Chapter 6: The Offer on the Table
Marcus Hale came back three days later.
This time he didn't arrive at night.
He came at eleven in the morning, in a dark gray car, with a younger man Ruby didn't recognize standing two steps behind him.
He rang the front bell like a guest and waited with his hands folded.
Ruby was in the garden with Leo when Donna appeared at the glass door.
"Mr.
Romano says to bring Leo inside," Donna said, her voice carefully neutral.
"And to take him upstairs."
Leo looked up from the patch of dirt he'd been excavating with a plastic spoon.
"Why?" he demanded.
"Because someone's here," Ruby said.
"And we're going to go build the biggest train track you've ever seen while your dad talks to them."
Leo considered this seriously.
"Biggest ever?"
"Biggest ever."
He took her hand.
Upstairs, Ruby built the track in a wide oval across the bedroom floor and sat with Leo while he ran the engine around it, narrating a detailed story about a train driver named Gerald who was also, apparently, a doctor.
She kept her voice steady.
She kept her hands still.
She listened to the sound of footsteps below.
After forty minutes, the footsteps stopped.
Ten minutes after that, Vincent appeared in the doorway.
Leo looked up.
"Daddy, Gerald is a doctor now."
"That's good," Vincent said.
"Gerald should take a break.
Ruby, can you come downstairs?"
Donna appeared behind him to sit with Leo.
In the hallway, Vincent spoke quietly.
"He made an offer."
"What kind of offer?"
"He wants the information you took.
In exchange, he'll leave you alone permanently.
No more searching, no more pressure.
He'll close the file on Claire Maddox."
Ruby looked at the wall.
"And you believe that?"
"No."
"Then why are you telling me like it's a real option?"
"Because you deserve to hear every option." Vincent turned to face her fully.
"He also said that if you don't agree within forty-eight hours, he'll go to the police with a story about Claire Maddox that will hold up long enough to get you arrested.
Long enough to separate you from Leo."
Ruby's jaw tightened.
"He can't prove anything," she said.
"I was never charged."
"He doesn't need proof.
He needs forty-eight hours of chaos.
That's enough to pull you out of this house, and once you're out—"
"He finds me before I can get back in," she finished.
"Yes."
She leaned against the wall and looked at the ceiling.
"He's done this before," she said.
"This exact sequence.
The visit, the offer, the deadline.
He did it to a woman in Louisville who had documents on one of his contractors.
She handed everything over and he had her removed from the city inside a week anyway."
"I know," Vincent said.
"I made some calls this morning."
She looked at him.
"I have people who've been watching Marcus Hale for two years," he said.
"Not to move against him — I had no reason to.
But I kept the file open." He paused.
"I want to give that file to a federal contact.
Combined with what you have, it's not just pressure.
It's a case."
"That takes time we don't have."
"Forty-eight hours is enough if we move tonight."
Ruby was quiet.
"If this goes wrong," she said, "he'll come after Leo."
"If we do nothing, he comes after Leo anyway.
He already knows my son exists.
He already knows Leo matters to you.
That's leverage he won't leave on the table."
She hated that he was right.
"What do you need from me?" she asked.
"The files.
Tonight."
She nodded slowly.
"They're in a storage unit in Dayton," she said.
"Encrypted drive.
I can get them."
"I'll drive you."
"Vincent—"
"I'll drive you," he said again, quieter this time.
"You're not doing this alone."
She looked at him for a moment — really looked, the way she hadn't let herself since the night she arrived.
"Leo can't know we're gone," she said finally.
"Donna will stay.
He'll be asleep before we leave."
Ruby nodded.
She turned back toward Leo's room, then stopped.
"The man with Marcus," she said.
"The younger one.
Did you recognize him?"
"No.
Why?"
"Because I did," she said.
"He was at the third job.
He was the one who tied her to the chair."
May you like
Vincent said nothing for a moment.
"Then we move faster than tonight," he said.
