Michael stared at the first page inside Daniel Mercer’s leather folder.
For several seconds, the only sound in the house was the faint hum of the refrigerator and Emily scraping a butter knife across her toast in the kitchen behind him.
At the top of the page was a photograph taken from a security camera.
The image showed the alley from the previous night.
The two men were visible near the wall.
So was Daniel’s daughter, Claire Mercer, trapped between them.
But Michael was looking at something else.
A black SUV sat at the far end of the alley.
Someone was behind the wheel.
“Those men weren’t random,” Daniel said.
Michael’s eyes moved from the photograph to the CEO’s face.
“You know them?”
“My security team identified both before dawn.
They have criminal records.
Assault, extortion, intimidation.” Daniel hesitated.
“And someone paid them to follow Claire.”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
He glanced toward Emily.
She was pretending not to listen.
He stepped onto the porch and pulled the door nearly closed behind him.
“If your daughter is still in danger, why are you here instead of with her?”
Daniel’s expression changed slightly.
Most people, Michael suspected, did not speak to him that way.
“Claire is safe.
She’s at my home with security and two detectives.
She insisted I come personally.”
“To thank me?”
“Partly.”
Daniel turned another page.
There were photographs of the two attackers.
Names.
Dates.
Vehicle records.
A grainy image of the same SUV leaving a parking garage earlier that evening.
Michael had spent years forcing himself to forget how quickly his mind could assemble fragments into patterns.
Now the old instinct returned without permission.
“They knew where she’d be,” he said.
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
“And they knew when she’d be alone.”
Another nod.
“Claire had attended a charity dinner downtown.
She left early after an argument with me.
Her driver was supposed to pick her up at the front entrance, but she decided to walk several blocks instead.”
Michael looked again at the photograph.
“Then whoever sent those men was watching her closely enough to adjust.”
Daniel studied him.
“That’s exactly what my head of security said.”
Michael closed the folder.
“Then listen to your head of security.
I’m a construction worker.”
Daniel did not take the folder back.
“According to Claire, you’re a construction worker who disarmed a man with a knife while keeping an eight-year-old child behind you.”
“I got lucky.”
“She said you didn’t look lucky.”
Michael’s gaze hardened.
