Chapter 8 #2
“His familiarity with me is what he’s after.
” She turns the glass slowly on the counter.
“You should know what you’re dealing with.
Eric doesn’t operate through threats or violence.
He operates through reasonableness. He makes himself useful.
He offers to help, and the help always comes with access, which always comes with control, and by the time you realize what happened, you’re living inside his version of your life instead of your own. ”
I clench my teeth but manage to sound calm when I ask, “How long were you together?”
“Two years. It took me eighteen months to understand what he was doing, and another six to leave.” She looks at me directly.
“When someone is quiet about their control, it’s easier to doubt yourself than to doubt them.
Eric never yelled. He never threatened. He just corrected me until I stopped trusting my own judgment, and then he became the only judgment I had left. ”
I have to loosen my hold on the ceramic handle of my espresso cup or risk breaking it. “What does he do when he can’t reach you?”
“He escalates through channels. Last time I stopped answering his calls, he showed up at the club three nights in a row and told Dominic he was checking on a safety concern in the neighborhood. Dominic let him in every time.” She pauses and looks at the table.
“Before that, he contacted my mother and told her he was worried about me. My mother called me crying and asked why I wouldn’t let a nice man help me.
That’s how he works. He doesn’t come at you directly.
He goes through the people you care about until the pressure comes from every direction and the easiest thing to do is just answer his call. ”
“Who else will he approach?”
She hesitates. “I’m not close with anyone at work, so I think besides my mother, just my friend, Marisol Cruz, but probably not right away.
She’s the only one who has repeatedly told him to fuck off and will continue joyfully telling him that as many times as she can.
” She smiles briefly. “She hates the prick, like a good best friend.”
That’s useful. It tells me exactly how Hayes will escalate when he discovers Aurora is unreachable, and that Marisol Cruz and Denise Moore need to be briefed before Hayes reaches out to them. I make a mental note to have Viktor assess both contacts by morning.
“You’re sure he’ll contact your mother?”
Aurora’s expression tightens. “He already has her number. He called her three months ago and told her I was isolating myself. My mother believed him because Eric sounds reasonable, and she doesn’t understand that reasonable is his weapon.”
“We’ll brief her.”
“No.” Aurora says it firmly. “My mother can’t know where I am or who I’m with.
She’s not equipped to lie to a detective, and she’ll panic if she knows I’m in danger.
I’ll call her from the secure line and tell her I’m traveling for work.
I’ll also tell her Eric is trying to get back together, and I’m not interested.
She’ll believe that. She’ll think I’m letting a good man slip away and will probably lecture me about that.
” She rolls her eyes and sips her water.
I nod. Managing Denise Moore directly would create more exposure than protection. Aurora knows her mother’s limits and has already built the cover story in her head. She’s thinking ahead even if she doesn’t call it that.
“He won’t get near you.” I say it with more certainty than I’ve said anything tonight. “Viktor and I will handle Hayes.”
“You keep saying ‘handle.’” She meets my gaze. “What does that mean, specifically?”
“It means every path he uses to reach you gets closed before he reaches the end of it. His witnesses get briefed. His procedural shortcuts get anticipated. His personal history with you becomes the thing that contaminates the investigation instead of the thing that drives it.”
She considers that for a moment, then stands and takes her water glass back to the sink. She washes and rinses it, sets it on the drying rack, and walks back toward her room. At the doorway, she stops and looks at me. “Thank you for not pretending this is simple.”
I nod, and she keeps going. The guest room door closes a minute later, followed by a quiet click. She’s locked herself in, and I don’t take that personally.
I look at Viktor, who is watching me with concern. I can read his thoughts based on our years of friendship. He thinks I’m in too deep, and he’s right.
Viktor picks up his coffee, takes a slow sip, and sets it down. The pause is deliberate. “I need to ask you something, and I need an honest answer.”
I inhale and exhale slowly, bracing myself for him to call me on everything. That’s his job as my second and my friend. “Go ahead.”
“Are you still thinking clearly about her?”
I consider lying. The lie would be easy and would end this conversation before it becomes uncomfortable. Viktor would accept it because he trusts me, and we’d move on to the next problem. The temptation lasts about two seconds.
“I’m thinking clearly enough to know that she’s safer here than in a safehouse, that Eric Hayes could be a real threat that requires neutralizing if he won’t back off, and Karpov’s interest in Echelon employees makes her a target whether she stays with me or not.”
He doesn’t blink as he continues staring at me. “That’s not what I asked.”
“I know what you asked.” I set down my coffee. “I’m aware my judgment is compromised, and I’m compensating for it by relying on yours. That’s why you’re here at four in the morning instead of sleeping.”
Viktor holds my gaze for three seconds, then nods once.
The nod is acceptance more than agreement, which from him is as close to approval as I’m going to get.
“Then we treat Eric Hayes as a priority.” He opens a new file on his tablet.
“Grigor confirmed that Hayes volunteered for the Echelon investigation within hours. His lieutenant approved it because of his familiarity with the venue and its staff.”
“Prior familiarity.” I repeat the phrase with the contempt it deserves. “He has a prior relationship with a staff member he’s been harassing for months, and his department is treating that as a qualification instead of a conflict of interest.”
“The system protects its own.” Viktor shrugs. “Hayes will use the investigation to contact Aurora directly. Standard witness interview protocols give him legal justification to request her presence at the precinct, visit her home, and access her phone records.”
“He won’t find her at home.”
“No, but he’ll look. When he can’t find her, he’ll escalate. Her being a potential witness in a potential homicide investigation gives him expanded search authority when he realizes she’s missing, and Hayes already knows enough about Aurora’s routines to narrow the field.”
“He knows too much about her.” I try to tell myself it’s just a logistics concern, but a surge of jealousy calls me on the lie before I can try to believe it.
“She said they were together for two years. Obviously, he knows her apartment address, her work schedule, her vehicle registration, and her known associates. His position of authority will let him learn anything he doesn’t already know through official channels.
He’ll start with Marisol Cruz, who is Aurora’s closest friend and her most likely point of contact.
If we don’t manage that relationship, Hayes will use Marisol to locate Aurora within a week. ”
“Aurora said she needs to call Marisol.” I smile for a second, recalling Marisol also hates Eric Hayes. “She’ll block him as long as she can before he pulls legal moves.”
“Yes, so it’s important for Aurora to call her from a secure line to warn her and discuss strategy.
” He taps a note into his tablet. “I’ll set up a clean device for her in the morning.
In the meantime, we need Aurora’s legal exposure managed before Hayes starts pulling threads.
She was an employee at the club, not a participant in anything Dominic was doing.
Her work records are clean, her financial history is clean, and her only connection to the criminal activity is proximity. ”
“She could be linked to me if anyone talks.”
Viktor inclines his head. “That’s why your legal team needs to establish Aurora’s departure from Echelon preceded Dominic’s disappearance by several hours, and she left Miami voluntarily for personal reasons unrelated to the club.
I’d suggest we lay the groundwork now for when she’s linked to the investigation. ”
“Can that hold?”
“It can hold long enough for us to handle Karpov and discredit Hayes. After that, the investigation collapses because the victim isn’t found, the evidence points to Karpov’s network, and the lead detective’s personal history with a key witness creates enough procedural contamination to bury the case. ”
“Make that a priority then. Have Grigor create a digital trail that puts her on a bus or plane to somewhere else, leaving hours before Dominic’s sudden departure. Investigators and Karpov might assume she’s rendezvousing with him somewhere, but that keeps them from looking for her in Miami.”
Viktor makes notes. Then he stops writing and looks up. “There’s something else you need to know.”
I wait.
“The recordings Dominic made didn’t just capture your meetings. Grigor hasn’t fully untangled them all yet, but the recordings go back months. They captured everything that happened in those rooms…” He trails off with a pointed look.
I bite back a curse. “Everything, including our…meeting earlier tonight?”
He nods but doesn’t belabor the point. “The recordings include conversations between Aurora and VIP clients. She managed private events, handled sensitive reservations, and facilitated introductions between people who expected absolute discretion. Several of those conversations are on the archive, but Karpov won’t get anything from the last three days.
Grigor confirmed that was the last download. ”
I’m relieved that my lapse of control isn’t something Karpov can get his hands on.
He’d use it against me by using Aurora against me.
Right now, he thinks she’s connected just to Dominic.
If he finds out she means anything to me, he’ll make acquiring her a top priority.
I blink and try to return my focus to what Viktor is telling me. “Sorry. What kind of conversations?”
“Client preferences, requests for specific services, names, account numbers, and personal, not necessarily legal, details shared in confidence. If Karpov has those fragments, he doesn’t just have leverage over you.
He has leverage over her.” Viktor closes the file.
“Some of those clients will pay significant money to keep their conversations private. Karpov knows that. Aurora’s name is attached to every one of those interactions because she facilitated them. ”
Aurora managed the VIP floor for six years.
She facilitated introductions, handled sensitive reservations, and maintained relationships with people who expected absolute discretion.
Those people trusted her with information they wouldn’t share with their own attorneys, and Dominic recorded every word of it without her knowledge or consent for months.
Karpov now owns those recordings, and he’ll use them against her the moment it becomes useful.
“Does she know?”
“I doubt it. Dominic wouldn’t have told her about the devices.
She probably assumed the rooms were private, which is the same assumption everyone else made.
” He looks down at his tablet. “The cleaning crew Dominic brought in to install the devices was there at a time when few other employees were scheduled, and it was on Aurora’s day off. ”
“He probably knew she’d figure out something was off about it.” I’m relieved by Dominic’s insight in this regard because it protects her from the worst of his actions. “I’ll handle it.”
Viktor sets down his tablet and stands. He buttons his jacket, pockets both phones, and walks toward the elevator but stops at the door and turns back.
“You’ll handle it.” He repeats my words back to me, and the tone makes it clear he’s not confirming a plan.
He’s marking a position. “You’ll handle telling Aurora that the boss you just killed in front of her was also secretly recording her private conversations, and those recordings are now owned by Karpov, who will absolutely use them as leverage. ”
“Yes, I will.”
He pauses for a second. “You’ll handle it objectively and lay out all her options, right?”
I don’t answer beyond saying, “Good night, Viktor.”
He glances out the windows, where dawn is creeping into the night sky. “What’s left of it.” With that, he leaves, taking his personal judgments and innuendos with him, but they and his unspoken criticism linger in my mind long after his departure.