Chapter 2 - The Photograph Her Father Never Expected Her to See
Iris sat at the kitchen island with ice wrapped in a towel against her lip.
The pale-haired man introduced himself as Elias Ward.
“You’re his bodyguard?”
“Security director.”
“So bodyguard with better business cards.”
Elias almost smiled.
Ronan remained standing.
Iris pointed at a chair.
“You’re making me nervous.”
“I make most people nervous.”
“Congratulations. Sit down.”
Elias coughed into his fist.
Ronan slowly sat.
Iris studied the surveillance photograph again.
“What does Gregor do for these men?”
“Moves information,” Ronan said.
“What information?”
“Routes. Accounts. Names.”
“My father repairs commercial refrigeration.”
“That’s his legitimate business.”
Iris laughed once.
“Of course it is.”
Ronan slid another photograph toward her.
Gregor entering a warehouse.
Another showed him meeting Victor Sarno, a businessman Iris recognized from local television.
“What does Sarno want from you?”
“Territory. Influence. Money.”
“And my father?”
“That’s what I was trying to determine.”
Iris stared at Gregor’s face.
Suddenly pieces of her childhood rearranged themselves.
Late-night phone calls.
Cash hidden inside cereal boxes.
Men arriving through the back entrance.
Gregor forbidding her from entering his basement office.
“I know something.”
Ronan leaned forward.
“My father keeps notebooks.”
“What kind?”
“Black covers. No labels.”
“Where?”
“Locked drawer in his basement.”
Elias looked at Ronan.
“We searched the house twice.”
Iris blinked.
“You searched our house?”
“When nobody was there,” Elias said.
“That somehow makes burglary adorable.”
Ronan ignored the comment.
“We found no notebooks.”
“Because you searched the drawer.”
“Yes.”
“You needed to search the wall.”
Silence.
Iris continued.
“There’s a loose electrical panel behind his desk. He thinks I don’t know.”
“How do you?”
“I was twelve and looking for Christmas presents.”
Elias stared at her.
“You found criminal records while hunting Christmas presents?”
“I found a bottle of whiskey and three thousand dollars. I assumed Dad was terrible at Christmas.”
Ronan stood.
“We need those books.”
“No.”
He stopped.
Iris put down the ice.
“I said I know where they are. I didn’t say I’m sending strangers into that house.”
“You’re not going back there.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“So is spending my entire life letting Gregor decide where I can go.”
“Iris.”
“You promised I decide when I leave.”
Ronan’s jaw tightened.
She stood.
“If those notebooks can stop whatever he’s involved in, I’m getting them.”
Elias quietly said, “She’s going with us, isn’t she?”
Ronan looked at him.
Elias shrugged.
“I’m learning to recognize that expression.”
“What expression?”
“The one people get right before losing an argument to her.”
Iris pointed at him.
“I like him.”
“I don’t,” Ronan muttered.
They went shortly before dawn.
The Istvan house looked ordinary.
That somehow made Iris hate it more.
She unlocked the back door with the spare key Gregor believed she didn’t know about.
Inside, the broken dinner plate remained on the kitchen floor.
Ronan’s gaze moved to it.
Then to Iris.
She kept walking.
“Basement.”
At the bottom of the stairs, she pushed Gregor’s desk aside.
“Here.”
She removed the electrical panel.
Three black notebooks sat inside.
Elias whispered, “Jackpot.”
Iris reached for them.
A voice came from behind.
“Iris.”
She froze.
Gregor stood at the top of the stairs.
“You came back.”
Ronan moved beside her.
Gregor’s face changed.
“You.”
Ronan said nothing.
Gregor looked at his daughter.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
Iris picked up the notebooks.
“No. But I’m beginning to understand what you’ve been doing.”
“Put those down.”
“No.”
“I’m your father.”
“And that stopped meaning what you think it means a long time ago.”
Gregor took one step downward.
Ronan didn’t move.
“Don’t,” Iris said.
Gregor stopped.
Not because Ronan ordered him.
Because Iris had.
Her father stared at her as though seeing a stranger.
“You think Moretti is protecting you?”
Iris looked at Ronan.
“No.”
Then she faced Gregor.
“I think I’m finally protecting myself.”
She walked upstairs carrying the notebooks.
May you like
Ronan followed.
For once, Gregor did not follow her.
