
Lily backed toward the dumpster.
“Lily—”
“My dad said not to trust anybody.”
“Apparently he also sent you to me.”
“That doesn't mean I trust you.”
Adrian considered that.
“Fair.”
He removed his coat and placed it on the ground between them instead of approaching.
“You're freezing.”
She looked at the coat.
Then him.
“Bear comes.”
“Bear comes.”
“And nobody puts him in a cage.”
“No cages.”
“And we have to find my dad.”
Adrian paused.
That promise was more complicated.
But Lily stared at him with Elena’s dark eyes.
“We find your father.”
She finally nodded.
Adrian lifted her carefully.
She weighed almost nothing.
Bear limped beside them.
Tomas opened the SUV door and stared at Adrian holding the child.
In fifteen years of working for him, Tomas had seen Adrian wounded, furious, drunk once, and grieving once.
He had never seen him carrying a child.
“Don't,” Adrian warned.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“Absolutely.”
Lily climbed inside with Bear.
Adrian followed.
As the vehicle pulled away, Lily looked through the rain-streaked window.
“Mr. Vale?”
“Adrian.”
“My dad said something else.”
Adrian turned.
“He said if I found you, I should tell you Elena didn't leave you.”
The city lights slid across his face.
“What?”
“She was taken.”
Adrian felt the blood drain from his body.
“And he said the person who took her…”
May you like
Lily's eyes filled with fear.
“…still works for you.”
