Chapter 5: ROOM 4B
The server room was at the end of the east corridor, past the rows of glass-walled offices that were still dark at this hour.
Lisa's keycard opened the outer door.
She stopped with her hand on the inner handle.
Dana touched her arm.
"Do you want me to come in?"
"No," Lisa said.
"Stay with Carver."
She pushed the door open.
Daniel was sitting on the floor with his back against the server rack, knees up, a paper coffee cup in both hands.
He looked thinner.
His hair was longer.
He had the look of someone who had been waiting for something unpleasant and had decided to stop dreading it.
He looked up when she walked in.
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
Then Daniel said, "I didn't know it was your company."
"I know," Lisa said.
"I mean it.
When Ryan first contacted me — this was before your wedding, before any of this — he said he needed a name on a charitable account for an Army veterans fund.
He said it was a formality.
He said you'd approved it."
"He said I approved it."
"He showed me a message.
From your number." Daniel's jaw tightened.
"I know now that it wasn't real.
I know that.
But at the time, I thought—" He stopped.
"He was going to be my brother-in-law.
I thought I could trust him."
Lisa sat down on the floor across from him.
"When did you find out?"
"Eight months ago.
I got a call from a number I didn't recognize.
A woman.
She said she was a military investigator and that my name was on accounts I needed to know about.
She sent me the documents." He looked at his hands.
"I panicked.
I called Ryan."
"You called Ryan."
"I know." The words came out flat, self-condemning.
"He told me it was a misunderstanding.
He told me if I stayed quiet, it would be resolved.
He said if I talked to anyone — anyone — he had evidence that would make it look like I set the whole thing up myself." Daniel looked up at her.
"Lisa, I was scared.
I didn't know what to do.
So I ran."
"And ended up here."
"Ryan called me two days ago.
He said there was a situation developing and he needed me somewhere safe.
He said your office was the safest place.
He said you'd arranged it." Daniel's voice broke slightly on the last sentence.
"I should have called you.
I should have called you eleven months ago."
Lisa looked at her brother — the same face she had known her entire life, now carrying eleven months of fear in the lines around his eyes.
"The woman who called you," she said.
"Did she give you a name?"
"Carver," Daniel said.
"She said her name was Agent Carver."
Lisa was quiet for a moment.
"There's a man named Carver standing outside this door right now," she said.
Daniel stared at her.
"I think," Lisa said carefully, "that someone has been trying to get to you for a long time.
And Ryan has been making sure they couldn't." She stood up.
"Come with me.
Right now.
Don't pick up your phone.
Don't answer any messages.
Just come with me."
Daniel set the coffee cup down and got to his feet.
"Is it over?" he asked.
"Not yet," Lisa said.
"But it's going to be."
She opened the door.
Carver was standing exactly where he said he would be.
He looked at Daniel.
Then at Lisa.
May you like
"We need to move," he said.
"Ryan just left the house."
