25. Rowan #2
"All right." He steps away from me instead of toward Tyler and lets the officer resume taking my statement. No argument follows. He doesn't suggest that his solution would be faster, and he doesn't pull out his phone to give Makari an instruction behind my back.
The relief lasts about forty minutes, until Harper calls from the athletic complex while I'm sitting in the back of Erik's SUV. He's outside with Makari, both of them angled away from the vehicle while they discuss Peter, who still hasn't surfaced.
"I found something." Harper has enough background noise behind her that she must be in one of the athletic offices.
I lean against the seat. "That same sentence has ruined several weeks of my life on various occasions."
"This one might only ruin the afternoon." Papers move on her end of the call before she continues. "I pulled the foundation disbursements again. Liya authorized an emergency transfer nine hours before the safe-house address leaked."
I sit straighter. "How large?"
Harper gives me the number, and I repeat it once to make sure I heard correctly. It's too large to be an ordinary expense.
Erik opens the SUV door while I still have the phone against my ear. He takes one look at me and stops before getting in. "What happened?"
I cover the phone. "Harper found a foundation transfer."
His expression changes when I give him the timing.
Harper is still waiting on the line. "I have the authorization trail and the receiving entity."
"I need copies of both." I end the call after she agrees, then look at Erik. "I want to talk to Liya."
He doesn't tell me to wait.
An hour later, we're back at the penthouse. Harper has her laptop open at the kitchen island, Liya stands across from us with her coat still on, and Erik stays near the end of the counter. Liya reads the transfer number from Harper's screen. "I authorized it."
"What was it for?"
Liya closes the laptop halfway. "I need to speak to Erik first."
I stare at her long enough that Erik answers before I do. "You can speak in front of Rowan."
Liya looks at him. "This wasn't your information to release."
"It became relevant to an active security breach."
She turns back to me. "I need ten minutes."
"No." I put my phone beside Harper's laptop. "You have information that affects whether we can trust you, and your first response is to ask for a private conversation with Erik before I'm allowed to hear it."
"I was protecting someone." Liya squares herself against the counter.
"That's always the answer." Erik shifts his attention to his sister, but he doesn't interfere.
Liya takes out her phone. "I need to make one call before I give you the name."
That's different from asking permission, so I let her make it. She crosses to the windows while Harper and I wait at the island. I can't hear more than a few words. Liya returns less than five minutes later, takes the laptop back, and unlocks a restricted foundation file.
"Daniel Mercado worked in foundation accounting.
" She turns the screen toward us and opens a relocation invoice.
"He found two transfers tied to a Zaitsev vendor and reported them to me privately.
He received a threat the same morning I moved the money.
" The file contains transportation charges, a temporary residence, private security, outside counsel, and six weeks of living expenses.
She opens the final page. "He's in Vermont now. He's safe."
Harper checks the dates against the copy she pulled earlier. "The transfer happened nine hours before the safe-house leak."
"Yes." Liya folds her arms and waits for the obvious question.
I give it to her. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I didn't know who was compromised." Liya closes the relocation file. "I lied about Daniel's role because naming him would've narrowed the search for Orell. I wasn't risking his location to make the rest of you more comfortable."
I look at Erik. He isn't pleased with the answer, but he doesn't contradict her.
"I would make the same choice again," Liya says.
"That's the problem." I get up because sitting still has become impossible.
"I'm not arguing with the outcome. I'm arguing with how every person in this family gets there.
You close ranks first and explain later, assuming you decide anyone else can handle the truth.
" I point toward the relocation record. "Erik did it. Peter does it. You do it."
She looks toward her brother again. This time, she catches herself quickly enough that her mouth hardens.
I understand why she kept Daniel's name quiet.
That makes the argument worse rather than easier.
If he's alive because she refused to disclose his location, I can't tell her she chose wrong, but I can still hate the habit.
"I'm starting to understand what it would mean to raise children inside this family. "
The kitchen becomes very quiet.
Erik looks directly at me.
I hear the word again after it's already out, too late to pull it back. "Hypothetically."
Harper lowers her attention to the relocation invoice with exaggerated concentration. Liya looks from Erik to me, then decides against whatever she was considering saying.
I move toward the refrigerator. "I need food."
Erik follows me only as far as the end of the counter. "You're hungry?"
"Yes." I open the refrigerator and look through containers without reading any of the labels.
"Now?"
I turn toward him. "Do you object?"
His mouth almost curves. "Absolutely not."
Liya makes a suspicious noise behind us, which I refuse to acknowledge.
I find leftover pasta. Erik reaches for the container when I take it out, and I let him have it because arguing would draw more attention to how often I've been hungry over the past week.
He puts it in the microwave and leans against the counter beside it. "Your hypotheticals are becoming unusually specific."
"You're imagining patterns."
"I'm very good at patterns." He folds his arms while the timer counts down.
The microwave stops before I can respond or find a way to divert him. Erik takes out the container, checks the side to make sure it isn't too hot, and gives it to me with a fork. He doesn't ask another question about children. That makes me want to tell him more than interrogation would have.
Midnight arrives without useful word from Peter.
Harper stays at the penthouse because Makari doesn't want her moving while his team is tracing the cargo message.
Liya has taken over one end of the dining table with foundation records.
I'm curled into the corner of the sofa with my casebook open on my lap, although I haven't absorbed a sentence in twenty minutes.
Every time Erik's phone rings, he crosses the room to answer it. Every time, he comes back with nothing.
At twelve-seventeen, the private elevator opens, and Peter walks out carrying a hard case. His coat is dirty, and dried blood marks one cuff. He crosses the foyer without explaining either one.
Makari comes out of the office fast enough that Harper leaves the island and follows him into the living room. Erik gets to his feet but doesn't approach his uncle.
Peter sets the hard case on the kitchen counter and opens it. Three recording devices are beside the complete shipping audit.
Erik looks from the documents to Peter. "You disappeared with evidence."
"I used evidence." Peter removes his coat and lays it over a chair.
"You ignored my authority." Erik remains several feet away, which may be the only reason the conversation stays at speaking volume.
Peter reaches into the case for the first recorder. "Yes. It was unavoidable."
Makari rubs the back of his neck once, then pulls the laptop closer to the case.
Peter connects the recorder himself. "Orell's financial courier believed I'd gone around you to sell the audit. He gave me account numbers, names, and two meeting locations before he understood the audit was bait."
Erik looks at the dried blood on his uncle's cuff. "You could've been killed."
Peter presses the control on the recorder. He sounds unconcerned. "Yes, but I wasn't."
A man's voice fills the kitchen before Erik can answer.
The first name is attached to a shell company we've been trying to connect for weeks.
The next two are worse. Harper abandons her place beside Makari and grabs a legal pad from the end of the island.
Liya pulls her foundation records closer while Makari brings up the relevant accounts on his laptop.
Peter stands beside them, filthy, insubordinate, and completely right as Erik keeps looking at his uncle while the recording plays. I can't tell whether he wants to embrace Peter or put him on the next plane out of the country.