Chapter 14 #2
“It’s not a theory.” He stands, plants both hands on the table, and leans over me.
“I know Aurora. She wouldn’t disappear without telling her mother where she was going.
She wouldn’t leave her apartment without her things.
She wouldn’t go silent on every person in her life unless somebody silenced her. ”
I look up at him without standing. Every word he’s saying is being recorded, and every word confirms exactly what Aurora told me about how he operates. He can’t tell the difference between concern and control, and the badge gives him permission not to try.
“The parking garage Aurora used on Northeast Second Avenue has security footage from the week before Dominic’s disappearance.
” He straightens up and tries to recover his professional tone, but the damage is done.
“She was there three times, twice alone and once with another individual with whom she spoke for five minutes.”
The parking garage isn’t in any case file I’ve seen. I’ve never been there, so it has no relevance to the case or me. It predated Dominic’s death as well.
“There’s also a restaurant in Coral Gables where she was seen dining with Marisol Cruz two days before Dominic went missing. The hostess confirmed a two-top reservation under Cruz’s name.”
I haven’t seen the restaurant in any official documentation either. Hayes has been tracking Aurora’s movements independently, and none of it connects to Dominic Caruso.
“Detective, you seem to have a detailed understanding of Aurora’s personal schedule before Dominic’s disappearance.” I fold my hands on the table. “Is that standard procedure for a missing-person inquiry?”
Hayes picks up his folder from the floor.
He tries to recover, but the professional voice is still shaky.
“I’m going to find her, Mr. Bugrov. I need to hear from her directly that she left voluntarily.
If she didn’t leave voluntarily, I need to know who took her and why.
” He steps closer. “If I find out that someone is keeping her somewhere against her will, I will take that person apart using every tool I have available, professional and otherwise.”
I widen my eyes like I’m shocked. “Are you threatening me, Detective?”
“I’m making a promise.” He glares at me. “Thank you for your time.”
He walks out while I sit at the table for thirty seconds, letting the recording capture the silence after his exit. Viktor steps in from the adjacent room.
“He’s past emotionally compromised.” I stand and face Viktor. “He’s running on obsession now, and the badge makes him think it’s righteous.”
“He also doesn’t see that he just admitted to unauthorized surveillance in a recorded conversation.” Viktor pockets his phone. “The parking garage and the restaurant give us leverage if we need to discredit him.”
“Hold that for now. I want it available, not deployed.” I stand and button my jacket. “Every day she stays with me, the relationship becomes harder to frame as temporary.”
“I wasn’t going to say it, but yes.” Viktor meets my stare. “Is it temporary?”
“No.”
He looks at me with the same look he gave me the night I kissed Aurora in the corridor at Echelon. He’s resigned and loyal anyway. “Then we might have to deal with Hayes as more than a temporary pest.”
I don’t flinch. “That’s a possibility. Not yet. He’s still useful as a known quantity. The moment he becomes unpredictable, the calculation changes.”
“What happens if…when it changes?”
“We’ll handle it. No loose ends.” I pick up my jacket from the chair.
“For now, I want the recording transcribed, the surveillance details flagged for legal review, and a full timeline of Hayes’s unauthorized activities compiled.
When the time comes to dismantle him, I want enough material to end his career before I have to consider ending anything else. ”
Viktor nods and starts making calls before I’ve left the room.
I drive back to the Key Largo property alone because Viktor stays in Miami to handle the recording extraction.
The sun is low over the water when I pull through the gate, and Aurora is sitting on the back porch reading with her feet up and the Catherine the Great biography open in her lap.
She looks up when I come through the door, reading my expression before I’ve said a word.
“What happened?”
I sit beside her on the porch and tell her everything, including how he’s acting like he owns her, not just looking out for her. His badge makes him think he can do anything he wants.
She listens. She doesn’t look surprised or scared. She looks resigned, which is worse because it means she expected this. She’s been expecting Eric to escalate since the night she left Echelon, and him doing exactly what she predicted doesn’t make it easier, just exhausting.
“He mentioned specific locations,” she says in a low voice. “A parking garage and a restaurant.”
“Neither appeared in official case files. He obtained them on his own.”
“The parking garage on Northeast Second.” She looks at the water.
“I parked there because it was cheaper than the lot behind my building. Eric used to pick me up from that garage when we were together. He knows it’s mine.
The man I spoke with for five minutes was an older guy who rents the space near mine.
He was telling me he had to have cataract surgery and wouldn’t be driving for a few weeks. ”
He’s not pulling her locations from public records. He’s using knowledge from their relationship to predict where she’d go, and that gives him an advantage no investigation could match.
“From this point forward, your safety is handled as family-level priority.” I look at the water because looking at her while I say it makes the words feel too much like a declaration I’m not ready to call by its proper name.
She turns toward me. “What does family-level mean in your world?”
“It means there is no limit to what I will do, and no one I won’t go through.” I turn to face her. “That includes Eric Hayes, Damir Karpov, and anyone else who tries to reach you.”
I expect the answer to frighten her. She’s pushed back against every implication of ownership since the night I brought her to the penthouse, and this is the most territorial thing I’ve ever said to her.
Her eyes shimmer as she puts down the book, takes my face in both hands, and kisses me because I just told her I’d destroy anyone for her. Instead of running, she’s pulling me closer.
I wrap my arms around her and hold her against me while the sun drops below the horizon. She rests her forehead against mine, and I close my eyes. For one quiet minute, the ocean and the woman in my arms are the only things that exist.
Then my phone buzzes in my pocket. I ignore it, but it buzzes again. I pull it out and read the screen over Aurora’s shoulder.
Viktor: Grigor flagged a new search. Hayes just ran Aurora’s name through the federal missing persons database. He’s upgrading her status.
I put away the phone and pull Aurora closer. She doesn’t ask what the message said. She trusts me to tell her when I’m ready.
I’m not ready. The war I promised to fight for her just escalated while she’s in my arms, but that reality can wait a little longer.