Chapter 5: The Morning He Came Back
She slept four hours.
Real sleep — the kind her body took because it had no choice left.
When she woke, the room was grey with early light.
The door was still locked from the inside.
She lay still for a moment, listening.
Quiet hallway.
Distant street noise.
The smell of coffee from somewhere below.
She unlocked the door.
Viktor was in the hallway, seated in a chair with a paper cup in his hand.
He looked at her without surprise.
"Mr.
Volkov is downstairs," he said.
Aleksei was at a small table in a back room off the main club floor.
The club itself was empty and dim, chairs still up on tables.
Back here, two laptops were open, a phone was face-down beside his coffee, and a man Nora hadn't seen the night before was standing against the wall reading something on a tablet.
Aleksei looked up when she came in.
"Coffee," he said.
It wasn't a question.
A cup appeared at her elbow within seconds.
She sat down across from him.
"Cameron filed a report this morning," Aleksei said.
"At six forty-two.
He listed you as a missing person."
Nora's hands went still around the cup.
"He can do that?"
"He just did." Aleksei turned one of the laptops to face her.
The report was on the screen — official department letterhead, her name, her description, a case number.
"He listed himself as your emergency contact."
"He's not my emergency contact."
"He is on your lease."
Nora stared at the screen.
Her lease.
The apartment she had been trying to leave for six months, the one Cameron had insisted on co-signing eighteen months ago when she'd lost her job and had no choice.
She had thought she was getting help.
She had been giving him a key.
"He's going to say I'm unstable," she said.
"That I ran.
That something happened to me and he's worried."
"Yes."
"And every officer who responds will believe him because he's one of them."
"Most of them," Aleksei said.
"Not all."
She looked up.
"There are two detectives in the financial crimes division who have been building a separate case," he said.
"Not against you.
Against Cameron.
They've been watching him for five months.
Last night gave them something they didn't have before."
"What?"
"Him using his badge outside of jurisdiction to locate a private individual in a private venue." Aleksei picked up his coffee.
"It's a small thing.
But small things are how those cases crack open."
Nora sat back.
The coffee was hot and strong and she drank half of it before she spoke again.
"You know these detectives."
"I know of them."
"That's not the same thing."
He looked at her.
Something in his expression shifted — not quite a smile, but close.
"No," he said.
"It's not."
Before she could respond, the man against the wall said something sharp in Russian.
Aleksei's phone lit up.
He looked at it.
His expression didn't change.
But his hand set the coffee cup down very carefully.
"He's outside," Aleksei said.
Nora's stomach dropped.
"Cameron?"
"With two uniformed officers." Aleksei stood.
"He's filing a welfare check."
"He can't come in here—"
"He can't.
But the officers can." Aleksei looked at her directly.
"Which means you have about four minutes to decide something."
"Decide what?"
"Whether you walk out of here voluntarily and deal with Cameron on the street, where his version of events is the only one anyone hears." He paused.
"Or whether you stay, speak to the officers here, in this room, with me present, and tell them exactly what happened last night."
Nora looked at him.
"If I stay," she said, "and I tell them the truth — Cameron will say I'm lying.
He'll say I'm confused.
He'll say I'm unstable."
"Yes."
"And they might believe him."
"Some of them might."
"So why would staying be better?"
Aleksei looked at her steadily.
"Because this room has cameras," he said.
"And last night's footage is already copied to three separate locations." He paused.
"And because one of the two officers Cameron brought with him this morning is named Reyes.
And Detective Reyes has been wanting to talk to you for five months."
Four minutes.
May you like
Nora's hands were flat on the table.
"Stay," she said.
