"I gathered that from the suit," the man said dryly. "My name is Marcus. This is Dom and Eli." He nodded to the booth behind me. "And this pancake destroyer is my son, Leo. Now, Maya. Why does a guy in a three-thousand-dollar suit want to tear this diner apart just to get to you?"
"He doesn't want me," I said bitterly, the reality of my situation crashing down. "He wants what I found. He wants the proof."
Marcus set his mug down carefully. "The proof of what?"
I looked around. The diner was mostly empty now, the breakfast rush thinning out, but a waitress with a name tag that read 'Sarah' was watching us nervously from behind the counter.
"Richard isn't just a real estate developer," I whispered, leaning in across the table. "He’s a ghost. He moves money for people who don't want their money tracked. A lot of money. I found the ledger this morning. That's why I ran."
Marcus didn't blink, but the relaxed posture in his shoulders vanished. "A ledger."
I nodded, my hands shaking as I reached down to the hem of my dress. I slipped two fingers inside the lining of my right shoe and pulled out a small, metallic flash drive. I placed it on the table between us.
"He's been laundering tens of millions of dollars for the last four years," I said, my voice barely audible over the hum of the diner's refrigerators. "But he didn't put his name on it. He created a shell company to act as the funnel."
Marcus stared at the small piece of metal. "And I'm guessing he didn't make himself the CEO."
A tear slipped free and tracked down my cheek. "He forged my signature on every single document of incorporation. He made me the sole director. If he gets caught, he walks away clean, and I go to federal prison for the rest of my life."
Marcus's jaw tightened. "What's the name of the shell company?"
"It's a holding group," I said. "Vanguard Holdings."
The reaction was instantaneous.
Marcus stopped breathing. The stillness in him wasn't casual anymore; it was predatory. Behind me, I heard a sharp intake of breath. I looked over my shoulder and saw Dom and Eli staring at Marcus, their eyes wide with a sudden, electrifying intensity.
Marcus slowly reached out and picked up the flash drive. His massive thumb rubbed over the smooth metal casing. He stared at it as if the drive itself was a venomous snake he had been tracking for years.
"Vanguard Holdings," Marcus repeated, the words rolling out of his mouth like broken glass.
"Yes," I said, confused by his reaction. "Do you know it?"
Marcus looked up at me. The warmth that had been in his eyes when he spoke to his son was entirely gone, replaced by a cold, frightening clarity.
"You didn't just find a hiding spot, Maya," Marcus said softly, his voice vibrating with a decade of buried grief. "You found the one table in this town that’s been hunting him."
Chapter 2: The House of Straw
"Sarah," Marcus called out, not raising his voice, but the waitress immediately dropped her rag and hurried over.
"Is there going to be trouble, Marcus?" she asked, her eyes darting nervously toward the front window where Richard's men were leaning against their SUVs.