Chapter 2 - Three Knocks After Midnight.
Adrian did not move toward the door.
He moved between the door and Claire.
The shift was small, but she understood it immediately.
"Who knows you're here?" he asked.
"No one."
Another knock came.
This time it was heavier.
A man's voice followed from the hallway.
"Mr. Cafalli, building security."
Adrian glanced at the wall monitor beside the foyer.
The camera feed showed two men in gray security jackets.
Neither man worked in his building.
He knew every senior guard by face.
One of the strangers kept his left hand in his pocket.
The other stood too close to the camera, as if deliberately blocking the view behind him.
Adrian pressed the intercom.
"State your names."
There was a pause.
"Daniel Price and Robert Kane. We have a welfare concern involving a woman and infant."
Claire made a choking sound behind him.
Adrian turned.
"Do those names mean anything to you?"
She shook her head.
The baby began to cry.
The sound was weak and raspy.
Adrian looked back at the monitor.
"Leave my floor."
The man nearest the camera smiled.
It was not a friendly smile.
"Sir, we just need to speak with the woman."
"You have ten seconds to step back into that elevator."
"Mr. Cafalli, you don't understand what you're protecting."
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
"I understand that two men wearing stolen uniforms are standing outside my home after midnight."
The smile disappeared.
The screen went black.
Claire gasped.
A second later, the apartment lights flickered.
Adrian called the building's overnight director from his personal phone.
No answer.
He called again.
Still nothing.
"Get behind the kitchen wall," he told Claire.
"What?"
"Now."
She hesitated.
"I don't want to leave you alone."
Adrian almost laughed at the absurdity of that concern.
"Claire, you have a sick baby in your arms. Protect him. I'll worry about me."
She moved toward the kitchen.
Adrian opened a hidden drawer beneath the console table and removed a second phone.
He called one number.
A woman answered on the first ring.
"Dr. Mercer."
"Evelyn, I need you at my apartment. Infant with a fever. Private entrance. Bring whatever you need."
"How high?"
"I don't know yet."
"I'm coming."
He ended the call.
The elevator indicator outside remained fixed on his floor.
Then a metallic scraping noise came from the lock.
Claire whispered from the kitchen.
"They're trying to get in."
Adrian's voice stayed calm.
"They won't."
But he was no longer certain.
His penthouse security had been designed by his own company.
Only four people knew the emergency override system.
One of them was Adrian.
One was his chief of security.
One was his attorney.
The fourth had been his father.
And his father had been dead for six years.
The scraping stopped.
The elevator doors closed.
Silence returned.
Claire came slowly back into view.
"Are they gone?"
Adrian watched the black monitor.
"For now."
His regular phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent him a photograph.
It showed Claire entering his building three hours earlier with the baby wrapped under her coat.
May you like
Under the photograph were seven words.
YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO SEE HER.
