Chapter 7 — The Real Entrance

“Hold the rear post,” Nico said into the radio. “Nobody leaves that road.”

The guard beside him relayed the order. A voice answered at once: headlights had just appeared beyond the service gate.

Mara felt Nico’s hand close briefly around hers.

On the security monitor above the garage workbench, a dark van stopped at the rear gate. Two men got out. One moved toward the lock while the other watched the house.

At the front of the estate, another vehicle struck the outer gate.

The men by the rear gate looked toward the noise. They had counted on the guards doing the same.

“Move in,” Nico said.

Floodlights snapped on. Three of Nico’s guards came out from behind the service building. The man at the lock dropped what he was holding and ran for the van. His companion was already inside.

The van reversed, struck a stone marker, and sped away along the service road. The guards stayed at their post.

“Don’t chase them,” Nico ordered. “Get the plate and keep the gate covered.”

Mara released the breath she had been holding.

Adrian stood between two guards several feet away. Nico turned to him.

“You brought them here,” Nico said.

Adrian said nothing.

“Was the front gate only a distraction?”

Still nothing. But he looked at Mara, and his expression gave her the answer.

The vehicles at the front withdrew minutes later. Security checked both gates, then searched the grounds and outbuildings. No one had entered the main property. Mrs. Russo confirmed that the staff were accounted for.

Only when the last search team reported in did Nico take Mara into the security office. He asked her to sit while he reviewed the recordings. Mara remained on her feet.

On the rear camera, the van had arrived fourteen seconds after the first impact at the front gate.

“That was too close to be a coincidence,” she said.

Nico replayed the footage. “They were waiting for a signal.”

The side service door Adrian had used led to a short corridor beside the garage. Beyond it, another locked door opened onto the rear grounds. If the men at the gate had succeeded while security rushed forward, they could have reached the house through a route Adrian knew well.

“What were they after?” Mara asked.

“I don’t know yet.”

“That worries me more than if they’d simply come for you.”

“It worries me too.”

Nico looked at her. The shock of finding Adrian beside the motorcycle had passed; something more painful remained. For twelve years, he had trusted the man with the estate’s weakest points.

Mara could not make that betrayal smaller. She pulled out the chair beside him and sat down.

Adrian’s phone and bag were secured. His access to the security system was cut off, and his keys were collected. Nico called an attorney before questioning him further. By dawn, the records Adrian had tried to conceal were being reviewed by people who had never reported to him.

Mara slept for three hours. When she came downstairs, Nico was in the kitchen, drinking coffee he had forgotten to finish.

“Mrs. Russo says you’ve been here since six,” she said.

“She’s keeping track of me?”

“Someone should.”

He looked at her over the cup. “We found payments to Adrian. They go back months.”

“From the men at the gate?”

“Through two companies. We’re tracing the owners.”

Mara took the chair opposite him. “Did he admit anything?”

“He said he wanted me out of the way.”

“Why?”

“He wanted control of business I refused to expand. He thought the other men would support him once I was gone.”

Nico spoke evenly, but his hand tightened around the cup.

“He knew your routes,” Mara said. “He knew which bike you used. He knew the cameras.”

“And when the bike failed, he knew to change plans.”

Mara thought of Adrian entering the garage despite the obvious risk of being caught. “Did he expect his men to get him out?”

“Possibly. He won’t tell us.”

Nico’s phone lit up. He read a message, and the last of the color left his face.

“What?”

“One of the phones taken from Adrian has your address.”

Mara stared at him.

Her apartment was small. She had rented it before taking the job at the estate, and she still went back on her days off. Adrian could have found the address through employment records. Knowing that did nothing to ease the sudden cold in her chest.

“Is anyone there now?” she asked.

“A team is checking.”

“My neighbor, Ruth, has a key. She feeds my cat when I work late.”

Nico was already on his feet. “Call her.”

Mara dialed. Ruth answered on the fourth ring, sounding sleepy but unharmed. She was at home. The cat was at Mara’s apartment, and no one had knocked or asked questions.

“Stay inside until I call you again,” Mara said.

Ruth heard something in her voice and agreed.

Mara ended the call. “I need to get the cat.”

“You will. My men will secure the building first.”

She wanted to argue with the certainty in his voice. She also wanted Ruth nowhere near a possible threat.

“All right,” she said. “Then I’m going with you when it’s clear.”

Nico nodded. “When it’s clear.”

Two hours later, Mara entered her apartment with Nico and a guard waiting outside the door. Nothing had been disturbed. Her cat came out from beneath the sofa, indignant at the unexpected visitors.

Mara gathered food, a carrier, and the papers she kept in a kitchen drawer. Among them were the notes she had made after viewing the workshop near her old neighborhood.

Nico saw the rental listing in her hand.

“You can leave those,” he said. “We’ll come back.”

“I know.” Mara folded the paper and put it in her bag. “I want it with me.”

Back at the estate, she gave the cat a quiet room and checked on Ruth once more. Then she went to Nico’s study.

The investigation had made her address a source of danger. She would take precautions. She would stay behind the gates for now. But she refused to let Adrian decide which parts of her life she could keep.

“Show me what you found,” she told Nico.

He turned the monitor toward her.

Among Adrian’s messages was a photograph of Mara leaving the workshop she had inspected. Beneath it, a short note named the date and time.

Someone had followed her there.