Chapter 18 · Blood and Betrayal

"Open the door, Helena."

Three knocks. Slow ones. The kind a man makes when he's got all night and no intention of leaving.

I stayed where I was, back against the rolling shelf, a folder jammed under my arm. The emergency light above me buzzed like it was dying. Twelve years in this building and I'd never once seen anybody come down to the archive after nine.

Somebody had followed me.

"I can smell him on you." Caspian's voice came through three inches of steel. "That cologne. You think I don't know what my own father smells like?"

The folder was still warm from the copier. Three wire transfers. His signature at the bottom of every one.

I put my palm flat on the metal and said, "Go home."

"Open the door."

"It's locked."

"It's my father's building."

"It's his building. You're a tenant with a keycard and a monthly allowance." I checked my watch, even though he couldn't see me do it. "Go home, Caspian. You're embarrassing yourself."

That bought me three seconds of quiet. Then the lock turned.

He'd gotten a master key off the lobby desk. Of course he had.