Chapter 2: The Man They Stood For
1252 Words
Draven Vescari entered before anyone answered the guard.
I knew him from one photograph Theo Vescari had shown me with a warning about family dinners. In person, his presence made the room’s expensive coats and polished shoes look like costumes.
Two men followed him. Neither reached for me.
The guard holding my wrists let go.
“Step away from her,” Draven said.
He did.
Gideon Rusk spread his hands. “This is a private arrangement.”
“Theo sold me.”
My voice scraped. Draven turned toward me.
“He recorded permission. Gideon played it. He named me, set a reserve, and said the money came off his debt.”
“She’s distressed,” Gideon said. “There are arrangements you haven’t—”
“I didn’t agree.”
Draven looked at the restraints, then at Gideon.
“Where are the keys?”
“This level was made available through your family.”
“This hotel belongs to me.”
Nobody answered.
Draven held out his hand. A guard dropped a small ring of keys into it.
He passed them to the man beside him.
“Matteo Riva,” the man said. “Security. May I unlock your wrists?”
I nodded.
His first attempt missed the lock because my hands wouldn’t stay still. He steadied the fastening rather than holding my fingers down.
Draven watched the guard who had pulled my collar.
“Against the wall. Hands where we can see them. Responders are coming.”
The guard obeyed.
Matteo opened the wrist restraint. My hands separated, and I couldn’t remember what to do with them.
“The collar,” Draven said.
Matteo reached toward the clasp.
“Wait.” I flinched before he touched me. “It catches here.”
I indicated the skin beneath my jaw.
He changed position. Draven shifted slightly, blocking the room’s view without touching me.
“Take your time,” he told Matteo.
The fastening opened. The weight came away.
I put my hand to my neck and found a raised, tender line.
Nobody could put it back on me now. I kept checking the clasp in Matteo’s hand anyway.
***
Nora Bell stood behind the barrier with her injured wrist pressed to her body.
“Her too,” I said.
Matteo was already turning toward her.
“There are more,” I told Draven. “Through that door. It branches. They took a woman to the right.”
His attention sharpened.
“How long ago?”
“Before the recording. I don’t know how many minutes.”
I pointed at the yellow marking visible through the doorway.
“Second holding. A contractor sign.”
Matteo spoke into his radio, repeating the direction and asking for responders at the passage. He stayed where I could see him until another security employee reached the door.
Gideon moved behind the platform.
“He has the recording,” I said.
Draven turned. “Rusk.”
Someone in the crowd pushed toward the exit. A chair fell. For several seconds, coats and bodies blocked my view.
When the space cleared, Gideon was gone.
“The device was in his jacket.”
Draven spoke to Matteo. “Description and exit direction to the responders. Nobody follows into an unsecured passage alone.”
I hated that answer.
“He can erase it.”
“I know.”
“Then—”
A woman behind me started crying so hard she couldn’t draw a full breath. Nora tried to go to her and stopped when her wrist moved.
Draven looked from them to me.
“We get everyone out.”
I swallowed the rest.
Hotel security held the open route while uniformed responders entered. Their arrival changed the room again: names requested, witnesses separated, exits watched by people who could legally keep them there.
A responder asked whether I could walk.
“Yes.”
I took one step and nearly folded.
“Slowly,” she said, offering her forearm.
I accepted it.
At the service door, I looked back toward the observation gallery. Empty glass reflected the room.
“Celeste Harlow was up there,” I told the responder. “My stepsister. She gave me a drink.”
She wrote the name down and asked me to repeat it.
I did.
***
The elevator opened onto a quiet floor with carpet under my bare feet.
I stepped out, then immediately turned to make sure the doors weren’t closing on Nora. She emerged beside a medic, followed by the woman in socks I had seen taken down the right-hand route.
Two more adults came after her.
“Is that everyone?” I asked.
“The rooms we located are empty now,” the responder said. “The search is continuing. These people are out.”
It was a bounded answer. I could stand on it.
In a reception room, someone brought blankets, water, and packaged cookies. I couldn’t tear mine open. The little serrated edge kept sliding between my fingers.
Nora held out her good hand.
“Give it here.”
“You shouldn’t have to—”
“It’s a cookie.”
I passed it over. She caught the wrapper against the table and pulled until it split.
The medic crouched beside her.
“I’d like to look at that wrist.”
Nora pushed the cookie back to me. “Then look.”
I sat close enough to hear her answer questions without answering for her. When the medic asked what had happened, Nora looked at me once.
“A guard twisted it.”
My cookie stayed untouched.
Draven stood near the doorway speaking to Matteo. I caught only pieces until Matteo turned toward the corridor.
“The compromised level stays sealed,” Draven said. “Family access credentials revoked now. No exceptions from my brother’s office.”
“Yes.”
“And preserve the server records. Let the investigators decide what they need.”
When he came toward me, I stood too quickly.
“Where am I?”
“North Quay.”
I stared at him.
Theo had brought me here for lunch once. We had eaten by a window overlooking the water. Somewhere below those clean tables—
Draven’s jaw tightened.
“I was told an unlogged service elevator was running under family authorization. Matteo found the restricted landing.”
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
I studied him. There was no useful way to settle it by looking at his face.
A responder approached to take my initial account. Draven moved away without asking to stay.
I gave my name, Theo’s name, Celeste’s name. I repeated the price and debt terms. The responder wrote them down without telling me whether she believed me.
When she asked where the recording was, I pointed toward the sealed level.
“With Gideon. When he left.”
By the time she finished, daylight had begun thinning the windows. Someone said it was the first of September.
Our celebration was today.
Draven returned with a phone.
“You can call someone. There’s a room available here after your assessment, or we can arrange transport elsewhere.”
“Theo will say I ran away.”
“Tell the investigator that concern.”
“I will. But he’ll tell everyone else first.”
Draven waited.
I looked at my bare ring finger. Above it, red marks circled my wrists.
“I need more than somewhere to hide,” I told him. “I need a place where Theo can’t pretend I vanished.”
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