Chapter 2
1301 Words
Chapter 2
Nathan didn’t go straight home.
He sat in the back of the car for a long time after leaving the gallery, the photo and note locked in the evidence bag on the seat beside him. The city moved past the windows in the usual blur of horns and wet asphalt, but he barely saw it. His mind kept replaying the image of Ava locking the gallery door, the slight curve of her stomach under her coat, the fact that someone had been standing close enough to catch the exact look on her face.
Two years.
He’d actually started to believe they might get more than that.
Marco’s voice came through the phone again just after eleven.
“We’re pulling street cameras around the gallery. Whoever took the photo knew where the blind spots were. They stayed just outside the main angles. Professional. Not some random creep.”
“How close did they get?” Nathan asked.
“Close enough that if they’d wanted to touch her, they could have.”
The words sat in Nathan’s chest like lead.
“I want names,” he said. “Anyone who’s been asking questions about the gallery, about Ava, about me. Quiet questions. Old contacts. New ones. I don’t care how far back you have to dig.”
“Already on it.”
Nathan ended the call and finally told the driver to head home.
---
Ava was in the kitchen when he walked in.
Alex had gone to his room with his dragon drawing, and the house felt too quiet and still. She took one look at Nathan’s face and set down the glass of water she’d been holding.
“How bad?” she asked.
He didn’t insult her by lying.
“Someone photographed you outside the gallery last week. Left the picture with a note. They’re watching.”
Ava’s hand drifted to her stomach before she even realized she was doing it. “What did the note say?”
“That you look happy. And that it won’t last.”
She was quiet for a few seconds, processing. Then she nodded once, slowly.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” Nathan’s voice came out harder than he intended. “That’s it?”
“What do you want me to do, Nathan? Panic? I’ve been someone’s target before. I know how this starts.” She pulled out a chair and sat down, suddenly looking more tired than she had that morning. “I’m pregnant, not useless. Just tell me what the plan is.”
He dragged a hand down his face and sat across from her.
“I’m increasing security on the gallery and the house. You’re not going anywhere alone for a while. Not even short trips. I’ll handle the rest.”
Ava studied him. “You’re already thinking it’s someone from the old life.”
“It has the feel of it,” he admitted. “Too clean. Too personal. Random people don’t leave notes like that.”
She was silent for a moment, then reached across the table and took his hand.
“We’re not losing the last two years over one photo,” she said quietly. “Whoever this is, they don’t get to walk in and take the quiet we fought for.”
Nathan turned his hand over and laced his fingers with hers.
“They won’t,” he said.
He just didn’t know yet how much it was really going to cost to keep that promise.
---
The first real lead came just after three in the afternoon.
Marco called while Nathan was in the study going through old contact lists that hadn’t been touched in over a year.
“We got something,” Marco said. “One of the cameras across the street caught a partial reflection in a shop window. Man in a dark coat, short hair, no clear face. But he was carrying a bag from a specific courier service that only operates in three neighbourhoods. We’re pulling their logs now.”
“How long?”
“Few hours, maybe less.”
Nathan stared at the wall.
“Call me the second you have a name.”
After he hung up, he stayed in the study longer than he needed to. The residual structure they’d built after the war was solid, but it was smaller. Leaner. He’d spent two years deliberately keeping it that way, enough to protect his family, not enough to drag them back into the old scale of things. Now, it felt thin.
He was still sitting there when Ava appeared in the doorway.
“Alex wants to show you the finished dragon before dinner,” she said. “He’s very serious about it.”
Nathan let out a breath and stood.
“Yeah. I’m coming.”
He followed her down the hall. For a few minutes, he let himself just listen to his son explain the dragon’s “protection duties” in great detail. He nodded in the right places. He told Alex it was the most dangerous-looking dragon he’d ever seen. The boy grinned like he’d been given a medal.
It almost felt normal again.
Almost.
---
Just after six, Marco called back.
Nathan stepped out of the room to take it.
“Talk.”
“Courier logs gave us a name,” Marco said. “Low-level. Guy named Pell. Used to do odd jobs for different crews years ago. Never stayed loyal to anyone long. Someone paid him to take the photo and drop the package. He doesn’t know who. The money came through a clean middle layer.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened. “Where is he?”
“We found him. He’s being held at the usual place.”
“I’m on my way.”
He hung up, walked back into the living room, and kissed Ava on the temple.
“I have to go out for a bit. Security stays tight. I’ll call you.”
She didn’t ask where he was going. She already knew the look on his face.
“Just come back,” she said.
“I will.”
---
Pell was exactly the kind of man Nathan expected — nervous, too thin, already sweating when they brought him into the room. He started talking before anyone even asked a question.
“I didn’t know who it was for, I swear. Guy gave me the cash and the instructions through a third party. Take the picture, drop the envelope, don’t look too close. That was it.”
Nathan stood over him, silent for a long moment.
“Describe the third party.”
Pell swallowed. “Average height. Dark clothes. Never saw his face clear. The voice was calm. Too calm. Like this wasn’t a big deal to him.”
“What else?”
“Nothing. I swear. I needed the money. That’s all.”
Nathan stared at him until the man looked away.
Then he nodded once to Marco.
They’d get everything Pell had. It wouldn’t be much. Whoever had hired him had been careful. But it was a start.
Before he left, Nathan looked at the man one last time.
“If I find out you held anything back,” he said quietly, “I’ll come see you again.”
Pell went pale and shook his head hard.
Outside, the night air was cold and damp.
Nathan stood by the car for a moment, phone in his hand, the weight of the photo still sitting in his mind.
Someone had reached close enough to his wife to take her picture and leave a message.
They’d used a disposable nobody to do it.
That meant they were smart.
It also meant they were only getting started.
He got in the car and gave the order to move.
Two years of quiet were officially over.
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