Chapter 17: The Reed Key
2014 Words
I read the message once.
Then again.
The words did not change.
They sat on my screen like they had always belonged there, waiting for the right moment to destroy what little balance I had left.
I was not Adrian Voss’s daughter.
That should have been relief.
It was.
For one second.
One clean, dizzying second, air rushed back into my lungs, and the sick horror that had been crawling beneath my skin loosened its grip.
Cassian was not my uncle.
Whatever had passed between us was not that.
Wrong, maybe.
Dangerous, definitely.
But not blood.
Not that.
Then the rest of the truth landed.
Malcolm Reed is.
My father.
Not the man who raised me.
Not Adrian.
A dead accountant I had never met, whose name had been buried under fear, money, and whatever the Voss family had stolen.
My mother was crying beside me, her hands covering her mouth as if she could push the past back inside.
Cassian stood across the waiting room, frozen in place.
He had not looked relieved.
Not exactly.
His face was too controlled for that.
But his eyes had changed when I said Adrian was not my father.
Something loosened there.
Something he immediately tried to bury.
I saw it.
God help me, I saw it because I felt the same thing.
Then guilt followed.
Sharp.
Ugly.
Immediate.
My mother’s life had been ripped apart. Celeste was dead. Adrian might be alive. The Reed name had just become a loaded gun pointed at my chest.
And still, some unforgivable part of me had noticed that Cassian and I were not blood.
I hated myself for that.
Tessa would have slapped sense into me.
I suddenly missed her so badly my throat hurt.
Cassian’s gaze dropped to the phone in my hand.
“What does it say?”
I handed it to him without arguing.
I was too tired to guard every piece of fear like it was property.
His jaw hardened as he read the message.
Elias came in behind him, took one look at Cassian’s face, and said, “What now?”
Cassian passed him the phone.
Elias read it.
Then went very still.
“The Reed key,” he said quietly.
My head snapped up.
“You know what that is.”
It wasn’t a question.
Elias looked at Cassian first.
Of course he did.
I stood.
“No. Don’t look at him. Look at me.”
Both men turned to me.
Good.
Let them remember whose blood was suddenly important.
“What is the Reed key?”
Elias exhaled slowly.
“It’s not a physical key. At least, not only that.”
My patience was already bleeding out. “That is a terrible start.”
He nodded once, accepting that.
“Malcolm Reed managed private accounts for Victor Voss. Offshore holdings, trusts, shell companies, inheritance trails. When money moved, Reed knew where it went.”
“My father was an accountant.”
“Yes.”
“And that makes me important because?”
Cassian answered this time.
“Because before Reed died, he disappeared with a ledger.”
My stomach tightened.
“What ledger?”
“The one that could prove what my father stole. From investors. From women. From families he destroyed and paid into silence.”
Elias added, “Including hidden inheritance accounts connected to the women on the red room wall.”
The room tilted slightly.
I thought of the names.
The photographs.
The phrase above them.
The ones he chooses.
Not toys.
Heirs.
Daughters.
Women tied to money and bloodlines powerful men wanted buried.
I sat down slowly.
“So Celeste was right.”
Cassian’s eyes darkened. “Yes.”
“And my father had proof.”
“Yes.”
“And now someone thinks I have access to it.”
Elias’s mouth tightened. “Or that you are access.”
A cold feeling moved through me.
“What does that mean?”
My mother finally lowered her hands.
Her voice was broken. “Malcolm gave me something before he died.”
Every head turned.
I stared at her.
“What?”
She shook her head, tears slipping down her cheeks. “I didn’t know what it was. I swear I didn’t.
He said if anything happened to him, I should hide it. Never show anyone. Never tell anyone. He said it was for our child.”
Our child.
Me.
My chest tightened.
“Where is it?”
My mother looked at me, and fear moved across her face.
“I hid it years ago.”
“Where?”
“At home.”
The waiting room went dead silent.
Then my blood turned cold.
Our apartment.
Tessa.
My phone was in my hand before thought formed.
I called her.
It rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
No answer.
My pulse kicked.
“Tessa, pick up,” I whispered.
It went to voicemail.
I called again.
No answer.
Cassian was already moving. “Elias.”
“Sending guards now.”
I spun toward him. “Your guards were outside my building when Mara got through.”
Cassian stopped.
That landed.
Good.
I didn’t care if it hurt him.
“My best friend is in that apartment,” I said. “If Adrian or whoever this is knows about the Reed key, they know where she is.”
Cassian’s face changed.
Not guilt.
Action.
“We go now.”
Elias looked at the technician. “Secure the samples. No one touches anything without my direct authorization.”
The technician nodded too quickly.
We ran.
My mother was taken to the SUV with us because none of us trusted any building anymore. She sat in the back beside me, shaking beneath a blanket, while Cassian drove for once, his hands tight on the wheel, his face turned into something carved and merciless.
I called Tessa seven times.
No answer.
Each ring cut deeper.
“Pick up,” I whispered, over and over. “Pick up, Tessa. Please.”
My mother held my hand.
Cassian drove faster.
The city outside blurred into lights and shadows.
At the eighth call, the line connected.
“Tessa?” I nearly screamed.
Breathing.
Only breathing.
Then her voice came through, low and strained.
“Alina.”
My whole body went cold.
“Tessa, where are you?”
A pause.
Then a shaky laugh.
“Funny story. Remember when I said I’d haunt you if we died?”
“Tessa.”
“I’m not dead.”
Cassian’s eyes cut to the rearview mirror.
“Where are you?” I asked again.
“At the apartment.”
Relief hit so hard I almost sobbed.
Then she added, “But I’m not alone.”
The relief vanished.
My fingers dug into the phone.
“Who’s there?”
A male voice spoke in the background.
Smooth.
Warm.
Smiling.
“Hello, Alina.”
Adrian.
My mother whimpered.
Cassian slammed the accelerator so hard the car lurched.
My heart stopped.
“Don’t touch her,” I said.
Adrian laughed softly.
“Your loyal little friend is very brave. Loud too. I can see why you keep her.”
Tessa’s voice cut through, furious even through fear.
“Alina, don’t come here!”
A sharp sound followed.
A slap.
My vision went red.
“Tessa!”
Cassian’s voice snapped through the car. “Put him on speaker.”
I did.
My hands were shaking so badly I almost dropped the phone.
Cassian spoke, calm and deadly.
“Adrian.”
A pleased breath came through the line.
“There he is.”
“If you hurt her, I will end you.”
“You’ve been promising to end me since we were boys.”
“This time, I’ll keep it.”
Adrian laughed.
“Still dramatic when someone touches your toys.”
I grabbed the phone tighter.
“I’m not his toy.”
“No,” Adrian said softly. “You’re Reed’s daughter. That makes you much more valuable.”
Cassian’s jaw flexed.
My mother whispered, “God help us.”
Adrian continued, “Your mother has something that belongs to me.”
“It doesn’t belong to you,” I snapped.
“Everything belongs to someone, Alina. That’s the first rule of wealth.”
“And what’s the second?”
“Poor girls should never believe rich men come to save them.”
My eyes burned.
Cassian said nothing.
But his silence filled the car.
Adrian’s voice brightened.
“Bring Isabelle. Bring what Malcolm left her. Come alone, Alina. No police. No Elias. And Cassian?” A pause. “If you step inside that building, I’ll cut the loud friend first.”
Tessa shouted something muffled.
My throat closed.
“Do not hurt her,” I whispered.
“Then be a good girl and come home.”
The line went dead.
For one second, the only sound in the car was my mother crying.
Then I turned on her.
“What did Malcolm give you?”
She was shaking so hard she could barely speak.
“A locket.”
“A locket?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In the apartment.” Her voice cracked. “Inside the blue tin under the loose floorboard in your room.”
My chest tightened.
My room.
Tessa was sitting above the very thing Adrian wanted.
Cassian turned sharply down another street.
I looked at him.
“He said you can’t come in.”
His eyes stayed on the road.
“I heard him.”
“So what are you doing?”
“Driving.”
“Cassian.”
His gaze met mine in the mirror.
Dark.
Unyielding.
Terrifying.
“I am not leaving you to walk into that building alone.”
“He’ll hurt Tessa.”
“He’ll hurt her anyway if he gets what he wants.”
My heart twisted violently.
“No.”
Cassian’s voice dropped.
“I know men like my brother.”
The word brother sounded like poison in his mouth.
“They don’t stop because they get paid. They stop when they lose leverage.”
“And what am I supposed to do?”
His eyes returned to the road.
“Give him something better to look at.”
My stomach turned.
“You want me to be bait.”
“No,” he said. “I want him to think you are.”
That was not as comforting as he probably meant it to be.
Elias, who had joined us in the second SUV behind, spoke through Cassian’s earpiece. I could hear only fragments.
“Two minutes out… west alley… no police yet…” Cassian replied, “Hold position. No one moves until I say.”
Then he looked at me again.
“Alina, listen carefully. You will go up with your mother. You will get Tessa. You will keep Adrian talking. Do not hand him the locket until you have eyes on your friend.”
“And you?”
His jaw tightened.
“I’ll be closer than he thinks.”
I should have argued.
But my phone buzzed again.
A photo appeared.
Tessa tied to one of our kitchen chairs.
A bruise blooming on her cheek.
Her eyes furious.
Alive.
On her lap sat the blue tin from beneath my floorboard.
The message beneath it read: Five minutes, little Reed. Or I open the locket without you.
My mother sobbed.
I went cold.
Not scared cold.
Something else.
Something calm and deadly.
Cassian glanced at me once as the car stopped around the corner from my building.
Whatever he saw on my face made him go still.
“Alina.”
I looked at him.
“No more being moved like a piece,” I said.
His eyes held mine.
Then he nodded once.
“No more.”
I stepped out of the car with my mother beside me.
The night air smelled like rain and old concrete.
Upstairs, my best friend was waiting with a monster.
And for the first time since Cassian Voss entered my life, I did not feel like the forbidden toy.
I felt like the trap.
- Writer
