Chapter 3 - The Man Behind the Background Check
“No.”
Briar stepped closer to the monitor.
“That isn't me.”
Garrison stood beside her.
“I know.”
Ethan studied the footage.
“How?”
Garrison did not look away from the screen.
“Because at eight forty-seven she was sitting at dinner.”
Briar turned.
“You know the minute?”
Garrison looked at her.
“I was there.”
“Yes, lurking behind a whiskey glass.”
“Observing.”
“Lurking.”
“Fine.”
Under any other circumstances, the argument might have been almost funny.
There was nothing funny about the woman on the screen.
Same blonde hair.
Same height.
Same dark blue dress.
Even the handbag looked similar.
But Briar saw the difference.
“Pause it.”
Royce obeyed.
She leaned closer.
“The left hand.”
Ethan frowned.
“What about it?”
“I wear my watch on my left wrist.”
The woman wore one on her right.
Garrison noticed something else.
“Her stride.”
Briar looked at him.
“You know how I walk?”
He said nothing.
Ethan muttered, “Of course he does.”
Garrison ignored him.
“You favor your right leg slightly when you're tired.”
Briar stared.
“How could you possibly know that?”
“You twisted your ankle in February.”
“That was seven months ago.”
“Yes.”
There it was again.
Eleven months of observation.
Not casual.
Not accidental.
Briar turned fully toward him.
“How much did you watch me?”
Caleb quietly led Royce and the guards out.
Ethan stayed.
Briar didn't care.
“Answer me.”
Garrison folded his arms.
“The first month? Daily.”
Her mouth fell open.
“The second and third, most days.”
“Why?”
“Because I believed you had sent the warning.”
“You could have asked.”
“I didn't know if you were protecting me or working with the people who set me up.”
“So you watched me buy groceries?”
“Yes.”
“Ride the train?”
“Yes.”
“Go to my dentist?”
“I didn't follow you inside.”
“Thank you for respecting the sanctity of dental privacy.”
Ethan actually laughed.
Briar glared at him.
He stopped.
Garrison continued.
“Then something changed.”
“What?”
“Someone else started following you.”
Her anger cooled.
“When?”
“Three weeks after Harbor.”
“Who?”
“I didn't know.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I doubled security.”
“That is not telling me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if you were involved, telling you would have exposed what I knew.”
“And if I wasn't?”
His expression shifted.
“Then I was wrong.”
Briar stared at him.
“Were you?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“I was wrong.”
It disarmed her more than an excuse would have.
Garrison Halloran did not look like a man who apologized often.
Yet there was no pride in his face now.
“By the fourth month,” he continued, “I knew you weren't working against me.”
“How?”
“You found a vendor fraud scheme worth eight hundred thousand dollars and reported it through normal compliance instead of using it as leverage.”
“That proves I'm not a criminal?”
“It proved you don't like stealing.”
“A low bar.”
“Where I come from, you'd be surprised.”
Ethan shifted.
“This is touching, but someone just used a look-alike to empty her safe-deposit box.”
Briar looked at him.
He had a point.
Garrison pulled out his phone.
“Caleb, isolate every camera within three blocks. I want the vehicle.”
He ended the call.
Briar's eyes went to the frozen woman on the screen.
“She knew exactly what I wore tonight.”
Ethan nodded.
“She knew where you were.”
“And when.”
Garrison looked at Briar's handbag.
“Your apartment is compromised.”
She felt cold.
“My apartment?”
“If they copied your dress, handbag, biometric data and vault access sequence, they've been inside.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
He paused.
“But I know what I would do.”
That silenced the room.
Briar looked at Ethan.
“Can your office protect me?”
Garrison's face hardened.
Ethan answered honestly.
“We can arrange something, but not instantly.”
Garrison said, “She comes with me.”
Briar turned.
“I beg your pardon?”
“My residence has security.”
“I have a residence.”
“Possibly bugged.”
“You don't get to relocate me.”
“No.”
He took a breath.
“You're right.”
Again.
That strange willingness to step back.
Then he said, “I'm asking.”
Briar studied him.
The feared Garrison Halloran.
The man whose name could silence rooms.
Asking.
She hated that it mattered.
“Only tonight.”
“Fine.”
“Separate room.”
“Obviously.”
“No men standing inside my door.”
“Outside?”
She narrowed her eyes.
“One.”
“Two.”
“One.”
“One visible.”
“Garrison.”
“One.”
He nodded.
Ethan shook his head.
“You negotiate security like a married couple.”
Neither responded.
The ride to Garrison's townhouse was silent.
Ethan went separately to contact his unit.
Caleb drove.
Briar sat beside Garrison again.
This time, space between them seemed more dangerous than proximity.
After several minutes, she asked, “Why did you come tonight?”
He looked out the window.
“I told you.”
“No. You told me why you started watching me eleven months ago.”
Silence.
“Why tonight?”
He knew exactly what she meant.
“Because you said you had dinner plans.”
“That usually doesn't activate executive security.”
“No.”
“Were you worried about Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“Before the background check?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He turned toward her.
“Do you really want the answer?”
Briar's pulse skipped.
“Yes.”
Garrison held her gaze for a long moment.
“Because for eleven months I have known where you were almost every night.”
She swallowed.
“And suddenly I didn't.”
“That is not a normal explanation.”
“I didn't say it was.”
“Were you jealous?”
His eyes went back to the window.
“Yes.”
One word.
No defense.
No denial.
Briar had expected arrogance.
Instead she got truth.
It frightened her more.
“You had no right.”
“I know.”
“You're my boss.”
“I know.”
“You never told me you felt anything.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
He almost smiled.
“What would you prefer?”
“I don't know.”
“That makes two of us.”
She looked down at her hands.
“You shouldn't have followed me.”
“No.”
“You shouldn't have investigated Ethan because I had dinner with him.”
“Probably not.”
“Probably?”
“He lied about his job.”
“That doesn't make you right.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
He seemed almost irritated by his own honesty.
“Then what do you want from me?”
Garrison's expression changed.
“Nothing you don't choose.”
The answer settled between them.
Briar looked away first.
His townhouse was in Beacon Hill, but it was not what she expected.
No gold.
No marble palace.
Dark wood.
Old books.
Quiet rooms.
Photographs.
One caught Briar's attention.
Garrison younger, perhaps twenty-five, standing beside a smiling dark-haired woman.
His sister?
A child sat on the woman's shoulders.
“That's Nora,” Garrison said behind her.
Briar turned.
“My sister.”
“Where is she?”
His face closed.
“Dead.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Eight years.”
The child?
He understood the question.
“My niece, Lily. She's sixteen now.”
“Does she live here?”
“Boarding school.”
Something in his tone suggested there was more.
Briar did not ask.
Caleb entered.
“We found the vehicle from the bank.”
Garrison straightened.
“Where?”
“Abandoned in Roxbury.”
“Prints?”
“Clean.”
“Cameras?”
“Working.”
Caleb looked at Briar.
“We have footage of the woman removing the wig.”
Briar's breath caught.
“Who is she?”
“We're enhancing.”
Garrison motioned toward the study.
They gathered around a laptop.
The video played.
The fake Briar exited the car.
Removed blonde hair.
Dark hair fell loose beneath.
She turned.
Briar leaned closer.
Recognition arrived slowly.
“No.”
Garrison looked at her.
“You know her?”
Briar whispered the name.
“Marisol Trent.”
Ethan, connected on speakerphone, reacted immediately.
“Who?”
Briar's voice shook.
“She trained me when I joined Halloran Holdings.”
Garrison went still.
“Marisol left six months ago.”
“No,” Briar said.
“She disappeared six months ago.”
Garrison looked at Caleb.
“Find her.”
Caleb was already typing.
Then the laptop chimed.
An incoming email appeared on Briar's account.
No sender name.
Subject line:
YOU FOUND THE WRONG MAN.
Briar opened it.
There was one attachment.
A photograph.
Garrison standing outside Halloran Holdings eleven months earlier.
Briar visible behind him.
Someone had circled her face.
Underneath was another image.
Victor.
Marisol.
And Ethan.
All three at the same table.
Briar looked toward the speakerphone.
“Ethan?”
Silence.
Then the line disconnected.
Garrison stared at the dark screen.
Caleb reached for his phone.
Briar's email refreshed again.
A new message arrived.
This one contained only six words.
ASK ETHAN WHO PAID HIM FIRST.
And at that exact moment, someone began knocking on Garrison's front door.
Three slow knocks.
May you like
Then Ethan's voice came from the other side.
“Briar, don't let him open that email.”
