Chapter 2: Since Before the Shooting
Vincent made the call to Sarah that same night.
Adrian didn't ask what was said.
He watched Vincent's face when he came back into the room, and that was enough.
"She wants to see you," Vincent said quietly.
"But she's scared, boss.
Three years is a long time."
Adrian said nothing.
He already knew what three years looked like.
He had photographs of every single day of it.
Two mornings later, against the doctor's orders, he was in the back of a car moving through Brooklyn.
The house was smaller than he remembered from the surveillance photos.
Yellow curtains in the front window.
A small bicycle on the porch with one training wheel slightly bent.
He sat in the car for eleven minutes.
He counted.
Then the front door opened.
Sarah stood in the doorway, older than the woman he remembered, tired in a way that had nothing to do with sleep.
She looked at the car for a long moment.
Then a small figure pushed past her legs and stopped on the top step.
Lily.
She was holding a piece of paper in both hands, folded once down the middle.
She stared at the car with her mother's eyes — serious, careful, already too old for three years old.
Adrian's hand was on the door handle before he realized he'd moved.
That's when his phone rang.
It was Vincent's emergency line.
The one that only rang when something had already gone wrong.
"Boss." Vincent's voice was flat in a way that meant he was controlling it carefully.
"Volkov's people.
They've been watching the house.
Not since the sh00ting."
He paused.
"Since before it."
---
May you like
*What Volkov already knew — and what it meant for Lily — was worse than Adrian had imagined.
Click the link below to read the full story.*
