Chapter 3: What Lucas Knew
Lucas did not sit down.
He stood in the center of Adrian's office with his hands at his sides and his jaw set, and for a moment he looked exactly like the man Adrian had hired seventeen years ago — steady, loyal, unreadable.
Then he spoke.
"It was Danny Reese."
Adrian turned from the window.
"Say that again."
"Danny Reese has been running information to Marco's people for at least four months.
Maybe longer." Lucas pulled a folded paper from his inside pocket and set it on the desk.
"Phone records.
Pulled them myself this afternoon after you asked about the diner."
Adrian did not touch the paper.
"Danny has been with me for eleven years."
"I know."
"He was at my mother's funeral."
"I know that too."
Adrian looked at the paper.
A column of timestamps.
The same number appearing again and again, late at night, always after a meeting, always after Adrian had confirmed a location or a schedule.
"How much did he give them?"
Lucas exhaled slowly.
"Enough.
The diner visit.
The shipping schedule for the Bayonne terminal.
The name of the accountant you were planning to meet last month."
"The accountant who never showed."
"He was warned off.
Marco's people got to him first."
Adrian sat down.
He set both hands flat on the desk.
"And the diner.
Marco's crew outside — what were they there for?"
Lucas hesitated.
"Lucas."
"We think they were watching to see how often you went.
Whether it had become a pattern.
Whether—" He stopped.
"Whether it was worth using," Adrian finished.
"Yes."
The office was quiet except for the low hum of the building's heating system.
Adrian stared at the phone records without reading them.
"Emma noticed a car that my own surveillance team logged and dismissed," he said.
"A child.
Six years old."
"She's observant."
"She's unprotected." Adrian stood.
"If Marco's people have been watching that diner, they've seen Sophia.
They've seen Emma."
Lucas straightened.
"What do you want to do?"
"First, find Danny.
Don't touch him.
Don't speak to him.
I want him exactly where he is until I decide otherwise." Adrian picked up the phone records and folded them into his own pocket.
"Second, put two men on Rose's Diner tonight.
Unmarked car.
They do not go inside.
They do not make contact with Sophia or the girl.
They watch."
"And if Marco moves?"
"Then we'll know Danny already told him we're onto him."
Lucas moved toward the door.
"One more thing," Adrian said.
Lucas stopped.
"You pulled those records yourself.
Why didn't you come to me the moment you found them?"
The question sat in the air between them.
"I wanted to be certain," Lucas said.
"Danny is — was — my friend too."
Adrian studied him for a long moment.
"Go."
Lucas left.
Adrian stood alone in the office and looked out at the city below.
Somewhere across those lights, a woman with tape on her shoe was closing down a diner.
A little girl was probably already asleep, her coloring book open beside her.
Neither of them knew that a man who had sat at their window table for a month had just made them the most carefully watched people in lower Manhattan.
His phone buzzed.
A text from the number he used only for internal alerts.
*Danny Reese left the building at 9:47.
Did not sign out.
Left his car in the garage.*
Adrian read it twice.
May you like
Danny already knew.
Which meant Marco knew too.
