Chapter 5 - Gideon’s First Order
Norah heard the struggle before emergency lights came on.
She found Gideon in the corridor fighting a man twice as healthy as he was.
Arthur reached them first.
The attacker escaped through a service door.
Gideon collapsed.
Norah caught his shoulder.
“Stop trying to prove you're not sick.”
“I hate being ordered around.”
“Then stop needing it.”
Arthur almost laughed.
Gideon stared at her.
Then, astonishingly, obeyed.
Back at the estate, Mercer was placed under protection.
The name he had whispered was Samuel Wolf.
Gideon’s uncle.
The man who had raised Gideon and Dominic after their father died.
Samuel had retired from the organization years earlier and lived quietly in Connecticut.
Or so Gideon believed.
Financial records showed Samuel controlled one of the shell companies paying Mercer.
Gideon refused to accept it without proof.
Norah understood.
Family could make intelligent people defend impossible things.
She had done it with her own father for years.
Gideon asked about him.
Norah told him the truth.
Her father gambled away rent money.
Her mother worked two jobs.
Norah left nursing school after one semester to support them.
Her grandmother was the only person who made her believe she could become something more.
“That's why you knew about interactions,” Gideon said.
“That's why I knew enough to ask.”
Gideon studied her.
“Most people pretend knowledge they don't have.”
“Poor people can't afford that luxury.”
Something changed in his expression.
Respect, perhaps.
The following day, Gideon issued his first order since becoming fully conscious.
Norah would no longer clean rooms.
She would remain attached to his personal household detail.
Norah objected.
“I don't know what that means.”
“Neither do I yet.”
“That's not reassuring.”
“It means nobody gives me food, medicine, or water without you seeing it.”
“I am not qualified.”
“You are qualified to ask questions.”
The irony was not lost on either of them.
That evening, Samuel Wolf arrived unexpectedly.
He was seventy, elegant, silver-haired.
He hugged Gideon.
He called him son.
Then he saw Norah.
His smile disappeared for half a second.
Norah noticed.
Samuel recovered instantly.
“So this is the famous maid.”
Norah had never met him.
Yet he knew about her.
At dinner, Samuel praised her.
Too much.
Later, he found her alone.
“You saved my nephew.”
“I asked a question.”
“Sometimes questions are dangerous.”
He smiled.
Norah didn't.
Samuel left.
Something lay on the table where he had been standing.
A folded note.
Norah opened it.
STOP LOOKING.
She turned toward the door.
Samuel was gone.
Then her phone vibrated.
A photograph appeared from an unknown number.
It showed Norah standing in Gideon’s bedroom.
Taken less than a minute earlier.
May you like
The next photograph showed her from behind.
And whoever was taking it was still inside the room.
