Chapter Four #2
My next words came rougher than I wanted.
“I became inconvenient because I was alive, asking questions, and unwilling to shut up about men who’d died because people above them lied about what happened.”
Stella glanced at Justice reversed again.
“That’s what I saw.”
“I know.”
“You believe me?”
I let out a breath.
“I believe you knew something you had no way to know.”
“That isn’t exactly the same thing.”
“No.”
“But it’s closer.”
“Much closer.”
The corner of her mouth moved.
“What did you do after?” she asked.
“I got out. I came to Cascade Point eventually. I kept my exposure low and built a life where I choose who I work for.”
“And that’s when you came to Bancroft?”
“Yes.”
“Is Geo DiNero even your real name?”
I almost laughed.
“Yes. Geo DiNero is my real name.”
“I had to ask.”
“I moved. I kept my name.”
Stella nodded once.
Then she folded the cloth over her cards.
“That’s enough.”
I waited.
“You’re not going to ask me anything else?”
“You told me what you wanted to tell me.”
“That usually doesn’t stop people.”
“I know.”
Her hand rested on the table between us.
I put mine beside it.
Stella turned her hand and slid her fingers into mine.
I closed my hand around hers.
She gave me a small, tired smile.
“You’re going to keep arguing with me about tarot, aren’t you?”
“I probably am.”
“I’d be disappointed if you made this too easy.”
“I can avoid that.”
“I believe you.”
By early afternoon, Stella’s color had returned.
She ate half a sandwich, drank enough water that I’d stopped watching the glass, and left the tarot deck wrapped on the far end of the table.
I’d spent the last hour reviewing what we knew, not what I suspected.
The abandoned unit proved Exchange security access, not a user.
The camera failures pointed to the same problem: somebody with access had interfered.
Volkov remained a serious suspect.
That wasn’t proof.
Stella stood near the industrial windows, facing the Mill District under a dull afternoon sky.
“The Halloween party is tomorrow.”
I raised my head from the table.
“What?”
“The Exchange Halloween bash.”
“I know what you meant. Why are you thinking about it?”
“Because whoever did this is connected to The Exchange.”
“Someone with access is connected to The Exchange.”
She turned.
“You’re going to make me say ‘allegedly’ after every sentence, aren’t you?”
“No. I’m going to keep you from building a plan around something we haven’t proved.”
“I already have a plan.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
Stella came back to the table.
“The casino is open. They’re holding the event. It’ll be packed tomorrow night.”
“I’m aware.”
“Senior management will be there. Security will be everywhere.”
“Yes.”
“And if somebody inside that building wants me badly enough to send two men with a syringe, what do you think happens if I walk back through the front door?”
“No.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“I haven’t finished.”
“You said enough.”
“That’s not how conversations work.”
“It is when the next sentence involves using yourself as bait.”
“Good. Then you do understand the plan.”
I stood.
“No.”
Stella folded her arms.
“You keep telling me hiding here is temporary.”
“It is.”
“How temporary?”
“Until we know who wants you and why.”
“And how do we learn that if whoever it is knows I vanished after the apartment?”
“We investigate.”
“You said you don’t investigate murders.”
“I don’t. I investigate threats to the person I’m protecting.”
“Then investigate this one where the threat lives.”
I held still.
“The Exchange is the one place where somebody with insider access controls more variables than I do.”
“Which is exactly why they’re comfortable there.”
“And exactly why I don’t want you there.”
“If I stay hidden, they get to wait.”
“They may make another mistake.”
“They already made one. We got lucky enough to find the equipment they dropped.”
“We didn’t get lucky. You took us off the elevator route, and I stopped them.”
“Fine. We were brilliant. The point is, they know the grab failed. Whoever sent them is going to adjust.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Stella stepped closer to the table.
“If I go back publicly, they have to decide what to do about it.”
“Or they do nothing.”
“Then I attend a Halloween party with the largest bodyguard in Cascade Point glaring at everyone.”
“I don’t glare at everyone.”
“You really do.”
“That isn’t relevant.”
“It will be if you scare innocent casino employees into quitting.”
I rubbed a hand over my jaw.
She was enjoying this more than she should’ve been.
I wasn’t.
“You’re asking me to take you into a building where we already know someone had enough access to interfere with security.”
“I’m asking you to take me somewhere we can predict.”
“You can’t predict the person.”
“No. But we can predict the place and time.”
I said nothing.
She waited.
Her plan was dangerous, but it made sense.
A stupid plan would’ve been easier to refuse.
“If we do this,” I said, “you stay with me unless something forces us apart. If casino security tries to move you somewhere we didn’t plan or separate us, don’t assume it’s routine.”
“I won’t.”
“You also carry a tracker, but I want more than location. It needs an emergency alert that opens live audio the second you trigger it.”
Stella leaned closer.
“Can you do that?”
“Bancroft can get me the equipment.”
“Where does the audio go?”
“To me and an off-site receiver.”
“Locke would get the mirror?”
I nodded.
“He can monitor without being physically inside the casino.”
“And record it?”
“Yes.”
Stella considered that.
“I like that.”
“Good. Then we use it.”
“That sounded much more like the man who chased me last night.”
My cock hardened at the memory.
Her mouth curved.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You know exactly what you did.”
“I mentioned a factual event.”
“You’re enjoying this.”
“A little.”
I put both palms against the table.
“We are not getting distracted.”
“Obviously not.”
She glanced at my hands, then back at my face.
That wasn’t helping.
I forced myself back to the plan.
“If anything feels wrong, you tell me.”
“I already do.”
“If you get another warning, same rule. You don’t wait until you can explain it.”
The tension around her mouth eased.
“You’d act on it?”
“Yesterday you told me not to take an elevator. Today you told me things about my past you couldn’t know.”
“That isn’t you saying you believe in second sight.”
“I’m working on it.”
“I’ll take the progress.”
“I’m serious, Stella. If you see something, feel something, or the cards give you something useful, you tell me. I don’t need to understand it first.”
She nodded.
“I will.”
I straightened.
“We also need a route in and out that doesn’t depend entirely on Exchange security. I want an exterior vehicle position, secondary exit, and a reason for you to be visible without wandering through the building.”
“The main Halloween event does that.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll need clothes.”
“You have clothes.”
She gestured at her black T-shirt and charcoal pants.
“For the casino?”
“I assumed you owned more than one black dress.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“That almost sounded like a joke.”
“It wasn’t.”
“That makes it worse.”
I reached for my phone.
“We’ll deal with clothes after I talk to Locke. I’m not sending you back to the apartment for them.”
“Geo, wait.”
I stopped.
Her voice was quiet and steady now.
“You’re agreeing?”
I faced her.
I wanted Stella behind reinforced doors until somebody else solved the problem.
She’d warned me before the attack, and taking another route had kept us out of the elevator trap.
This morning, she’d read three cards and described a past I’d never told her about.
I opened the secure equipment list Bancroft had sent me and found the tracker I wanted.
Then I turned the phone so Stella could see it.
“If we’re doing this, you carry one of these. The alert opens audio immediately. Locke gets the mirror. I stay close enough to reach you fast.”
She read the specifications.
“And if I tell you something’s wrong?”
“I act.”
“You won’t make me prove it first?”
“No.”
She raised her head.
I sent the equipment request to Bancroft.
Then I set the phone down between us.
“We build the whole plan together before we go.”
Stella’s shoulders eased.
“So we’re doing this?”
I still hated the risk.
I pushed the phone toward her.
“We do it together.”
Tomorrow night, I was taking Stella back to The Exchange.