THE POOR MECHANIC CLIMBED THE BROKEN ROLLER COASTER TO SAVE THE MAFIA BOSS'S SISTER—THEN HE LEARNED WHY SHE HAD NO ONE TO CALL

The secure guest apartment occupied the twenty-third floor of a building Meredith had passed hundreds of times without ever imagining what was inside it.

The answer was: too much marble.

The lobby had marble. The elevator had brushed brass and marble. The apartment kitchen had a marble island large enough to land a helicopter on if the helicopter were very small and extremely pretentious.

Meredith set her backpack on a chair and looked at Kieran.

"You live like this?"

"Not here."

"That's not what I asked."

He almost smiled. "Sometimes."

Jolene was waiting in the living room wearing gray sweatpants, two different socks, and the expression of someone who had been forbidden from pretending she was fine.

"There she is," Jolene said.

Meredith stopped.

"Who?"

"The woman who insulted my brother in front of a detective."

"That narrows it down less than you think."

Jolene laughed, then winced and pressed a hand to the bruise across her ribs.

Kieran immediately stepped forward.

"Sit down."

"I am sitting down."

"You were about to stand."

"That is generally how people greet guests."

"You don't need to greet anyone."

Jolene looked at Meredith. "See? This is my life."

Meredith set her backpack beside the sofa. "I noticed."

Kieran gave both women a look that probably made executives sign unfavorable contracts.

Neither reacted.

Bryce arrived twenty minutes later with Detective Chen and a digital copy of the old Orion board records. The meeting happened around the marble kitchen island because Meredith refused to sit in the formal dining room.

"My father bought eighteen percent of Orion through Ashford Industrial Partners," Kieran said. "Sebastian represented our family on the board."

"And when Thomas Lawson reported safety failures?" Chen asked.

Bryce slid a folder across the island.

"The board minutes mention 'engineering personnel resistance' three weeks before the platform accident. No names."

Meredith read the line twice.

"Personnel resistance."

"Corporate language," Kieran said.

"Coward language."

He accepted that.

Bryce continued. "After Mr. Lawson died, Orion settled with the family. Confidentially."

Meredith laughed without humor. "My mother got enough to pay medical debt and keep the lights on for nine months. Then Orion's lawyers appealed one portion of the settlement until she couldn't afford to fight."

Kieran's expression hardened.

"I didn't know."

"You were what, twenty?"

"Twenty-two."

"Then I wasn't blaming you."

"That doesn't make ignorance comfortable."

For a moment, Meredith saw the difference between Kieran and the version of him newspapers preferred. He did not apologize for facts he could not change. He did not perform guilt. He simply looked as if he had added something to an internal ledger and intended to settle it.

That made her more cautious, not less.

Men who believed every debt could be settled were dangerous in their own way.

Jolene looked at the old report. "What happened to Orion?"

"It broke apart after a federal procurement investigation," Bryce said. "Assets were sold. The restraint division ended up inside a private company called Northstar Mobility."

Meredith stared at him.

"Northstar supplied replacement sensors to Lake View last year."

Kieran's eyes sharpened. "You sure?"

"I installed two of them."

Chen wrote the name down.

Jolene's phone buzzed on the table.

Everyone looked at it.

Jolene did not touch it.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered. "I'm going to flinch every time I get a text for the rest of my life."

Meredith watched her. "Not forever."

"You don't know that."

"No. But fear gets bored if you stop feeding it every decision."

Kieran looked at Meredith.

"Is that experience talking?"

"Mind your business."

"You made my business your business when you climbed forty-eight feet to save my sister."

"That was maintenance."

"You threatened to break your manager's hand."

"Advanced maintenance."

Jolene laughed again.

Later, after Chen and Bryce left, Meredith tried to sleep in a guest room that looked like a hotel advertisement. She lasted forty minutes.

At 1:06 a.m., she found Kieran in the kitchen with his sleeves rolled up, drinking black coffee like someone who had declared war on rest.

"You know caffeine isn't a personality," she said.

"I was told the same thing about money."

"Whoever told you was wise."

He glanced toward the hall. "Jolene finally slept."

"Good."

Meredith opened a cabinet, found tea, and put water on to boil.

For a while, neither spoke.

Then Kieran said, "Why was your emergency contact blank?"

Meredith went still.

"Excuse me?"

"Lake View HR pulled your employee record after the accident. Bryce saw it while confirming your address."

Anger arrived fast.

"So your security chief went through my personnel file."

"To find you after your apartment was compromised."

"He had my phone number."

"Your phone was off while police processed the apartment."

"That doesn't make my file yours."

Kieran put the coffee cup down.

"You're right."

The answer disarmed her more than an argument would have.

She turned away and watched the kettle.

"My mother died eleven years ago," she said finally. "My father before that. No siblings. No grandparents. The friends I had in college moved on while I was taking night shifts and caring for my mom. After a while, emergency contact forms become a little insulting."

Kieran did not say he was sorry.

She appreciated that.

"No one?" he asked.

"There are people I know. That's different."

"You saved a stranger at personal risk."

"Don't turn that into a character certificate. I can be unpleasant."

"I've noticed."

The kettle clicked off.

Meredith poured water over a tea bag and leaned against the counter.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Why does your sister think protection is a cage?"

His face closed slightly.

"Because people have tried to use her before."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the one I'm giving."

"Then don't ask questions you won't answer yourself."

She took her tea and turned toward the hall.

"Meredith."

She looked back.

Kieran's voice was quieter.

"Three years ago, someone followed Jolene home from college. They were trying to force me out of a port contract. Nothing happened because Bryce caught it early. Since then, I have treated every unknown variable around her as a threat."

"Including her choices."

"Sometimes."

"That's going to cost you her trust."

His jaw flexed.

"I know."

The honesty surprised her.

Before she could respond, her phone lit with an email from Lake View Grand Human Resources.

SUBJECT: ADMINISTRATIVE SUSPENSION PENDING INVESTIGATION.

Meredith opened it.

The message said she had violated emergency response procedure, accessed restricted ride systems without authorization, and potentially contributed to mechanical damage during the rescue.

For three seconds, she simply stared.

Then she laughed.

Kieran held out his hand. "What?"

She gave him the phone.

He read it once.

His expression became still.

"Who signed this?"

"Regional operations vice president. Leah Voss."

Kieran looked at the name.

"I know her."

"Of course you do."

"She reports to a company partly owned by one of my funds."