Chapter 45 The Strike
COLLIN'S POV
I was in a meeting with Dimitri and three other members of the organization when my phone rang. It was one of my guys at the stash house on the east side. I almost did not answer but something made me pick up.
"What is it?" I asked.
"We have a problem," the guy said and I could hear panic in his voice. "The cops are here. They have warrants, they are seizing everything."
"What?" I stood up from the table. "How many cops?"
"At least twenty," he said. "Maybe more. They knew exactly where everything was stored. This was not a random raid. Someone gave them specific information."
I felt cold fury spreading through my chest. "Get out of there now. Do not let them arrest you."
"Too late," he said. "They already have six of our guys in custody. I am hiding in the office but they are going to find me soon."
"Then destroy any evidence you can and run," I said. "I will send lawyers to the station."
I hung up and looked at Dimitri. "The cops just raided the east side stash house."
Dimitri's face went hard. "How did they know about it?"
"Someone talked," I said. "Someone gave them information."
"Who?" one of the other members asked. "Who has access to that location?"
I thought about everyone who knew about the stash house. My security team, my distribution network. The organization leadership, and then there was Caitlyn, who had been in my study, going through my files.
No. She could not have, she was too scared, weak, and too focused on the baby to risk doing something like that.
But I had to check. I had to make sure.
"I need to make some calls," I said to the group. "Meeting is over. Everyone lay low until we figure out where the leak is coming from."
They left and I immediately called my head of security. "I want a full sweep of my house. Check for bugs. Check for hidden cameras, check everything."
"When?" he asked.
"Right now," I said. "And I want you to pull all surveillance footage from the past week. I need to see everywhere my wife went and everyone she talked to."
"You think she is the leak?" he asked.
"I do not know what to think," I admitted. "But I need to know for sure."
I drove home faster than I should have. My mind was racing with possibilities. If Caitlyn had betrayed me then she was smarter than I gave her credit for. But it would also mean she signed her own death warrant.
When I got home she was sitting in the living room reading a book. She looked up when I walked in and her face went pale.
"Collin," she said. "I did not expect you home so early."
I studied her carefully. She looked nervous but that could just be because I was staring at her. Or it could be because she knew what she had done.
"There was an incident," I said carefully. "The police raided one of my properties today."
Her eyes went wide. "What? Why?"
"That is what I would like to know," I said. "They had detailed information about the property. Information that only a few people have access to."
"That is terrible," Caitlyn said. "Do you think it was someone in your organization?"
"Maybe," I said. "Or maybe it was someone closer to home."
I saw her swallow hard. "What do you mean?"
"I mean someone who has been in my study," I said slowly. "Someone who has been going through my files when they thought I was not watching."
"I do not understand," Caitlyn said but her voice was shaking.
"Do not you?" I asked and took a step toward her. "Because one of my security guards told me he found you in my study last week. You said you were looking for a book but I do not have any books in my study that you would want to read."
"I was looking for something to help me sleep," she said quickly. "You have some business books and I thought they might be boring enough."
"Did you find what you were looking for?" I asked.
"No," she said. "I gave up and left."
I stared at her trying to figure out if she was lying. She looked terrified but that did not mean anything. She always looked terrified around me lately.
"If I find out you had anything to do with this raid there will be consequences," I said quietly. "Do you understand?"
"I did not have anything to do with it," Caitlyn said. "I do not even know where your properties are or what you do with them."
"You'd better hope that is true," I said. "Because if I find out you betrayed me then being pregnant will not save you."
I left her sitting there and went to my study. My security team was already inside running sweeps for bugs and cameras. They had found nothing so far, which meant if Caitlyn was spying on me, she was being very careful about it.
I sat at my desk and thought about everything that had happened. The raid was too precise and too well planned. The cops knew exactly where to look and what to find. That meant someone with inside knowledge had given them information.
But who? And how much did they know?
I pulled up the surveillance footage from my house and started going through it. Most of it was boring. Caitlyn is going about her daily routine. Mrs Chen is cleaning, and security guards are standing around.
But then I saw something that made me pause. Footage from three nights ago, exactly two in the morning. Caitlyn is leaving her room and going to my study. She was there for almost three hours before coming out.
What was she doing in my study for three hours in the middle of the night?
I fast-forwarded through more footage and found another instance and another. She had been in my study at least four times while I was in New York.
"Did you find anything?" I asked my security chief.
"No bugs or cameras," he said. "The house is clean."
"What about her phone?" I asked. "The one I gave her that I monitor?"
"We checked it," he said. "Nothing suspicious. Just normal calls and texts."
"What about another phone?" I pressed. "Does she have a second phone I do not know about?"
"We could search her room," he suggested.
"Do it," I said. "Search every inch of it. I want to know if she has been hiding anything from me."
While they searched I kept watching the surveillance footage. I watched Caitlyn going into my study again and again. Watched her being careful not to make noise. Watched her acting like someone with something to hide.
She had betrayed me. I did not have proof yet but I knew it in my gut. My own wife had been spying on me and feeding information to the police.
The question was what was I going to do about it?
My security chief came back into the study. "We found a ph
One is hidden in her closet. Old model, it has a SIM card we do not recognize."
He handed me the phone and I turned it on.