Chapter 3

03

Hunter and I took the staff elevator and slipped down into the second underground parking level without a sound. The air in the B2 section was thicker than up top, pipes crisscrossing overhead with a low, steady hum, like the breathing of some sleeping giant.

"Space 137. Over there." Hunter pointed, keeping his voice down.

We stayed low, moving from car to car for cover, closing in slowly. My heart was pounding, my palms slick with sweat. This didn't feel like catching a cheating spouse. It felt more like an agent slipping behind enemy lines.

And then, there it was. The familiar white Porsche.

The body of the car gave off a hard, cold gleam under the dim lights, and it burned my eyes to look at it. I circled around to the driver's side, pulled the spare key from my pocket, and hit unlock.

Two beeps. The lights flashed, and the door popped open.

Hunter and I looked at each other, and I saw the same shock in his eyes that was in mine. This car really did open with my key. It was the one from home.

I climbed fast into the driver's seat, and Hunter dropped into the passenger side. A faint trace of perfume still lingered inside, that "No Man's Land Rose" Linda loved best, but under it was a stranger's cologne. A man's.

I didn't have time to sit with that. I had one goal only. The dashcam.

I reached up above the center console for it, and my hand closed on nothing. Where the dashcam should have been mounted, there was only a bare bracket and a snapped length of cable.

"Damn it," I cursed under my breath. Someone had pulled the dashcam's memory card. They'd clearly come prepared, and they'd thought it all through.

"Easy. Check the rest of the car," Hunter said.

We split up and searched. The glove box, the center armrest bin, the storage slots under the seats. Every place a person might hide something, we went through all of it, and came up empty. The car was clean as if it had just rolled off the line. Except for that faint ghost of perfume, there was nothing personal, nothing to tie it to its owner.

That wasn't right. Linda was sharp and capable, but she still had a woman's little habits. There were always snacks in the car, a spare pair of flats, a few business magazines. Now all of it was gone.

The car was like a stage someone had deliberately swept clean of every trace.

"Let's go. There's nothing in here." A deep helplessness settled over me. The only hope left was in that room upstairs.

We came back up to ground level and took a different guest elevator. The polished mirror inside threw back my worn, darkened face. Hunter stood behind me and clapped a hand on my shoulder. "Boris, whatever happens, I've got your back."

I nodded and said nothing.

The elevator stopped on the seventeenth floor. The doors opened and a wave of expensive fragrance rolled over us. The hallway was laid with thick, sound-absorbing carpet that swallowed every footstep. We found Room 1708. The door was shut.

Just then, we saw a delivery guy step off the elevator and head straight our way. In his hand was a plastic bag stamped with a 24-hour convenience store logo.

He walked up to 1708 and pressed the bell.

Hunter and I ducked into the fire stairwell beside it, keeping just half a head out to watch.

The door soon cracked open, and a man's voice came through. "Just leave it by the door."

The delivery guy seemed hesitant. "Sir, you've got some items in here that need refrigeration, and, um, this one too. Better to check it face to face."

The man inside went quiet for a few seconds, like he was annoyed, but he opened the door anyway. The moment it swung wide, I saw him. Xavier. Just as I'd thought.

Xavier took the bag, signed for it, and shut the door. The delivery guy turned and left.

Once he was well down the hall, Hunter came out of the stairwell, walked quickly up to 1708, and picked up the store receipt Xavier had tossed carelessly into the trash bin.

He glanced at it, then handed it to me, his face going very dark.

I took it, and what was on it made my pupils shrink hard.

Red Bull energy drink x 4

Dove chocolate bar x 1

Durex Ultra Thin x 1

Time of purchase: half an hour ago.

In that moment, every scrap of reason and restraint I'd held onto came right to the edge of breaking. Whoever that woman was, whatever scheme lay behind all this, the contents of that delivery bag had already pointed this whole thing in the filthiest, most unbearable direction.

"Son of a bitch." Hunter slammed his fist into the wall. "The two of them, disgusting."

I gripped the receipt hard, the edges crumpling in my fingers. My chest heaved, a searing rage shooting up from the soles of my feet clear to the top of my skull.

"Boris, keep it together." Seeing the state of me, Hunter was the one trying to calm me down. "So what now? Just kick the door in?"

I closed my eyes and pulled in a few deep breaths, forcing myself calm. No. I couldn't act on impulse. Kicking the door in would only tip them off and get me nothing. I needed a plan with no holes in it.

A bold idea took shape in my mind.

"Hunter." I opened my eyes, something resolute flashing through them. "Do me a favor."