Chapter 7 - A Door Left Open
In the dark, Sophie heard glass break in the living room.
Noah caught her hand. “Down.”
They crouched behind the kitchen island as footsteps entered the house. James moved toward the back hallway, but Noah grabbed his coat.
“Stay here.”
“I know the house better than you.”
“You are not dying in my kitchen.”
A flashlight beam slid across the ceiling. Sophie’s heart hammered against her ribs. The pain along her side sharpened, but she swallowed the sound.
Noah leaned close. “Can you move?”
“Yes.”
“When I say, go through the pantry and out the side door.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll be behind you.”
“That is not an answer.”
He looked at her in the dark. “It is the only one I have.”
The intruder entered the kitchen. A hand swept across the counter, knocking a glass to the floor. Sophie smelled cigarette smoke and rain.
Noah moved first.
He slammed the pantry door into the intruder, then shoved Sophie toward the side exit. She ran as quickly as her body allowed. Behind her came a crash, a curse, and Noah’s footsteps.
They reached the alley. James was already there, moving with surprising speed. A second figure waited beside the fence and raised something in his hand.
Noah pulled Sophie behind him. The object was only a phone.
The man turned and ran.
“Did you see him?” Noah asked.
“No.”
James looked toward the street. “We cannot stay in Asheville.”
“We are not running,” Sophie said.
“Running is what people call surviving when they are too proud to admit they are afraid.”
Noah’s eyes flashed. “We need a place with lights and cameras.”
He drove them to Rachel’s apartment, but Rachel was not there. Her door stood ajar.
Noah drew a breath and entered first. The apartment had been searched. Books lay open on the floor. A lamp was broken. Rachel’s desk drawers had been emptied.
Sophie found her friend’s phone beneath the couch. The screen was cracked, but one message remained visible.
I know where the original survey is.
It had been sent to Sophie’s number twenty minutes earlier.
“Where is Rachel?” Sophie asked.
Noah called her. The phone rang once and went to voicemail.
James examined the broken lock. “This was not a search. It was a warning.”
Sophie’s stomach turned. “They took her because of me.”
“We don’t know that.”
“She knew something.”
Noah crouched beside the desk. “Look.”
A thin red thread had been tied around the handle of the lowest drawer.
Sophie recognized it immediately from the brass key and the sealed envelope.
Inside the drawer, beneath scattered papers, they found a receipt from a storage facility in Woodfin. The unit number was written on the back in Rachel’s handwriting.
“We go there,” Sophie said.
“We call the police first,” Noah replied.
“And tell them what? That my best friend may have been taken by a man connected to a dead deputy and a development company?”
“Yes.”
James shook his head. “Malcolm has people in the department.”
Noah rounded on him. “You do not get to use corruption as an excuse for doing nothing.”
The argument stopped when Sophie’s phone rang.
“Sophie?” Rachel whispered.
“Where are you?”
“I’m at the storage place. I thought I could get the file before they found me.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No. But Carter is here.”
Sophie looked at Noah.
“He says he wants to help,” Rachel continued. “I don’t know if I believe him.”
“Keep him talking. We’re coming.”
“Sophie, wait. There’s something you need to know.”
The line went dead.
They reached the storage facility in twelve minutes. Noah parked behind a row of delivery trucks. Sophie refused to remain in the vehicle.
“You have stitches,” Noah said.
“I also have a friend inside.”
“Then stay behind me.”
“Stop treating me like glass.”
“I am treating you like someone I love.”
The words halted them both.
Noah looked away first. “Come on.”
They found unit 214 open. Rachel sat on the concrete floor with her wrists tied in front of her, while Carter stood near the metal shelves holding a folder.
“Untie her,” Sophie said.
“I’m not the one who tied her,” Carter answered.
Rachel’s face was pale. “He found me here.”
“And you believed him?”
“I didn’t have many options.”
Carter looked at Noah. “You need to stop making this worse.”
“You left Sophie two weeks after her operation,” Noah said. “You don’t get to talk about making anything worse.”
Carter’s face tightened. “This isn’t about our relationship.”
“Everything is about your relationship when you built your career on what Sophie trusted you with.”
Sophie stepped toward him. “What did you find?”
Carter held up the folder. “The original survey.”
“Give it to me.”
“You don’t understand what it says.”
“Then explain it.”
He opened the folder. The survey bore Daniel’s signature and showed a second underground waterway beneath the Riverlight property, one that would make the planned construction illegal.
“If this becomes public, my father’s company collapses,” Carter said.
“Good.”
“People lose jobs. The city loses millions. I can fix this if you sign the transfer.”
Sophie stared at him. “You still want my signature.”
“I want to protect you.”
Rachel laughed bitterly. “There it is again.”
Carter’s eyes moved to her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know you told Sophie the property was worthless while you prepared a contract making it the centerpiece of your father’s project.”
Sophie felt cold spread through her.
“Where is the contract?” she asked.
Carter did not answer.
Noah stepped toward him. “We’re taking Rachel and the folder.”
“You can’t.”
“Watch us.”
Sirens sounded outside.
May you like
For one relieved second, Sophie thought someone had called the police.
Then Carter looked toward the door and whispered, “Those are my father’s security men.”
