Chapter 4 - The LedgerThe emergency lights came on.
Red.
Dim.
Enough to see movement.
Enough to make every shadow look armed.
I grabbed Jake's hospital bed and pushed it toward the interior wall.
Christine followed.
"What is the ledger?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"You just told me they wanted it."
"I know what they want. I don't know where it is."
Jake's eyes were wide.
"Dad..."
"I've got you."
The hallway outside filled with footsteps.
Three people.
No.
Four.
They weren't rushing.
That was worse.
Professional.
Controlled.
I had seen it before.
The door handle moved.
I reached for the metal IV pole beside Jake's bed.
Christine whispered, "What are you doing?"
"Buying time."
The door opened.
A man stepped inside.
Dark jacket.
No hospital badge.
He looked at me.
Then smiled.
"You really are alive."
I swung the IV pole.
He blocked it.
The second man entered.
I drove my shoulder into the first man's chest.
He crashed into the wall.
Christine screamed.
Jake curled into the mattress.
I hit the second man across the jaw.
He stumbled.
Then the third raised a weapon.
Everything slowed.
I recognized the model.
Compact.
Suppressed.
Not something a street criminal carried.
I grabbed the second man's wrist and pulled him into the line of fire.
The gunshot sounded like a cough.
He collapsed.
The first man stared at me.
His expression changed.
He recognized what he was seeing.
"Ethan Cole."
I said nothing.
He backed away.
"You shouldn't exist."
"I've heard that before."
Then the hospital sprinkler system exploded overhead.
Water poured down.
Alarms screamed.
The man ran.
I didn't chase him.
Jake came first.
Always.
I turned.
"Buddy."
Jake was crying.
I crouched beside him.
"Look at me."
He did.
"You promised you'd come back."
"I did."
"Are they going to hurt me?"
"Not while I'm alive."
Christine looked at me.
Something had changed in her face.
Maybe she was finally seeing the man she had married.
Or maybe she was seeing the man she had been afraid to meet.
"There's a basement," she said.
"What?"
"Old utility basement."
"How do you know?"
She hesitated.
"My father showed me."
Of course.
We pushed Jake through a maintenance door.
A narrow staircase led downward.
Christine kept one hand on Jake's shoulder.
I stayed behind them.
At the bottom was a steel door.
Christine entered a code.
I stared at her.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You think I'm hiding things."
"You are."
She looked away.
We entered a storage room.
There were shelves.
Medical supplies.
Blankets.
Old equipment.
Then I noticed something carved into the concrete wall.
A symbol.
Three black lines crossing a circle.
Harrow.
I touched it.
"What is this?"
Christine whispered.
"Dad's insurance."
"Against what?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she opened an old metal cabinet.
Inside was a small black box.
She handed it to me.
"He told me never to open it."
I lifted the lid.
Inside was a leather ledger.
My breath caught.
Names filled its pages.
Dates.
Payments.
Locations.
And near the back, a photograph.
Victor Kane.
Walter Mercer.
Christine.
And me.
Standing together.
But I had never seen the picture before.
The date beneath it made my stomach turn.
Two years before Christine and I met.
I flipped to the final page.
There was one handwritten sentence.
My handwriting.
I recognized it instantly.
If Jake ever finds this, it means they failed to kill me.
I stopped breathing.
Christine whispered, "What does it say?"
I looked at her.
"They didn't just know I would have a son."
I held up the ledger.
"They planned for him."
Then footsteps sounded above us.
Slow.
Deliberate.
May you like
Someone was coming downstairs.
And whoever it was knew exactly where we were.
