Chapter 58 Adeline
Adeline's POV
Percy walks into the penthouse, tired but lighter than he has been in days. The lunch with his mother seems to have acted as a balm on his frayed nerves, except the peace doesn't last long.
Tiny follows not long after he enters. I was about to ask him what was going on when I caught the look on her face. He looked nervous, which was unlike him. He catches Percy’s eye and gives a subtle nod toward the hallway.
"Boss, have you got a minute?"
"I’m tired, Tiny," Percy sighs, loosening his tie. "Unless we got a hit on Ilya, can it wait?"
"No, sir. Nothing on the man." Tiny glances at me sitting on the sofa with my laptop, and he lowers his voice, but because I'm concentrating hard on what they're saying, I hear every word. "It’s about your mother, Miss Lucia."
I freeze, but I don't stop what I'm doing so I don't look suspicious.
Percy pauses, his hand on his phone, and he glances quickly at me. "Is she okay? I just left her."
"She’s fine, sir, but you asked me to run a standard threat assessment on anyone getting close to the family. Since she’s been at the penthouse, I thought that applied to her, too."
"And?" Percy asks, his voice hardening.
"She’s been making calls from the hotel using burner phones mostly, but we managed to trace one."
"Traced it to who?"
"Richard Akilov’s private offices."
Percy frowns and shakes his head. "Richard? That doesn't make sense. She hasn't spoken to him in twenty years. She hates him, that makes no sense."
"The call log shows three attempts in the last two days," Tiny continues apologetically but firmly. "She’s trying to get through to his executive assistant, plus she pulled a public records request at the county clerk yesterday."
"For what?"
"The deed to the brownstone and the incorporation papers for your trust."
The realization of what she's doing dawns on me. She's trying to find out how much money she's worth, sort of like testing the waters to see if there's something worth sticking around for or not.
"She’s worried," Percy says aloud. He sounds like he’s trying to convince himself more than Tiny. "She’s worried about my safety. She probably thinks Richard isn't protecting the assets enough. She mentioned at dinner that she wanted to make sure Adeline was secure."
"With all due respect, Boss," Tiny argues lowly. "Checking a deed isn't about safety at all. It’s about value."
"She’s my mother, Tiny," Percy snaps, and the anger in his voice makes me flinch. "She’s anxious and broke, of course, she’s trying to make sure her son isn't going to lose everything at the end of it all. Stop tracking her calls."
Tiny hesitates. He looks at Percy and then flicks his gaze to me for a split second. He knows I’m listening to every word they're saying.
"Yes, sir," he says finally. "Just doing the job."
"I know," Percy softens his tone and runs his hand through his hair as he does when he's stressed. "Keep looking for Ilya, and leave my mother to me."
Tiny nods and leaves with a subtle nod at me. Percy sinks into the leather armchair opposite me. I can literally see the wheels turning in his head, the denial fighting against the logic.
"Everything okay?" I ask, pretending I didn't hear the specifics.
"Fine," he mutters. "Just Tiny being paranoid." He wishes he was just being paranoid. He opens his laptop right there on the coffee table, and I watch him log in and open his banking portal, probably to transfer funds to the security account, when he suddenly freezes.
His eyes narrow at the screen, and I lean forward slightly, just enough to see the reflection of the screen. I see a pending charge of $12,000. His throat bobs just as I see his own eyes widen. So much money spent all at once on Cartier jewelry would make anyone scared. I'm sure she must have fed him some story if he gave her a card and she quickly spent twelve thousand dollars on jewelry.
Percy closes the laptop with a snap before looking at me. For a second, I think he’s going to tell me that I was right and that he can now see that he was being played. Instead, he just raised an eyebrow before standing up.
"Percy, is everything okay?" I ask again, hoping he would change his mind.
"It’s nothing," he says. "Just some bank stuff."
"Hmm."
"I gave Mom a card, and she just made a purchase. She's probably buying a gift for us to say thank you." Again, with the trying to convince himself. I stare at him and wonder what has happened to this man that could literally smell a lie out of a client and is here trying to convince himself of a lie. Or maybe, deep down, he knows the truth but can't afford to believe the truth.
"Yeah," I whisper, turning back to my own screen so he won't see the pity in my eyes.
"Maybe."
The next weekend, we were all at home when a gift box wrapped in elegant silver paper was left at the concierge desk. It was Tiny that brought it up with a grim face, probably because of the note that was tacked on it.
"For the happy couple," it read, and it arrived exactly at ten a.m. It was creepy. For him to have brought it up, he must have swept it for explosives, chemicals, and listening devices, meaning it's clean.
I was a bit anxious as to who could have sent us a wedding gift when the invites aren't even out. I don't have to wait any longer because the mood changes drastically when Percy cuts the ribbon and lifts the lid.
The frown on his face told me it had to be something terrible. I move closer, and to my greatest surprise, nestled in black tissue paper is a child’s toy, but that was not the most vicious part.
The toy car is a vintage sedan that has been crushed so badly that the metal roof is caved in, the tiny windshield is shattered, and the wheels are bent at impossible angles. It looks exactly like a miniature version of a car that has been in a fatal rollover. It looks like a miniature version of the car that ran me off the road. That was not all, taped to the car's hood was a Joker playing card.
"He’s mocking us," Percy says, his voice low and dangerous. He grips the edge of the island so hard his knuckles turn white. "He knows we have Mason and that we're onto him. He’s telling us he can still reach us."
"It’s a toy, but it looks so violent and deadly," I whisper.
"It’s a message," Tiny rumbles. "He’s saying the crash wasn't an accident, and neither will be the last one."
Percy slams the lid shut. "Burn it," he orders Tiny. "And double the security. Tell the front desk I want to know how a courier got that package past the front desk without ID."
Tiny nods and takes the box, disappearing with it into the elevator.