Chapter 2 - The Man Outside
Someone Had Followed Us
I grabbed Ivy and pulled her toward the stockroom door.
“What's happening?” she whispered.
“Move.”
“Lyra!”
“Move!”
The clerk appeared from behind a row of shelves.
“Hey. You girls can't go back there.”
I held up my phone.
“Someone is following us.”
The clerk looked toward the window.
His face changed.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
That frightened me more than the stranger outside.
He quietly locked the stockroom door behind us.
“Who is he?” I asked.
The clerk shook his head.
“I don't know.”
That was a lie.
I knew it immediately.
The man's eyes had gone to the floor.
He wouldn't look at me.
Then a vehicle stopped outside.
Black SUV.
No headlights.
The tall figure opened the rear door.
Two seconds later, another person got out.
My stomach dropped.
A woman.
Long coat.
Dark hair.
She turned toward the store.
Ivy gasped.
“Mom?”
I looked.
It wasn't her.
But from that distance, she could have fooled anyone.
The woman lifted a phone to her ear.
Mine buzzed again.
Rowan.
“LOCK THE STOCKROOM DOOR.”
I did.
“Do not speak to the clerk.”
Too late.
The clerk looked at my phone.
“Who are you texting?”
I stepped between him and Ivy.
“None of your business.”
His expression hardened.
Outside, the black SUV moved closer.
Then someone knocked on the front glass.
Three times.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Ivy started trembling.
The clerk whispered, “They'll break the glass if they think you're hiding back here.”
“Who are they?”
He didn't answer.
My phone buzzed.
“LYRA. There is a police station two miles east. Do not leave through the front entrance.”
I looked around.
The stockroom had one emergency exit.
It opened into the alley behind the store.
I pointed.
“There.”
The clerk reached for my arm.
“No.”
I pulled away.
“Get off me.”
He grabbed again.
Ivy screamed.
The emergency door suddenly burst open.
A man in a dark jacket shoved the clerk backward.
He had a badge clipped to his belt.
“Federal agent,” he said. “Move.”
“Rowan?”
He looked at me.
“Lyra?”
I nodded.
His expression softened for half a second.
Then he looked at Ivy.
“That's your sister?”
“Yes.”
“Let's go.”
We followed him into the alley.
The SUV screeched around the corner.
Rowan shoved us into an unmarked sedan.
As soon as the doors locked, he accelerated.
“Where's Dad?” I asked.
Rowan kept his eyes on the road.
“Missing.”
“How long?”
“Six hours.”
My throat tightened.
“Is he dead?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why did he tell me to run?”
“Because he knew someone was watching your house.”
“Who?”
Rowan didn't answer.
I stared at him.
“Who?”
He sighed.
“Your father was working with us.”
“Doing what?”
“Investigating financial crimes.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Dad isn't a federal agent.”
“I didn't say he was.”
“Then what's happening?”
“He discovered that someone has been moving money through a network of shell companies.”
“Millions?”
“Hundreds of millions.”
Ivy sat silently in the back seat.
“Who owns them?” I asked.
Rowan looked at me in the rearview mirror.
“That is where this gets complicated.”
“Why?”
“Because one of the companies is connected to your mother.”
The car went silent.
Ivy whispered, “Mom?”
I felt sick.
“No.”
Rowan continued.
“Not directly.”
“You just said connected.”
“Her name appears on documents.”
“What kind?”
“Property transfers. Trust accounts. Charitable foundations.”
“My mother runs a charity.”
“I know.”
“She helps families.”
“That's what everyone believes.”
He turned onto a darker road.
I watched the houses disappear behind us.
“Where are we going?”
“Safe location.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere your mother doesn't know about.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
I opened it.
There was a photo.
Our house.
Taken from the backyard.
The image showed my bedroom window.
The second photo showed Ivy's window.
Then the third.
My blood turned to ice.
It showed the exact patch of mulch where we'd landed.
Underneath it was a second message.
“YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW.”
I handed the phone to Rowan.
He stared at the photo.
Then his jaw tightened.
“Stop the car.”
“What?”
“Stop the car.”
He pulled over.
He looked toward the tree line.
Then at us.
“Your father didn't tell me you saw anyone outside the house.”
“He didn't.”
“Then whoever sent this was there tonight.”
“Who?”
Rowan reached into the glove compartment.
Inside was a photograph.
He handed it to me.
It showed my family.
Dad.
Mom.
Ivy.
Me.
Taken eight years ago.
But someone had circled one person in red.
Not my mother.
Not my father.
Not Ivy.
Me.
May you like
On the back, written in black ink, were four words.
“She is the key.”
