Chapter 5 - A Brother's Warning

Gideon Rivas entered the office without knocking at 3:40 a.m. He wore a tan overcoat over a designer sweatshirt and carried two coffees as though the night were ordinary.

"Nico. I heard there was a problem with a staff member. You could have called me."

"I did," Nico said. "You answered with a threat."

Gideon frowned. "What threat?"

Nico showed him the message. Gideon glanced at it for barely a second.

"Someone wants us fighting. That's embarrassing, but not complicated."

Detective Alvarez stepped out from beside the bookshelf. "Then you'll be happy to answer some questions."

Gideon stopped smiling altogether.

"I have attorneys for this."

"So do most men with something to hide," Simone said. "That doesn't make you special."

Gideon set down the coffees. "You know what happens if this gets out? Shareholders panic. Guests flee. Our father's name turns into a headline again."

"A woman has been kidnapped," Nico said. "Her daughter is six."

"I understand that. But perhaps she's involved. Workers steal. Workers run. You know how it is."

Nico thought of Sophie's attention to detail. He thought of Mara using her last safe moments to point strangers toward missing people.

"No," he said. "I don't know how it is. Explain it to me."

Gideon leaned closer, lowering his voice. "You spent ten years turning our family's businesses legitimate. Don't throw it away for a maid you met tonight."

"I haven't met her. That's part of the problem."

Simone asked Gideon about the basement access changes. He claimed they were part of a delayed renovation. He promised the work order, then checked his watch when asked about Mara's badge.

"This is above my pay grade," he said.

"Your name is on the invoices," Dahlia replied.

His friendly expression vanished.

Then his phone rang. He turned the screen away before declining the call.

Nico saw only the last four digits: 0114.

Locker 114.

Gideon walked toward the door, stopped, and looked back.

"You still have time to protect your own blood."

"So does Mara," Nico said.

After Gideon left, Dahlia checked the office cameras. A maintenance worker had paused outside Tessa's sitting room three times in twenty minutes.

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She enlarged his badge photograph. It belonged to a man who had died the previous winter.

Before Dahlia could warn Tessa, the feed from Sophie's room went black.