Lily played the sentence a third time.
“Make sure you get Cross when he comes.”
The words were faint beneath the Christmas music and the noise of the mall, but there was no mistaking Derek’s voice.
He had spoken them to his girlfriend less than a minute before Riker appeared.
Riker stood beside the private elevator with one hand resting lightly against Lily’s back.
The tenderness of the gesture did nothing to soften his expression.
“Again,” he said.
Lily replayed the witness’s recording.
Derek grabbed her arm.
She pulled away.
His girlfriend angled her phone toward them.
Derek kicked Lily, watched her fall, then leaned toward the blonde woman and whispered the sentence.
Make sure you get Cross when he comes.
Lily’s stomach tightened.
What had felt like a chance encounter suddenly looked very different.
Riker’s security chief, Jonah, studied the screen.
“They expected you to arrive.”
“Of course they did,” Lily said quietly.
She looked toward the mall atrium.
Derek was no longer on his knees.
Two uniformed mall security officers had finally moved him and his girlfriend into a management office, where Riker’s men were keeping their distance and waiting for police.
Riker had insisted on that part.
Years earlier, he might have handled Derek privately.
Lily knew enough about the man her husband had been to understand that.
But he had changed his rules long before he married her.
Especially where she was concerned.
“Police,” Lily had told him once.
“Lawyers.
Cameras.
Paper trails.
If anyone comes for us, we do it where daylight can see.”
Riker had kissed her forehead and answered, “Then daylight it is.”
Now that promise mattered.
Jonah’s phone buzzed.
The edited video was spreading fast.
It began after Lily had been kicked.
The viewer saw Derek kneeling, Riker standing over him, and several security men surrounding the scene.
The caption described Derek as an innocent shopper threatened by a notorious businessman.
The kick was gone.
The arm grab was gone.
The girlfriend’s laughter was gone.
So was every word Derek had said before Riker arrived.
Then Lily’s own phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
“Send the unedited footage, or your husband becomes tomorrow’s headline.”
She stared at it.
Another message followed.
“You know what people already believe about Riker Cross.
Don’t make this harder.”
Riker read over her shoulder.
“Jonah.”
One word, and the security chief reached for his phone.
Lily caught his wrist.
“No.”
Jonah stopped.
