He sighed.
“I forgot what it's like having two Brooks women against me.”
“We're not Brooks women,” I said.
Sophie almost smiled.
“Speak for yourself.”
Alex looked at her.
That small joke nearly broke him.
“All right,” he said. “But you stay with Maya.”
The abandoned textile warehouse stood beside the river.
Broken windows.
Rusting doors.
No surrounding traffic.
Alex entered alone.
Or appeared to.
Maya had officers positioned two blocks away, waiting for evidence strong enough to justify intervention without alerting anyone prematurely.
Sophie and I sat in an unmarked vehicle with her.
Audio from Alex's concealed microphone played through the speakers.
Footsteps.
A metal door.
Then Caroline.
“You came.”
Alex replied, “You sound surprised.”
“I thought fatherhood might have made you stupid.”
“It made me punctual.”
Another voice.
Jake.
“Where's Sophie?”
My daughter's entire body stiffened.
Alex said, “Safe.”
“She needs to come home.”
“She'd rather marry the balcony.”
