Chapter 12 - MY BEST FRIEND'S SECRET
Tessa did not ask me to forgive her.
That almost made it worse.
"Three years?"
My voice sounded detached from my body.
"Claire, I can explain."
"Then explain."
Brooks signaled Ross to record the call.
Dante stood across the room with his face unreadable.
"Nolan found out about my debt."
Tessa's words came quickly now.
"After my mom's surgery."
"I owed almost ninety thousand dollars."
"He offered to help."
"He said he only wanted to know if you were safe when you two fought."
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
He had made surveillance sound like concern.
"What did you tell him?"
"Where you went."
"Who you talked to."
"Sometimes what you said about him."
A memory came back.
Tessa sitting beside me in a wine bar after Nolan first shoved me into a wall.
I had told her everything.
She had held my hand.
She had told me to leave him.
Then I went home and Nolan already knew what I had said.
He had spent hours convincing me Tessa was trying to break us up because she was jealous.
I had apologized to him.
I felt physically ill.
"You told him that night."
Tessa started crying again.
"Yes."
"You told him I said I was afraid of him."
"Yes."
"And then you watched me stay."
"I tried to get you out."
"While reporting every attempt."
Silence.
"I hate myself for it."
"That doesn't help me."
"I know."
For once, someone who betrayed me did not demand that their guilt become my responsibility.
I did not know how to feel about that.
"Why tell me now?"
Tessa breathed shakily.
"Because Nolan came to my apartment this morning."
"He wants me to do something else."
"What?"
"Bring you to him."
Dante's posture changed.
Brooks leaned closer to the speaker.
"Where?"
I asked.
"He didn't say yet."
"He gave me a burner phone."
"He said instructions would come at five."
"Why would he trust you after telling me?"
"He doesn't know I'm telling you."
That was possible.
It was also exactly what Nolan would want me to believe.
"Tessa, where are you now?"
"Home."
"Don't move."
"Claire."
"Don't move."
I looked at Brooks.
She nodded and texted a team.
"Federal agents are coming to you."
Tessa inhaled sharply.
"No."
"Yes."
"If Nolan sees them, he'll know."
"If Nolan wants you to deliver me, he needs you alive."
My voice hardened.
"I am not sacrificing you so he can keep believing he owns the board."
Tessa started crying again.
"You should hate me."
"Maybe I do."
I swallowed.
"That doesn't mean I want you dead."
When the call ended, I turned around.
Dante was watching me.
"What?"
"You sounded like Michael."
Pain hit unexpectedly.
"Don't."
"I'm sorry."
He looked away.
Brooks broke the silence.
"Tessa could be lying."
"I know."
"She could be part of Nolan's operation."
"I know."
"And if she is telling the truth, using her is dangerous."
I looked at the countdown.
29:06:14.
"Everything is dangerous now."
The agents reached Tessa's apartment in eleven minutes.
She was gone.
The front door was open.
No sign of forced entry.
Her phone lay on the kitchen counter.
Beside it was the burner Nolan had given her.
One message glowed on the screen.
CHANGE OF PLAN.
BRING CLAIRE TO THE ARCADE AT 5:30.
COME ALONE OR VOSS DIES.
Brooks stared at the photograph of the message.
"Which arcade?"
I knew.
Nolan and I had gone there on our second date.
An old two-story arcade in Wicker Park that had since closed.
He had won me a ridiculous stuffed bear from a claw machine.
For years, I kept the bear on our bed.
He had chosen another memory.
He kept turning our relationship into coordinates.
"I go."
Dante's answer was immediate.
"No."
I looked at him.
He exhaled.
"I think that is a terrible idea."
"Better."
Brooks rubbed her forehead.
"It is a terrible idea."
"But it may be our only chance to follow the contact chain."
Dante looked at her.
"You're considering this?"
"With surveillance."
"With trackers."
"With tactical teams two blocks away."
"Nolan found your last tactical team."
Brooks's eyes narrowed.
"Then we change how we deploy."
Dante looked at me.
"And if he searches you?"
"Then we assume he will."
"And if he changes the location again?"
"Then I decide whether to continue."
He stared at me.
"You decide?"
"Yes."
"Not Brooks."
"Not you."
"Me."
The word felt terrifying.
It also felt clean.
Dante nodded once.
"Then I want you to carry this."
He placed a small silver button on the table.
"Panic transmitter?"
"Audio beacon."
"Sewn inside your coat."
I almost laughed.
"Nolan already did that."
Dante went still.
"Right."
He removed his hand from the button.
"Your choice."
I looked at it.
The difference mattered.
"I'll take it."
Before five twenty, I changed clothes three times.
Not because of fashion.
Because every outfit carried a memory of Nolan.
The navy sweater was the one he said made me look plain when I wore it to dinner with Tessa.
The gray dress was the one he bought after telling me my own clothes made him look cheap.
The black jeans were mine.
I chose the black jeans.
Sofia watched from the doorway without commenting until I tied my shoes.
"You can still cancel."
"I know."
"Brooks will hate it, but she can survive disappointment."
"I know."
"Dante will pretend not to be relieved."
I looked at her.
"He is outside, isn't he?"
"Pacing like an elderly tiger."
Despite everything, I laughed.
Sofia's expression softened.
"Claire, Tessa may have betrayed you for years."
"She may also be telling the truth now."
"Those two things can exist together."
"I know."
"Knowing is not the same as being ready."
I looked at myself in the mirror.
The woman looking back did not seem brave.
She looked tired.
That felt more honest.
"I don't think ready is coming."
Sofia nodded.
"Probably not."
She handed me the folded fake authorization.
"Then remember this is evidence, not a promise."
I slipped it into my purse.
At five twenty, I walked toward the abandoned arcade alone.
My coat hid the transmitter.
The fake trust authorization was folded inside my purse.
No visible agents.
No Dante.
No Sofia.
The street was busy enough that I did not feel alone until I reached the boarded windows.
The side door stood open.
Inside, old arcade machines sat under sheets.
Dust floated in strips of fading daylight.
A machine somewhere still played a broken electronic melody.
"Tessa?"
No answer.
I moved deeper inside.
The stuffed-prize counter was exactly where I remembered it.
A single brown teddy bear sat on top.
The same kind Nolan had won for me.
My skin crawled.
A burner phone rested against it.
It rang.
I answered.
"Turn around."
Nolan's voice.
I did not move.
"No."
Silence.
"Claire."
The warning tone returned.
"If you want the papers, come get them."
I was surprised by how steady I sounded.
"You don't give me directions anymore."
For three seconds, there was nothing.
Then he laughed.
"Dante has made you brave."
"You made me tired."
The laugh stopped.
Good.
"Where's Tessa?"
"Safe."
"That's what you said about Voss."
"And he is."
"Let me see him."
A screen on an old racing game flickered to life.
Video appeared.
Voss was in a different room now.
Tessa sat on the floor beside him.
Her hands were tied.
Both were alive.
"You have ten minutes."
Nolan said.
"Leave the authorization under the bear."
"Then walk out."
"And you release them?"
"Eventually."
"No."
His breathing changed.
"Claire."
"You want the paper?"
"I want proof they leave."
"You're negotiating now?"
"Yes."
"You were always terrible with money."
The insult was absurdly familiar.
It used to make me apologize.
Now it made me see him more clearly.
He had not changed.
I had.
"Five minutes."
I said.
"Show me Voss and Tessa outside somewhere public."
"Then you get the paper."
I hung up.
My legs nearly collapsed.
I had never hung up on Nolan before.
Not once.
The old machine melody continued.
Thirty seconds passed.
A minute.
Then the burner phone rang again.
I did not answer until the fourth ring.
"You think this is a game?"
Nolan was angry now.
"No."
"I think you do."
"You have no idea what you're dealing with."
"I lived with it."
His silence felt like a victory.
Then a new video arrived.
Tessa and Voss were being pushed from a loading door into an alley.
A city bus passed behind them.
I recognized the route number.
Brooks heard it through the transmitter.
She would find them.
"Paper."
Nolan said.
I placed the fake authorization beneath the bear.
"Done."
"Now walk away."
I turned toward the exit.
Then the front doors slammed shut.
Metal locks engaged.
The overhead lights came on one row at a time.
Nolan stepped from behind the prize counter.
He had been inside the arcade the entire time.
My blood turned cold.
He looked thinner than he had at the gala.
More tired.
But the smile was the same.
"You really thought I'd trust a piece of paper you carried in?"
I stepped backward.
"You really thought I'd come without backup?"
"I know you did."
He tapped his ear.
"Hello, Dante."
My stomach dropped.
He knew about the transmitter.
Nolan reached under the counter and lifted a small radio jammer.
The tiny green light on my coat button went dark.
"Now."
May you like
He smiled.
"We can finally talk without your new boyfriend listening."
