Chapter 10 - THE GHOST
Blair stared at the empty street corner, the warmth of Leo’s hand suddenly feeling very far away.
“Blair?” Leo asked, noticing her sudden rigidity. He followed her gaze out the window, his protective instincts instantly flaring. “What is it? Did you see someone?”
Blair forced herself to take a deep breath. She looked down at Lily, who was happily munching on her cookie, completely oblivious.
“No,” Blair lied smoothly, forcing a smile. “Just thought I saw a parking ticket on my car. It’s nothing.”
She couldn’t tell him. Not yet.
Leo had sacrificed everything to get out of the life. He had finally found peace. If she told him she saw someone with her father’s watch, he would tear the city apart. He would pull his guns back out. The war would start all over again.
Answer One, Open Two.
The threat of the syndicate was gone. But who the hell was that woman? And how did she get the watch from the ruined clinic?
“I’ll see you tonight at seven,” Blair said, squeezing Leo’s hand.
“Seven,” Leo smiled, though his eyes lingered on her face a second too long, sensing a shift he couldn't quite name.
After they left, Blair locked the bakery doors early.
She walked into the back office. Barnaby the cat meowed lazily from his bed.
Blair pulled out a cardboard box from under her desk. It contained the few belongings she had kept from her father. Old tax returns. A few photographs.
She dug through the papers until she found a faded Polaroid taken in Frankfurt when she was a teenager.
It was a picture of her father standing in front of their apartment building.
But standing next to him, half-hidden in the shadows, was a woman.
Blair had always assumed it was a neighbor. But looking closer now, her heart began to pound.
The woman in the photo was wearing a faded trench coat.
Blair flipped the photo over.
Written in her father’s cramped handwriting was a single name: Elise.
Blair’s phone buzzed in her pocket, making her jump.
It was an unknown number.
She hesitated, then answered. “Hello?”
“He didn't tell you the whole truth, Blair,” a woman’s voice whispered in flawless German.
Blair’s breath hitched. “Who is this?”
“Leo Castiglione didn't just send your father to Germany to audit books,” the woman said. “Your father found Klaus’s theft, yes. But Leo ordered your father to steal the money back before he presented the ledger to the Commission.”
“You’re lying,” Blair whispered fiercely.
“Five million dollars,” Elise continued, her voice devoid of emotion. “Your father stole it. Klaus found out. That’s why your father was killed. And that money is still missing.”
Blair stared at the wall. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because Klaus’s syndicate may be broken, but his creditors aren't. They want the money. And they know you have the ledger.”
“I gave the ledger to the Commission!” Blair panicked.
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“The Commission has the book. But they don't have the key,” Elise said. “Your father hid the routing numbers. He left a clue for you. Meet me at the old shipping yards at midnight. Come alone, or I tell Leo’s new enemies where his daughter goes to school.”
The line went dead.
