Chapter 13 - The Man Outside
The first shot shattered the library window.
Claire screamed.
Adrian threw himself over her as glass sprayed across the floor.
Security dragged Evelyn and Thomas behind the stone fireplace while Ruth crawled toward the hall.
A second shot hit the exterior wall.
Then silence.
Adrian's ears rang.
Claire clutched his jacket. "The baby."
"Are you hurt?"
"No. I don't think so."
Security officers moved room to room with weapons drawn. Police vehicles flooded the drive moments later.
The shooter was found in the woods behind the house.
He was not a professional assassin.
He was a debt collector named Raymond Pike, a man Marcus had used for intimidation jobs tied to off-book company disputes.
He surrendered after one warning shot from police.
Under questioning, Pike claimed Marcus had paid him to "scare Adrian away from the lake house."
Marcus denied it.
Evelyn denied knowing Pike existed.
But Pike had one thing nobody expected.
A voice message from Evelyn.
Her voice said, "No one gets into that study before I do. I don't care how you accomplish that."
Adrian listened in the back of an ambulance while paramedics checked Claire.
Evelyn sat in a police car fifty feet away.
For the first time in Adrian's life, she looked small.
Claire's monitor showed contractions again.
"We're going back to the hospital," Dr. Patel said over the phone.
Claire nodded, exhausted.
As paramedics prepared to move her, Evelyn called out from the police car.
"Adrian!"
He ignored her.
"Adrian, she is going to take your child away from you!"
He stopped.
Claire's fingers tightened around his.
Evelyn leaned toward the open window.
"Ask her what she signed with Ruth last month!"
Adrian turned toward Claire.
Claire went still.
Not guilty.
Afraid.
Evelyn saw it and smiled.
"There," she said. "You see? She has secrets too."
Adrian looked at Claire.
"What did you sign?"
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
"A contingency plan."
"For what?"
May you like
She swallowed.
"For leaving you.
