Chapter 237
Chapter 234. Cameron Knows,
CAMERON
Marcus called back at six-fourteen. I had been waiting in the upstairs guest room with the door closed. I had the laptop open in front of me, but it was not really working.
“The car,” Marcus said. No preamble. “Reported stolen two days ago. Found abandoned six blocks from
the venue this afternoon. No plates on it when it was found. They’d been removed before it was reported missing. That tells us something on its own. No useful forensics inside.
I didn’t talk, just staring straight.
“Cameron, I’m here p>
“This isn’t an inattentive driver,” Marcus said. “I want to be clear about that. This was a vehicle prepared in advance to be untraceable, used near a competition venue the day before an athlete arrives there, and abandoned immediately after p>
I closed my eyes.
“Send me everything,” I said. “Every report, every timestamp, the operative’s last known position before the sighting near Dante’s hotel.” I opened my eyes again. “And Marcus, the December timeline. The one Logan was given. Do we have anything more specific now p>
A pause on his end. “Working on it. I have someone trying to confirm the source of the original tip, the one that flagged the timeline existed at all. I’ll know more by morning p>
“Tonight, if you can p>
“Tonight, if I can,” he agreed, and I would hang up.
I sat with it. I thought about Seattle. I had told myself, told Sedona, that it had likely been a fluke, an isolated incident, a man hired by Logan in a moment of panic who had since been called off.
I thought about the conversation in the garden. I had stood the undercover team watching out for anything suspicious down too early.
This was not a productive thought to sit with for very long, so I made myself stop sitting with it and started making calls instead.
Lucian first. He listened without interrupting. At the end, he said, “What do you need from me p>
“Watch the house,” I said.
“Tonight especially. I don’t think anyone’s coming here directly, that’s not the pattern, but I want eyes on the doors regardless p>
“Done,” he said. Then: “Cameron. How is Sedona supposed to play tomorrow, carrying this p>
“She’s not carrying it tomorrow,” I said. “Not yet p>
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Cameron Knetty.
Clam
A silence that meant he understood and didn’t entirely agree, but trusted me enough not to argue it on the phone.
My father next. I gave him the short version; He was quiet for a long moment.
“Your sister plays tomorrow,” he said.
“I know p>
“She does not play well frightened.” It wasn’t a question. My father had watched Sedona her entire life, so he knew. “She plays well when she’s settled p>
“I know that too, that’s why I’m not telling her tonight,” I remarked.
A pause. Then: “Good.” Just that. My father’s full endorsement, delivered in one word, was the way he delivered everything that mattered most.
Adaeze last. It was not for comfort; I called her for the thing she was actually good at, which was precision. “I need to know what level of evidence converts a suspicion into something a court will act on,” I said. “Stolen vehicle, no plates, found abandoned near a venue Sedona’s coach uses, twenty-four hours after a near-miss with him on a public street. Combined with the existing stalking complaint p>
She was quiet for a moment, professional gears turning. “On its own, the car incident is circumstantial,” she said. “No direct evidence linking it to Logan. But layered on top of an active stalking complaint and the operative sighting from Seattle, it builds a pattern a judge would find difficult to dismiss, especially this close to a custody ruling.” A pause. “Document everything. Timestamps, Reeve’s reports, all of it. If this happens again, or if anything escalates, we will move immediately for an emergency protective order. Don’t wait for the full custody ruling in January p>
“Understood p>
“Cameron.” Her voice shifted slightly, the underneath layer, the one that occasionally surfaced. “Is Sedona safe tonight p>
“I believe so,” I said. “Lucian’s watching the house. I’m about to talk to Dante p>
“Talk to Dante first,” she said. Then decide what Sedona needs to know and when. But don’t wait too long for her. Though she has a right to make informed decisions about her own safety.
“I know,” I said. “I’m not hiding it from her forever. Just tonight p>
That left Dante. I found him in the room he was using. He looked up when J knocked and came in, and something in my face told him this wasn’t about logistics. He set down what he was holding right away.
I told him everything. The stolen car, the abandoned location, the timing relative to his run.
He listened without interrupting. The full account, start to finish, no questions until I’d reached the end of
When I finished, he was quiet for a long moment. Looking at his racket case, not at me.
“Are you sure?” ”
“No”
Cameron Knetts-
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held his eyes. “But I’m not unsure enough to do nothing. That car wasn’t an accident, Dante. Everything about how it was prepared and disposed of says someone planned for it to look like one p>
He nodded slowly.
“Don’t tell Sedona,” he said.
“Not until after the first match p>
“That’s what I thought p>
“She’s been building toward tomorrow for seven months,” Dante said: “If she walks onto that court carrying this, none of the training will matter p>
It’ll be in her hands before the first serve.” He looked up at me finally. “Let her have the match. Then we tell her everything, completely, and we don’t decide anything for her after that. She decides p>
“Agreed p>
He was quiet again. Then: “And my son Drew, i need to know he will be safe, if this man can come after me, then Drew is also someone he knows p>
I looked at him.
“I want him somewhere I can see him,” Dante said. “Tonight, if it’s possible. I don’t care what it costs or who I have to wake up to arrange it p>
“I am not running a tournament with my son not 100% safe while a man with a stolen car and a removed license plate is loose in this city p>
“I’ll call for backup, have someone watching the kids 24/7,” I said. “I can have a car arranged within the hour and a flight by morning p>
“Tonight,” Dante said again. Quiet. Final.
“Tonight,” I agreed.
He looked back at his racket case.
“Cameron,” he said.
“Yes p>
“Thank you for telling me first p>
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“You needed to know first,” I said. “It was you on that run. You almost didn’t come home p>
He didn’t argue with that. I left him with his racket case and his half-packed bag and went to make the call about Drew, and somewhere underneath all that, I held the one thought I hadn’t said aloud to anyone yet.
Sedona would be at the court tomorrow to play the most important game of her adult life. And somewhere in this city, a man who had once detested her was still deciding how badly he wanted her
back.
The First Match.
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Florence
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