The Price of Threatening My Family

Charlotte pulled up the property file on her laptop.

She didn't ask for details about weapons or what Kane might do inside. She looked at the plans her crews had used, the names attached to deliveries, and the photographs taken during the work.

"This building isn't empty," she said.

Miles leaned over the table.

"Our contact said it had been closed."

"The front section has. The storage building is still occupied. Separate tenant, shared access."

She pointed to a photograph.

"And this entrance is behind the office. If you're standing where Kane asked you to meet him, you won't see anyone coming through it."

I looked at Miles. He was already taking notes.

Charlotte called her facilities manager and asked him to verify the current use of the property without approaching it. The answer arrived twenty minutes later.

Vehicles had been moving through the rear building since early morning.

Kane had arranged more than a conversation.

"You can't go," Charlotte said.

"I can't keep waiting for him to choose the next place he approaches you."

"Then change the meeting."

"If I tell him we know, he'll move."

She closed the laptop, angry now.

"I'm not asking you to sit at home. I'm asking you to use what we found."

I sat beside her.

"We will. Nobody goes in expecting the place to be empty. Miles will coordinate with the people handling the threats. The families working in the other building get out before anything starts."

"And you?"

"I go where he can see me. With help close enough to reach me."

She looked at my face.

"You make it sound calm."

"I'm trying to be calm for you."

"I'd prefer honest."

I took her hand.

"I'm frightened. Not of him knowing where to find me. Of failing to get back here."

Her fingers closed around mine.

"Then don't make promises you can't control. Tell me how you'll try."

We talked through the practical arrangements. The meeting time. The people she could contact. What Miles would tell her and when. Her own security chief stayed with her and Summer.

I gave her my lawyer's number too. The legitimate business was being reorganized, and the records about Kane's theft and threats were already in trusted hands. He could no longer stop the process by threatening me in a room.

I was giving up the part of my network that depended on silence. I wasn't giving him the rest.

Before we left, Summer brought me a toy rabbit much smaller than Beans.

"This one can go in your pocket."

"Won't you miss him?"

"You bring him back."

I accepted it.

Charlotte watched from the doorway, her arms folded tightly.

When Summer returned to her drawing, Charlotte stepped close.

"Don't let him turn wanting us into a weakness."

"He already has."

"Then show him what else it makes you."

I kissed her once, holding the back of her head. She kept a hand on my chest until I stepped away.

Miles drove us toward the port.

"The other tenant has been contacted," he said. "Their people are leaving. We have eyes on the rear entrance."

"Good."

"Kane asked whether you were bringing the records."

"Tell him yes."

We had copies. He was never receiving control over anything.

As we approached the property, my phone rang. Charlotte.

"One more thing," she said. "The current tenant told our manager the front office has a damaged stairwell. Don't let anyone convince you to go upstairs."

I looked at the building ahead.

"Thank you."

"You can thank me at dinner."

"What are we having?"

"Whatever Summer chooses. You forfeited your vote."

I smiled.

"I'll call before we go inside."

Before we got out, Miles touched my shoulder.

"If the meeting changes, we leave. You don't owe him a performance."

I looked at the rabbit in my hand, then put it back in my pocket.

"I know."

"Do you? Four years ago, you would have stayed just because he thought you might not."

That was true. I had confused refusing to retreat with being in control more often than I liked to admit.

"Four years ago, nobody was waiting for noodles," I said.

Miles nodded and opened his door.

Kane had opened the main warehouse doors. He stood beneath the lights with four men behind him.

I called Charlotte as promised, told her we had arrived, and put the phone away.

Then I walked into the building with Miles beside me.

"I said alone," Kane told me.

"You brought company. I thought I'd do the same."

His gaze dropped to the folder in my hand.

"You finally understand."

"I understand you sent a gunman to my daughter's car."

"Nobody was supposed to hurt her."

"Then you should have hired a man who knew where not to point a weapon."

He smiled, trying to make the threat between us seem like a disagreement that might be settled over drinks.

"You always took these things personally."

"You made it personal."

I put the folder on the table and opened it.

Inside were the payments he'd made to Owen, the messages sent to the local men, and the records Miles had gathered since the explosion.

Kane's expression changed as he recognized them.

"These aren't what I asked for."

"They're what you're getting."

"Where are the account instructions?"

"There aren't any. The legitimate holdings stay with me. The rest is being closed and examined. You don't inherit anything."

He looked at Miles.

"You let him do this?"

"I helped," Miles said.

Kane's jaw tightened.

"Do you know how many people will be angry?"

"You can send them my lawyer's number."

He reached for the folder. I put my hand on it first.

"You're going to answer for approaching Charlotte and Summer. You're going to answer for the explosion. And you aren't buying your way out through anybody I employ."

A sound came from the rear doorway. One of Kane's men turned toward it, expecting help.

Nobody entered.

Miles's phone vibrated once. He glanced down and looked at me.

The men waiting behind the building had been stopped.

Kane saw the exchange. The easy smile vanished completely.

"You used her company," he said.

"She knew the building. You underestimated her."

He stepped back from the table.

"You think that makes you safe?"

My phone began ringing inside my jacket. Summer's watch. I recognized the sound Charlotte had assigned to it.

For one dangerous second, I looked down.

Kane drew his gun.