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

Jolene was not kidnapped.

That was the first good news.

The second was that she had not entered the amusement level.

When Kieran, Meredith, Bryce, and two unmarked police vehicles reached Lake View Grand, Jolene was sitting in the closed café near the lobby with two Ashford security officers and a paper cup of tea she had barely touched.

She looked up as Kieran crossed the marble floor toward her.

"Before you say anything," she said, "I did exactly what we agreed. I told Bryce where I was going. I took security. I kept my phone on."

Kieran stopped in front of the table.

His breathing was too controlled.

Meredith recognized the effort it took him not to turn fear into orders.

"Someone photographed you," he said.

Jolene's face changed.

Meredith showed her the anonymous message.

Jolene read the words twice.

YOUR FATHER COULDN'T SAVE HER EITHER.

"What does that mean?" she whispered.

Kieran looked at Meredith.

Meredith hated the answer before she said it.

"It might refer to my dad."

"Your father?"

"He died in an industrial accident connected to a company Kieran's family invested in. We found records today."

Jolene looked from Meredith to Kieran. "And you didn't tell me?"

"We found out an hour ago," Kieran said.

"That's not what I mean."

He knew that.

Jolene stood. "You keep doing this. Something happens to me and then suddenly everyone else gets to know the world I'm living in before I do."

"I was trying to keep you calm."

"There. That sentence. I hate that sentence."

"Jolene—"

"No. I almost died on a ride because someone knew exactly how angry I am about being watched. They used that against me. You don't get to respond by deciding I need even less information."

The security officers found the ceiling very interesting.

Meredith leaned against the counter and said nothing.

Kieran looked at her once.

She lifted one eyebrow.

He turned back to his sister.

"You're right."

Jolene blinked.

"What?"

"You're right."

"Don't do that just because she's here."

"I'm not."

"You never say I'm right."

"Maybe this is why. It's unpleasant for everyone."

Jolene stared at him for half a second, then laughed despite herself.

The tension broke just enough to let fear back into the room.

She sat again.

"Who took the photo?"

Bryce answered. "Camera angle suggests the west balcony. We're checking surveillance."

Meredith walked toward the glass wall facing the lobby. "Who knew she'd come here?"

"Me," Bryce said. "Kieran after we called. The two officers with her."

Jolene shook her head. "I told no one else."

"Did you request the café be opened?"

One officer nodded. "Front desk manager arranged it."

"Then staff knew."

Kieran's phone rang.

Detective Chen.

She had traced the anonymous message through another prepaid route. No location yet. She wanted everyone to stay put until officers searched the balcony.

Meredith walked farther into the café and noticed something on the counter.

A maintenance key card.

Yellow stripe. Temporary access.

She picked it up with a napkin.

"Whose is this?"

The café manager shook his head. "Not ours."

Meredith recognized the format immediately. "Amusement maintenance temp badge."

Bryce moved closer.

"Like the badge created for Evan Rooke?"

"Same type."

Printed in tiny black letters beneath the barcode was an expiration date.

Saturday.

The night of the accident.

Police bagged it.

The badge had been dropped intentionally or carelessly. Neither possibility made Meredith feel better.

An hour later, surveillance gave them a man in a maintenance jacket entering the west balcony five minutes before Jolene arrived. His face was hidden by a cap. He left through a service stairwell before security moved in.

But this time, the camera did not fail.

One frame caught his profile.

Not Pike.

Not Harris.

A younger man Meredith did not recognize.

Bryce did.

"Caleb Voss."

Meredith looked at him. "As in Leah Voss?"

"Her younger brother."

Leah, the regional operations vice president whose credentials had been used to create the fake contractor access.

Kieran's expression darkened.

"Where is she?"

Bryce checked. "At corporate headquarters."

Detective Chen arrived twenty minutes later and told Kieran, very clearly, not to visit Leah Voss without police.

He agreed.

Meredith did not believe him.

Neither did Chen.

"If you interfere with my case," the detective said, "I will arrest you in your own lobby and enjoy the paperwork."

Kieran looked almost impressed. "Noted."

That evening, Jolene refused to return to the penthouse.

"I want a hotel," she said.

Kieran's eyes narrowed. "A hotel is harder to secure."

"Then secure it. You're always telling people you're good at things."

"Jolene."

"I don't want to sleep in the apartment where you decide who enters, who calls, and which news I get told. I need one night somewhere I picked."

Meredith waited for the explosion that did not come.

Kieran rubbed a hand over his face.

"Pick the hotel."

Jolene looked surprised.

"Within Chicago."

"I knew there'd be a condition."

"I'm evolving slowly."

She chose a small boutique hotel near Lincoln Square because it had no Ashford investment and no obvious reason for anyone dangerous to expect her there.

Bryce sent a discreet team.

Kieran did not accompany her.

After Jolene left, he stood outside Lake View Grand under a cold wind, watching traffic slide along the avenue.

Meredith joined him.

"That probably hurt," she said.

"What?"

"Letting her go somewhere you didn't choose."

"I dislike your observational habits."

"Occupational hazard."

He looked toward the entrance. "When our parents died, Jolene was nineteen. I was already running half the company. Everyone said I had to become everything for her. Brother. Parent. Security. Family."

"You believed them."

"I still do, some days."

Meredith put her hands in her coat pockets.

"Being everything for someone can become a nice excuse not to let them be anything without you."

Kieran looked at her sharply.

"Did your mother do that?"

"No. She did the opposite. She was sick and kept apologizing for needing me."

"And you left school."

"Yes."

"Do you regret it?"

Meredith considered the question.

"I regret that the choice existed. I don't regret choosing her."

That answer seemed to matter to him.

For a moment, neither spoke.

Then a police car pulled away from the curb.

Kieran said, "Come work for me."

Meredith turned. "Absolutely not."

"You didn't even hear the job."

"If the sentence begins with 'come work for me,' I know enough."

"Independent safety division. Full authority over facilities in which Ashford holds controlling interest. Budget, staff, shutdown power. No manager can overrule you for revenue reasons."

She stared at him.

He had found the only offer designed to hurt her resistance.

"That's manipulative."

"Effective and manipulative aren't mutually exclusive."

"I haven't finished investigating the company you're tied to."

"All the more reason to make the division independent."

"And if I find Ashford negligence?"

"You report it."

"Publicly?"

His pause was brief.

"If required."

Meredith stepped closer. "Wrong answer."