"Adam, we might have news... but I’m not sure if it’s good or bad," Max said, his expression unreadable as he looked at his friend.
Adam looked up, eyes heavy with fatigue. This separation and worry was taking a toll on him and now, his patience was coming to an end as more and more negative thoughts crowded his head. "Just tell ."
Max took a breath. "It’s about lody. We’ve been digging into her background for a long ti and while her official records paint her as this polished, high-achieving woman with perfect grades, social service, accolades, off the record, it’s a different story."
Adam straightened slightly. He’d guessed it correctly. How could soone have the confidence to step into soone else’s shoes unless they had a crooked past."Go on."
"There are multiple accounts from her high school and university days. Incidents of bullying. So even say she went beyond that—causing serious harm to others. One case hints at attempted murder. But none of it made it to her file. Every report, every complaint—it was buried. Silenced. Either through bribery or threats. And all of it links back to Marianne Thomas."
Adam’s eyes narrowed. "And Richard Thomas?"
"From what we can tell, he was kept in the dark. Marianne handled everything. Protected lody like a trained asset. But here’s the catch-even though people were paid off and so were threatened, the paynts ca directly from lody’s account. There wasn’t even an attempt to hide the trail. She made the transactions herself."
Adam’s jaw tightened. He nodded slowly. "So, she’s dangerous. Just as dangerous as her ex, maybe even more."
"Exactly. And there’s more." Max hesitated. "She made a large paynt. Just yesterday. After leaving the Thomas household..."
Adam’s eyes flicked up. "Yesterday?" Adam steepled his hands in thought. Why would she need to make a sudden paynt. They’d gone to the Thomas’ together but with lody continuously trying to get close to him, it had taken a toll on him and he had left midway, citing an ergency. So what had transpired beteween the ti he had left and the ti she had been there that would require her to make a big paynt.
"To whom did she make this paynt? Any idea?"
Max nodded and the expression on his face hardened, "A man recently released on bail. For murder."
Adam stilled. His face drained of all expression. "lody paid soone accused of murder?"
"Not just paid," Max replied grimly. "A significant amount. Enough to raise red flags. We’ve started digging into the guy’s background, but it is all muddled. She didn’t et him. No calls. No texts. No direct contact that we can find. Just paid out of the blue."
Adam ran a hand down his face, exhaling slowly. "Then why? Why would she transfer that kind of money to a stranger? Unless... it wasn’t a stranger to her."
Max leaned forward. "That’s what we’re trying to figure out. Nothing about this is adding up. Either she’s covering her tracks better than before, or soone’s helping her stay clean."
Adam was silent for a mont, thinking. "Assign soone to keep a close eye on that person. I want updates on his movents every hour."
"Already done. This is getting ssier by the minute," Max muttered. "What’s our move now?"
Before Adam could respond to that question, Max’s phone beeped sharply with a new ssage notification. He glanced at the screen- and imdiately cursed.
"What is it?" Adam asked.
Max didn’t answer. He just passed the phone over.
Adam took it and pressed play.
The grainy footage had been taken from a surveillance cara from the airport. Three figures approached soone in a hoodie, trying to corner her. The person fought back, swinging wildly. It lasted only seconds before a few guards and a man ca running in and trying to subdue the attackers, before they ran away and then the hooded figure and the other man were taken into another car by the guards.
Adam’s face went pale as he stared at the screen. He didn’t need to see her face. "That’s lanie. I’d know her anywhere."
Max’s voice dropped lower as he nodded grimly. "And those n... they were working under the man lody paid. He was one of the attackers himself. This footage is from just an hour ago."
Adam didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to. His mind was already racing, piecing together fragnts that shouldn’t have fit but sohow did. If this was from an hour ago, then lanie was here. She had reached the city. She was sowhere nearby. That much was certain now.
But what unsettled him more was the timing.
How had lody known lanie was arriving? How had she known exactly when and where to strike? No one else, not even him, had any clue about lanie’s whereabouts until now. How had lody gotten wind of it so fast? And even more disturbing-how had she managed to arrange an attempted hit so efficiently? The paynt had only gone out two days ago. Yet here they were, watching an orchestrated attack already in motion.
Adam’s eyes narrowed. "That man with lanie... was he Cadence Sint? The one who kidnapped her?"
Max shook his head. "No. It’s not Cadence Sint," he confird as he pulled up a ssage and handed the phone to Adam. "Our people are running his face through the system. No confird ID yet, but the team’s on it."
Adam glanced at the screen and gave a stiff nod. His eyes dropped to the floor for a mont as he folded his arms tightly across his chest. lanie had just escaped death. Again. The thought should’ve rattled him more than it did. But all he felt now was a strange calm. She was here. She was alive. And he would find her soon enough. Just knowing that she was here, made breathing easier. She was within reach.
Still, there was one thing he couldn’t stop thinking about.
In the video, lanie hadn’t looked like soone being dragged or forced. She’d fought back at first, hard but then, after those goons fled, she had willingly walked away with the man who’d co to her aid. No visible signs of distress. No attempt to run from him. Why?
Another detail didn’t sit right with him. The guards. They had been walking a fair distance behind her. Not close enough to restrain her. She’d had opportunities to escape if she wanted to. The chaos would’ve been the perfect cover to slip away. But she hadn’t taken it. She’d gone with that man instead. Why?
Who was he? And more importantly- why did lanie trust him? Adam didn’t know. But he knew one thing for sure. He would find out.
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