Chapter 9
We walked back inside the house, the warmth of the fireplace doing nothing to thaw the ice in my veins.
Claire looked up as the screen door clicked shut.
She looked at my face, then at James's posture.
The smile she had been wearing faded instantly.
"Daniel," she said, her voice trembling slightly.
"What is it?"
"What did the agent say?"
I sat down on the edge of the sofa next to her, gently taking her hand.
Her fingers were warm, a stark contrast to mine.
"They found the person who was giving orders to Kevin," I said carefully, trying to keep my voice steady for her sake.
"Is it your mother's lawyer?" she asked.
"No."
I took a deep breath.
"It's someone from my father's past."
"A man who was supposed to have died twenty-two years ago."
Claire stared at me, trying to process the impossibility of the statement.
"What do you mean, died twenty-two years ago? How can a dead man threaten us?"
"He isn't dead, Claire."
"He faked it."
"And he’s been watching my family ever since my father died."
She instinctively pulled Ethan closer to her chest.
The baby stirred, letting out a soft, sleepy sigh, completely unaware of the shadow looming over his life.
"Why won't they leave us alone?" she whispered, tears welling in her eyes.
"We gave them the house. We gave them the money. We ran away to the middle of nowhere."
"What do they want from us?"
"They want whatever my grandfather hid," I said.
I pulled out the four-page letter my grandfather had left behind.
I had skipped the final pages in my initial shock, but now I flipped through them frantically.
My eyes scanned the elegant, cursive handwriting until I found a paragraph near the bottom of the third page.
Daniel, the world of men is built on leverage.
When I served, I learned that some secrets are too heavy for one man to carry.
If they come for you, it is not because of the gold in the banks.
It is because of the key in the dark.
I stared at the words.
May you like
The key in the dark.
"James," I called out. "Look at this."
