Chapter 1 - One Wrong Digit
Olivia crouched behind the dumpster and whispered into the phone: "Ryan, he found me."
Across Chicago, a powerful tattooed businessman picked up an unfamiliar call and noticed one detail on his screen.
The number had appeared once before.
Three weeks earlier.
Adrian Vale suddenly realized this was not a random wrong number.
Rainwater streamed from Olivia Bennett's hair and ran down the side of her round face as she pressed herself harder against the wet brick.
She could hear footsteps.
Three sets.
Felix always walked slowly when he believed there was nowhere left to run.
That was what terrified her.
If he had been shouting, she could have told herself he was angry.
If he had been running, she could have believed he was desperate.
But Felix Mercer was doing neither.
He was taking his time.
"Olivia."
His voice drifted through the alley.
Gentle.
Almost affectionate.
"Come on, baby. Let's stop this."
Olivia closed her eyes.
Three weeks.
She had managed to disappear for exactly three weeks.
She had left his apartment with twenty-seven dollars, an old coat, and the clothes she was wearing. She had abandoned almost everything else because possessions took time to pack, and time was the one thing she hadn't had.
She bought a prepaid phone with cash.
She found a room above a laundromat where the landlord didn't ask questions.
She started working mornings at a diner under her middle name.
She stopped wearing makeup.
She changed buses twice on the way home.
She never walked the same route two nights in a row.
And somehow Felix had walked into the diner that afternoon.
He had sat in booth six.
Olivia had been carrying a coffeepot when she saw him.
Felix had smiled.
That was all.
She dropped the pot.
Then she ran.
Now the flashlight beam moved across the brick wall above her.
"Check the other side," Felix said.
Olivia looked at the cheap phone trembling in her hand.
Ryan.
Her older brother was the only person she trusted.
She knew his number by heart.
Her fingers were numb.
She typed quickly.
The final digit should have been seven.
Her thumb struck eight.
She didn't notice.
She pressed CALL.
One ring.
Two.
Someone answered.
Olivia whispered immediately.
"Ryan, he found me."
Silence.
Classical music played faintly somewhere on the other end.
"I'm behind the old hardware store on Thirty-Fifth and Holstead," she continued. "Felix has two men with him. Please come get me."
Still nothing.
Her breathing became uneven.
"Ryan?"
A man's voice finally answered.
"Who is this?"
Olivia froze.
It wasn't her brother.
She pulled the phone away.
The number glowed on the cracked screen.
Her stomach dropped.
Wrong digit.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I was trying to call my brother."
At the other end of the city, Adrian Vale sat motionless in a black leather chair overlooking downtown Chicago.
Thirty-nine years old.
Silver-blond hair.
Dark suit.
Tattoos climbing from beneath his collar and disappearing beneath his cuffs.
People often mistook his silence for patience.
It wasn't.
Adrian simply believed most people revealed more when he gave them enough room to speak.
The woman on the phone sounded terrified.
Not dramatic.
Not hysterical.
Terrified.
There was a difference.
Adrian knew it.
He had spent half his life learning that difference.
"I'm sorry," Olivia repeated. "Forget I called."
Her thumb moved toward the red button.
"Do not hang up."
Something in Adrian's voice stopped her.
Not anger.
Authority.
Olivia stared at the phone.
"Thirty-Fifth and Holstead?" Adrian asked.
"Yes."
"Behind the old hardware store?"
"Yes."
Adrian stood.
His chief of security, Marcus Reed, looked up from across the office.
Adrian raised one finger.
Wait.
Through Olivia's phone came another voice.
"Check behind the dumpsters."
Adrian's expression changed.
Olivia covered her mouth.
The flashlight moved closer.
Adrian heard everything.
"How many?" he asked.
Olivia barely breathed the answer.
"Three."
"Are you injured?"
"No."
"Can they see you?"
"Not yet."
"Then stay exactly where you are."
Olivia almost laughed from sheer disbelief.
"Who are you?"
Adrian looked through the glass wall of his office.
Marcus was already standing.
Adrian muted the phone.
"Three cars," he said.
Marcus frowned.
"Problem?"
"Thirty-Fifth and Holstead."
Marcus's expression sharpened.
"The warehouse district?"
"Now."
Marcus didn't ask another question.
Adrian unmuted the call.
"Olivia."
She stiffened.
"I never told you my name."
"The man searching for you did."
Silence.
Then Olivia whispered, "Right."
Adrian walked toward the elevator.
"Listen carefully. Do not leave your hiding place unless I tell you."
"Are you calling the police?"
"Marcus is doing that."
That was technically true.
Marcus was also doing several other things.
"Why are you helping me?"
The elevator doors opened.
Adrian entered.
"Because you called."
Olivia stared through the narrow gap beside the dumpster.
Felix appeared.
Thirty feet away.
Black leather jacket soaked with rain.
The two men with him separated.
One moved left.
The other moved right.
Felix remained in the center.
"Liv."
Her heart hammered.
"You know I hate chasing you."
Adrian heard that.
His jaw tightened.
Olivia whispered, "He's getting closer."
"How close?"
"Maybe thirty feet."
"Can you move deeper behind the dumpster?"
"No. There's a wall."
Adrian checked his watch.
Marcus had sent the location.
Four minutes.
Too long.
"Is there another exit?"
Olivia looked around.
A chain-link fence blocked the rear.
"No."
"Fire escape?"
She looked up.
There was one.
Too high.
"No."
"Then stay down."
Felix's shoes splashed through a puddle.
Twenty feet.
"Olivia."
She squeezed her eyes shut.
The past returned in fragments.
Felix taking her phone.
Felix standing in front of the apartment door.
Felix telling her she was confused.
Felix apologizing afterward.
Felix promising.
Felix repeating.
She had believed apologies until she finally understood that an apology without change was simply permission requested in advance.
Fifteen feet.
One of Felix's men called from farther down the alley.
"Nothing here."
Felix stopped.
Olivia heard him exhale.
Then he laughed quietly.
"She's here."
Adrian stepped from the elevator into an underground garage.
Marcus was waiting beside a black SUV.
"Police are eight minutes out," Marcus said.
"Too long."
"I know."
They got inside.
Marcus drove.
Adrian kept Olivia on speaker but held the phone close.
"Olivia."
She didn't answer.
"Olivia."
"I'm here."
"Keep talking to me."
"What do I say?"
"Anything."
She almost cried at that.
Not because it was comforting.
Because nobody had asked her to speak in a long time.
Felix had always told her what she remembered.
What she meant.
What she felt.
Adrian said, "Tell me about your brother."
"Ryan?"
"Yes."
"He's thirty-two. He fixes elevators."
"Good."
"He hates olives."
Adrian glanced at Marcus.
Marcus looked confused.
Adrian continued.
"What else?"
"He sings when he's nervous."
"Badly?"
"Terribly."
For half a second, Olivia smiled.
Then a shadow crossed the pavement.
Her smile vanished.
"He's here."
Adrian straightened.
"Don't move."
Felix appeared around the edge of the dumpster.
Olivia looked up.
He smiled down at her.
"There you are."
The phone remained against her ear.
Felix noticed it.
His smile faded.
"Who are you talking to?"
Olivia said nothing.
Felix crouched.
"Ryan?"
Adrian listened.
Felix extended his hand.
"Give me the phone."
Olivia pulled it closer.
"No."
Felix stared at her.
It was the first time she had said that word to him while trapped within arm's reach.
His expression changed.
"Olivia."
"No."
The two men approached behind him.
Felix lowered his voice.
"You're embarrassing yourself."
Something inside Olivia went strangely still.
Maybe fear had a limit.
Maybe after enough of it, there was nowhere else for it to grow.
She looked directly at him.
"I'm not going with you."
Felix's eyes hardened.
"You don't have a choice."
Adrian heard every word.
Marcus turned sharply onto Thirty-Fifth.
Two vehicles followed behind them.
"One minute," Marcus said.
Felix reached toward Olivia.
She recoiled.
"Don't touch me."
He stopped.
Not because she asked.
Because headlights suddenly washed across the alley entrance.
Felix looked back.
A black SUV stopped.
Then another.
Then a third.
Doors opened.
Marcus stepped out first.
Adrian followed.
Rain hit his black suit.
Felix slowly stood.
For the first time that night, uncertainty crossed his face.
Adrian walked into the alley with his phone still against his ear.
Olivia heard footsteps both through the phone and in front of her.
She looked around the dumpster.
A silver-haired man was approaching.
He lowered his phone.
Olivia lowered hers.
Their eyes met.
"You?" she whispered.
Adrian stopped several feet away.
"Wrong number."
Felix stared at him.
Then the color disappeared from his face.
"Mr. Vale."
Olivia looked from Felix to Adrian.
"You know him?"
Felix didn't answer.
Adrian did.
"Apparently."
Police sirens sounded in the distance.
Felix recovered quickly.
"This is a misunderstanding."
Adrian looked at Olivia.
"Is it?"
She shook her head.
"No."
One word.
That was enough.
Marcus positioned himself between Olivia and Felix.
Felix looked toward the alley entrance.
Then toward his two companions.
Neither moved.
"She is my girlfriend," Felix said.
"Ex-girlfriend," Olivia corrected.
Felix glanced at her.
That look carried years of warning.
Adrian saw it.
"So she says," Adrian replied.
Felix forced a laugh.
"You don't understand."
"I understand that she asked you not to touch her."
"This is private."
"It stopped being private when I answered the phone."
Sirens grew louder.
Felix stepped backward.
Then his gaze dropped to Adrian's phone.
Something changed.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Felix stared at the number visible on the screen.
His face went completely still.
"How did she get that number?"
Adrian frowned.
"She dialed it accidentally."
Felix shook his head.
"No."
Adrian watched him.
Felix backed away another step.
"No, she didn't."
Olivia stood slowly behind Marcus.
"What are you talking about?"
Felix ignored her.
He stared only at Adrian.
"Ask her brother."
Olivia's blood ran cold.
"What about Ryan?"
Felix smiled again, but this smile was different.
Desperate.
Ugly.
"You really don't know, do you?"
Police lights flashed at the mouth of the alley.
Adrian stepped toward Felix.
"Know what?"
Felix's eyes moved to Olivia.
"That number wasn't random."
Olivia's phone suddenly vibrated.
A text message.
From Ryan.
She looked down.
May you like
Three words appeared on the screen.
DON'T TRUST ADRIAN.
