Adeline folded her arms.
“You followed me across the city because of bread?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Elias looked around the apartment.
The heater rattled.
A bucket beneath the window caught water dripping from the ceiling.
Ben watched him suspiciously.
“You’re her boss?”
“Yes.”
“The rich one?”
“Ben,” Adeline warned.
“What? She says her boss owns a house with bathrooms bigger than this apartment.”
Elias almost smiled.
Adeline looked horrified.
“I never said—”
“You absolutely did.”
Elias removed his coat.
“Your father saved my life.”
Silence.
Adeline stared at him.
“What?”
“Three years ago. Harbor Street. My SUV was hit at an intersection.”
Her face slowly changed.
Elias continued.
“I was trapped. Your father pulled me through the passenger window.”
Adeline sat down.
“He came home that morning with burns on his hands.”
“He refused money.”
“He hated charity.”
“I offered him a job.”
“He hated bosses too.”
Ben smiled faintly.
“That sounds like Dad.”
Elias looked at the photograph.
“I searched for him after he disappeared.”
Adeline’s smile vanished.
“He didn’t disappear.”
“What happened?”
“He got sick.”
Elias turned toward her.
“From the accident?”
“No. Cancer.”
She looked at Ben.
“We spent everything.”
Ben lowered his eyes.
Adeline continued.
“Dad died eleven months later. Medical bills took the savings. Then Ben got sick.”
Elias glanced at the bandage.
“What happened to him?”
Ben answered before she could.
“Kidney disease.”
Adeline shot him a look.
“What? He asked.”
Elias noticed a stack of envelopes beside the laptop.
FINAL NOTICE.
PAST DUE.
COLLECTION NOTICE.
He understood the bread now.
The extra shifts.
The pharmacy coins.
But one question remained.
“Why were you near my basement records room?”
Adeline froze.
There it was.
Elias saw fear.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“I got lost.”
“Twice?”
She looked away.
“No.”
“Adeline.”
“Someone asked me to go there.”
Elias became completely still.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Male or female?”
“Male.”
“What did he look like?”
“I never saw him.”
Elias stepped closer.
“Explain.”
“Someone started leaving envelopes in my locker.”
Ben sat upright.
“What envelopes?”
Adeline closed her eyes.
“Addie?”
She sighed.
“The first one contained five hundred dollars.”
Elias’s expression hardened.
“I didn’t take it,” she said quickly. “I gave it to the house manager.”
“I know. That incident was logged.”
“The second contained a note.”
“What did it say?”
Adeline looked at Ben.
Elias understood.
“It mentioned your brother.”
She nodded.
Ben went pale.
“What?”
“They knew your hospital. Your doctor. Your schedule.”
Elias’s voice became colder.
“What did they want?”
“They told me to leave a basement door unlocked.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then why did cameras catch you there?”
“Because I went downstairs to photograph the note location. I thought I could figure out who was doing it.”
Elias stared at her.
“You investigated someone infiltrating my house by yourself?”
“I couldn’t exactly call the police and say someone inside a mafia boss’s mansion was blackmailing me.”
Ben blinked.
“Mafia boss?”
Adeline closed her eyes.
“Oh, fantastic.”
Elias ignored him.
“Where are the notes?”
Adeline crossed the room and opened a kitchen drawer.
She handed him three folded pieces of paper.
Elias read them.
His jaw tightened.
The third note contained information only five people in his organization possessed.
One of them was Rourke Delaney.
His phone rang.
Rourke.
Elias answered.
“Where are you?”
“Driving.”
“We have another problem,” Rourke said. “Adeline Hayes didn’t report home.”
Elias stared at Adeline.
“How do you know?”
Silence.
Then Rourke laughed softly.
“You really shouldn’t ask questions you already know the answer to, Elias.”
The call ended.
Elias looked toward the broken apartment door.
Footsteps sounded in the stairwell.
Several of them.
Adeline whispered, “What’s happening?”
Elias reached for his phone.
“Your biggest problem is no longer stealing bread.”
“What is?”
He looked at her.
“Someone knows I followed you.”
---