Chapter 1 - The Day Isa DisappearedBy 3:24, Rhett Valon had called Isa six times.
She had not answered.
The seventh call went straight to voicemail.
Rhett stared at the phone, his jaw tightening. He disliked unexplained problems. In his business, unexplained problems became funerals, and funerals became wars.
“Marcus.”
His assistant appeared in the doorway almost immediately. “Yes, sir?”
“Find out where Isa is.”
Marcus hesitated. It lasted less than a second, but Rhett noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing, sir. I’ll check.”
“No. You’ll tell me why you looked like you just heard a gunshot.”
Marcus swallowed. “I called her this morning. She said she wasn’t feeling well.”
“And you didn’t think that was worth mentioning?”
“She told me she would rest and come in tomorrow.”
Rhett glanced at the rain-streaked windows. “Isa has never taken a sick day.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you standing there explaining instead of giving me her address?”
Marcus lowered his eyes. “I’ll get it.”
Seven minutes later, Rhett was in the back of his black Mercedes, driving through Chicago while his bodyguard, Anton, spoke quietly into a radio.
Isa lived in a narrow brick apartment building on the western edge of the city. Rhett had never visited her there. He had never needed to. For three years, she had entered his world every morning and left it every evening without asking him for anything beyond her salary.
Now, the thought of her lying alone somewhere made his chest feel strangely tight.
“Sir,” Anton said, checking the address on his phone. “We’re here.”
Rhett stepped into the rain without waiting for an umbrella.
The building smelled of damp plaster, old cooking oil, and cigarettes. A television played behind one apartment door. Someone argued behind another. At the end of the third-floor corridor, Isa’s door stood slightly open.
Rhett stopped.
He had built his reputation on recognizing danger before other people even noticed it. The silence inside that apartment was wrong.
He pushed the door open.
“Isa?”
A ceramic mug lay shattered beside the kitchen table. Coffee had dried into a dark stain on the floor. One chair had been overturned, and a drawer hung open as if someone had searched it in a hurry.
Then Rhett saw the blood.
A thin trail crossed the kitchen tiles and disappeared behind the counter.
“Isa!”
He rounded the counter and found her crumpled beside the cabinets.
For one terrible second, the room became very small.
Isa lay on her side in a gray sweater and dark trousers, her hair tangled across her face. One cheek was swollen. Blood darkened the fabric near her ribs. Her right hand rested beneath her chest, the fingers curled as though she had tried to hold something even while falling.
Rhett dropped to his knees.
“Isa. Open your eyes.”
Nothing.
He touched her neck. A pulse fluttered beneath his fingers, faint but present.
“Anton! Call the doctor. Now!”
Anton appeared behind him. “Should I call an ambulance?”
“No police. No hospital records until I know who did this. Get Dr. Mercer here, and tell him she may have internal injuries.”
Rhett eased Isa onto her back. She made a small, broken sound, and his hands froze.
“Easy,” he whispered, though he had never used that word with anyone in his life.
Her eyelids trembled.
“Mr. Valon?”
“I’m here.”
Her eyes struggled to focus. For a moment, she seemed more frightened of him than of whatever had happened.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Rhett felt something cold settle beneath his ribs.
“Who did this to you?”
She tried to answer, but pain stole the words. Her gaze drifted toward the floor, where a black phone lay beneath the edge of the refrigerator.
It began to ring.
The screen displayed one word.
ELIAS.
Isa's expression changed so suddenly that Rhett nearly missed it. Fear gave way to disbelief, and beneath both was something that looked painfully close to hope.
“No,” she whispered.
The phone kept ringing.
Rhett picked it up and answered.
A man's voice came through, low and urgent.
“Isa? Tell me you're safe.”
Rhett said nothing.
“Isa, answer me. I know you can hear the phone.”
“This is Rhett Valon.”
Silence.
Then the man's breathing changed.
“You found her.”
It wasn't a question.
“Who are you?”
“Put the phone near her.”
“Answer me first.”
“Listen carefully, Valon. The woman on your floor is not who you think she is.”
Rhett looked down at Isa. Her face had gone white.
“She's been working in my house for three years. I know exactly who she is.”
“No,” the stranger replied. “You know the name she gave you.”
Rhett's fingers tightened around the phone.
“Who are you?”
A pause.
Then came the words that turned the afternoon into something far more dangerous.
“My name is Elias Voss. I'm Isa's brother.”
Rhett stared at the woman in his arms.
Isa began to cry without making a sound.
“That’s impossible,” Rhett said.
“According to your people, I died eight years ago. According to the men who attacked my sister today, she's supposed to die before midnight.”
Rhett looked toward the apartment door. Anton had drawn his weapon and was watching the corridor.
“Who attacked her?”
“Conrad Valon.”
The name belonged to Rhett's uncle, his father's closest adviser, and the only man in Chicago who could still order a dozen soldiers without asking Rhett's permission.
“Give me one reason to believe you,” Rhett said.
“Because the men who hurt Isa already know you're there.”
A sharp crack sounded from somewhere below.
Anton turned toward the stairwell.
Then the building's lights went out.
In the darkness, Rhett heard footsteps running up the stairs.
The voice on the phone returned, almost a whisper.
“Get her out through the fire escape, Valon. And whatever you do, don't take her to your mansion.”
“Why?”
“Because the man who ordered her death has keys to every door in your house.”
The call ended.
A moment later, someone tried Isa's front door.
Rhett slipped the phone into his pocket, gathered Isa carefully into his arms, and carried her toward the narrow kitchen window.
For the first time in eight years, Rhett Valon was afraid.
Not of dying.
May you like
Of losing a woman he had only just discovered he could not bear to lose.
And he still had no idea why his uncle wanted her dead.
Related Stories
