Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO BOUGHT THE BUILDING
Cade Branick did not remove his hand.
That was his first mistake.
His second was looking Emmett Castellano in the face and deciding the quiet man in the old shoes was bluffing.
“Walk away,” Cade said.
Emmett looked at the fist twisted into Adeline’s green work vest.
Then at her face.
Her breathing had changed.
Not crying.
Not screaming.
Worse.
Each breath stopped too high in her chest, as if something invisible had tightened beneath her ribs.
“Take your hand off her.”
Same tone.
Weather report.
Cade smiled.
“You own the building for ten minutes and think you own everything in it?”
“No.”
Emmett took one step closer.
“I own the company that employs the guard who opened the door, the cameras recording your face, and the legal department that will preserve whatever happens next.”
Cade’s smile faded slightly.
“And?”
“And I asked once.”
The two men seated at the far end of the lobby stood.
This time Emmett did not lift his fingers.
Cade noticed.
His grip loosened.
Adeline stumbled backward when he let go.
She caught the desk.
Emmett did not touch her.
Not yet.
His eyes remained on Cade.
“Leave.”
Cade adjusted his jacket.
“You have no idea what you bought.”
“I know exactly what I bought.”
That answer surprised everyone.
Adeline too.
Cade looked toward the sixth-floor elevators.
“Dunore will eat you alive.”
Emmett’s expression did not change.
“Sterling Dunore has not owned this company for forty-seven minutes.”
Silence.
Cade’s face shifted.
“He signed?”
“Yes.”
“Everything?”
“Yes.”
The first real fear appeared.
Adeline gripped the desk harder.
Cade looked at her.
Not affection.
Warning.
“This doesn’t change anything.”
Emmett moved between them.
“It changes whether you get to say that in my lobby.”
Cade’s jaw tightened.
He looked toward Denny.
The security guard stared at the floor.
“Open the door,” Cade ordered.
Denny did not move.
Interesting.
Fear had changed directions.
Emmett said, “Mr. Kirkwood.”
Denny looked up.
“Do not open anything for him.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cade laughed without humor.
Then he walked toward the revolving door.
At the glass, he turned.
“Adeline.”
Emmett’s voice cut across the lobby.
“Her name is not available to you right now.”
Cade stared.
For one second, the entire room seemed to hold itself still.
Then he shoved through the door into sleet.
The glass spun behind him.
Gone.
Only then did Emmett turn toward Adeline.
She was still gripping the desk.
Her face had gone pale.
“Miss Vance?”
She tried to answer.
Nothing came.
Her throat worked.
One breath.
Two.
Too fast.
He saw her chest barely moving.
“Can you breathe?”
She nodded.
A lie.
Her knees folded.
Emmett crossed the space.
Caught her before her shoulder hit the filing cabinet.
He lowered her carefully behind the reception desk.
“Look at me.”
Adeline shook her head.
Her fingers clawed at the collar of her vest as though Cade’s hand remained there.
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No.”
The word barely existed.
Emmett crouched.
Not touching now that she was seated.
“Your lungs are working.”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Doesn’t feel—”
“I know.”
He remembered his mother after the workshop.
The first panic attack he had ever witnessed.
She had hidden in a bathroom and insisted she was dying.
He had been four.
Nobody explained.
Years later, he learned.
“Do not force a deep breath.”
Adeline opened her eyes.
That instruction seemed to surprise her.
“Small breath.”
He demonstrated.
“In.”
She copied badly.
“Out longer.”
Again.
Her shoulders remained rigid.
“Good.”
“It’s not.”
“It does not have to be good.”
Another breath.
Emmett looked toward the lobby.
“Hershel.”
The custodian stopped halfway to the elevators.
His face collapsed with shame.
“Yes?”
“Bring a chair.”
Hershel moved immediately.
“Marlene.”
She was not there.
Of course.
“Gio.”
The man from finance approached.
“Call emergency services.”
Adeline’s hand shot out.
“No.”
Everyone stopped.
She looked at Emmett.
“No ambulance.”
Her breathing was still too fast, but the words were clear.
Emmett nodded.
“Fine.”
Gio lowered the phone.
“Doctor?”
Adeline shook her head.
“Not unless you change your mind,” Emmett said.
Her eyes filled.
Why?
Because he believed her?
Because nobody else had?
He did not know.
Hershel brought the chair.
Emmett helped Adeline into it only after saying, “May I?”
She nodded.
Her body felt frighteningly light beneath his hands.
Once seated, she pressed both feet flat against the floor.
Emmett said, “Name five things you can see.”
She stared.
“What?”
“Five.”
Her eyes moved.
“Desk.”
“Good.”
“Window.”
“Yes.”
“Hershel’s mop.”
Hershel looked like he wanted to disappear.
“Good.”
“The brass plaque.”
“One more.”
Adeline looked at Emmett’s wrist.
“The watch.”
His old watch.
Stopped at 9:40.
He glanced down.
“Four things you can feel.”
She answered.
“Chair.”
“Good.”
“Floor.”
“Vest.”
Her fingers trembled against the fabric.
Then:
“My hair.”
“Three things you can hear.”
“Sleet.”
“Good.”
“Elevator.”
The bell chimed somewhere above.
“And?”
She looked at him.
“Your voice.”
Her breathing slowed.
Not normal.
Better.
A minute passed.
Then another.
The lobby remained quiet.
Nobody looked away now.
That mattered.
Emmett stood.
“Mr. Kirkwood.”
Denny’s face went gray.
“Yes?”
“You are suspended pending investigation.”
“Sir—”
“You opened a controlled door for a man who physically assaulted an employee.”
“I didn’t know he would—”
“You knew enough not to look at her.”
Denny’s mouth closed.
Emmett continued.
“You will turn over your badge and remain available to investigators.”
The word investigators frightened him.
Good.
Hershel lowered his head.
Emmett looked at him.
“You saw what happened.”
“Yes.”
“Will you give a statement?”
Hershel swallowed.
He thought of the pension.
Everyone could see him thinking.
Adeline spoke before Emmett could.
“You don’t have to.”
Hershel looked at her.
She meant it.
That somehow made it worse.
He gripped the mop.
“Yes.”
His voice shook.
“I’ll give one.”
Adeline’s eyes filled again.
Hershel looked away.
“I should have before.”
Emmett said nothing.
Shame did not need help.
The elevator opened.
Marlene Tibs stepped out.
She had not left.
She stood inside the car holding her coat around herself.
Her face was wet.
Not rain.
“I’ll give one too.”
Adeline stared.
Marlene walked forward.
“I saw him grab you.”
Her voice broke.
“I went downstairs. Sat in my car. I couldn’t start it.”
She looked at Emmett.
“I came back.”
He nodded once.
Not praise.
Recognition.
Coming back mattered.
Adeline wiped her face.
“I need to go home.”
Emmett looked at her.
“Do you feel safe there?”
The question hit too hard.
Her eyes moved toward the desk drawer.
The memory card.
He noticed.
She noticed him noticing.
Her body stiffened again.
“Yes.”
Lie.
Emmett did not call it one.
“Do you have a car?”
“Rental.”
“Where?”
“Garage.”
Marlene whispered, “Cade knows it.”
Adeline went still.
Of course he did.
Emmett said, “Gio can drive you.”
“No.”
“Fine.”
No argument.
Adeline looked at him.
He continued.
“You can choose someone else.”
“I don’t want anyone from the company.”
“Also fine.”
She seemed almost angry at how easily he accepted no.
That interested him.
“Taxi?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I’ll wait inside until it arrives.”
“Of course.”
No demand that one of his men escort.
No insistence.
Adeline stood.
Her legs shook.
She reached for her purse.
Then stopped.
The drawer.
Emmett looked toward the sixth floor.
Lawyers remained upstairs.
Former executives.
Sterling Dunore had left through a private garage before Cade arrived.
Convenient.
He turned back.
“Before you leave, do you want to tell me why Branick was threatening you?”
Adeline froze.
Marlene and Hershel looked away.
Gio stepped back.
Privacy offered without being announced.
Adeline’s hand rested on the drawer handle.
“No.”
Emmett nodded.
“All right.”
That answer disarmed her more than pressure would have.
She swallowed.
“Not yet.”
“Also all right.”
Her taxi arrived twelve minutes later.
Emmett watched from behind the glass as Adeline walked into sleet.
She looked small beneath the awning.
Green vest under her coat.
Ponytail half fallen.
She turned once.
Not toward him.
Toward the brass plaque.
ASHFORD MERIDIAN SYSTEMS.
The company whose scandal had destroyed her father.
The company Emmett had just purchased for reasons none of its employees understood.
He waited until the taxi pulled away.
Then turned to Gio.
“Lock the building.”
Gio nodded.
“Everyone out?”
“Not everyone.”
“Who stays?”
“Us.”
Emmett looked at Denny.
“Him.”
Then toward the elevators.
“And Sterling Dunore’s files.”
Gio’s face changed.
“You think Branick was here because of the acquisition?”
“No.”
“Then?”
Emmett walked behind Adeline’s desk.
He did not open her drawer.
He saw the scratch marks around the lock.
Fresh.
Someone had tried.
“Because Miss Vance found something.”
Gio looked toward the entrance.
“Do we ask her?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because three years ago her father was convicted of stealing six million dollars from this company.”
Gio went still.
“You knew who she was.”
“Yes.”
“Before today?”
“Before I bought the building.”
Silence.
Gio stared.
“This acquisition is about Thomas Mercer.”
Emmett looked toward the sixth floor.
Thomas Mercer.
Chief accountant.
Convicted of fraud.
Died in prison infirmary eighteen months into a seven-year sentence.
Official cause: cardiac arrest.
Unofficially?
Emmett had never believed any part of it.
“It started with Mercer,” he said.
Gio lowered his voice.
“And ends with Dunore?”
Emmett looked at the locked drawer beneath Adeline’s desk.
“No.”
His expression hardened.
“It ends with whoever taught Cade Branick to threaten a woman through her grandmother.”
A phone vibrated.
Not his.
Adeline’s desk phone.
After-hours line.
Emmett looked at the caller ID.
Briar Glen Nursing Residence.
Ruthanne’s facility.
He answered.
“Reception.”
A woman said, “I’m looking for Adeline Vance.”
“She left.”
“Oh.”
Nervous pause.
“This is regarding Ruthanne Mercer.”
Emmett became still.
“Is she all right?”
“We need Miss Vance to come immediately.”
“Why?”
Another pause.
“Her grandmother is missing.”
Emmett’s gaze hardened.
“When?”
“We believe within the last forty minutes.”
Exactly when Cade left.
“Call the police.”
“We have.”
“Lock your cameras.”
“Excuse me?”
“Preserve every second of surveillance from four o’clock onward.”
The woman went silent.
“Who is this?”
Emmett looked toward the storm beyond the glass.
“Someone who just bought the company that pays one of your board members.”
He hung up.
Then called Gio.
“Find Adeline’s taxi.”
“Why?”
“Her grandmother is gone.”
Gio’s face changed.
May you like
Emmett picked up his coat.
“And Branick left fifteen minutes ahead of her.”
