Ficorpio
Chapter 1
I’d been keeping a college student on the side behind my wife’s back.
Every day after work, I spent exactly two hours with her. Rain or shine, I never missed a night.
For six months, my wife suspected nothing.
Then, one night, a photo appeared on my phone.
“I know all your secrets. One hundred thousand dollars, paid by tomorrow. Otherwise, these photos will be sent automatically to your wife.”
For two stunned seconds, I didn’t move. Then I sprang off Lily Reed and crossed to the window in two strides.
A handful of windows glowed in the building across the street.
I couldn’t see anyone.
But the angle of the photo told me the camera had been positioned somewhere between the fifth and sixth floors.
I yanked the curtains shut.
“What’s wrong?”
Lily sat up in bed and gave me a puzzled look.
“Nothing.”
I turned to face her.
“Lily, do you love me?”
She blinked. “Of course.”
“You chose to be with me willingly?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Answer me.”
“…Yes.”
“Have I ever forced you to do anything you didn’t want to do?”
“…No.”
“Good.”
I stopped the recording on my phone.
The entire exchange had taken less than a minute. She had confirmed every point in her own words, speaking naturally, without the slightest hint of coercion.
Whatever happened next, I had to make sure I couldn’t be dragged into a criminal case.
“Adrian.”
There was a tremor in her voice now.
“What happened?”
I didn’t answer.
Instead, I opened the text and typed a reply.
“I’ve seen the photo. Nice shot. But it’s only one picture. How do I know you have any others?”
The message failed to send.
It had come from a virtual number.
I closed my eyes, irritation grinding through me.
If someone had managed to photograph me in Lily’s bed, they hadn’t been watching for just one day.
And I hadn’t noticed a thing.
I returned to the window and peered down through a narrow gap in the curtains.
The motorcycle that had been parked outside earlier was gone.
When I opened the apartment door, Lily caught the hem of my shirt.
“I thought you were staying tonight.”
I paused but didn’t turn around.
“Starting tomorrow, stay on campus for a while.”
“Why?”
“I won’t be coming over for the next few days.”
The door closed behind me.
I stepped out of the elevator, walked to my car, and stopped.
My gaze swept the area.
Nothing looked out of place.
Whoever was doing this could see me. I couldn’t see them.
Running around looking now would be no better than searching blindfolded.
I opened the extortion text again, took a screenshot of the sender’s number, and pulled up the contact for my childhood friend.
Chapter 2
Mason Hale worked in the detective division at the Riverton Police Precinct. We’d grown up on the same block.
“You asleep?”
My phone buzzed almost immediately.
“No. I’m on duty. What’s up?”
“Man, a friend of mine has a problem. Someone sent him an extortion text demanding a hundred grand. They also took intimate photos of him. How does something like this usually get handled?”
Mason replied with a voice message.
“Is this friend married?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s an overseas virtual number, so there’s no way to trace where it came from. Warn your friend that going to the police means making the whole thing official. Once a case is opened, people will be called in for questioning. And the account they want the money sent to is almost certainly fraudulent or stolen. Even after the entire process plays out, there’s a good chance the person behind it still won’t be caught.”
A second message followed.
“If the pictures are intimate, and his wife ever files for divorce, all the family court has to do is request the records from our precinct. That police report becomes hard evidence. He needs to think very carefully before reporting it.”
I sucked in a sharp breath.
“What would you do?”
“I’d stall the blackmailer, then investigate everyone around me. Something like this usually involves someone close to the victim.”
I closed my eyes.
“Thanks, man. Drinks are on me next time.”
I ended the call and tossed my phone onto the passenger seat.
Then I leaned back, shut my eyes, and went through every person I could think of, one by one.
Lily Reed.
She was the first person who came to mind.
But the first person I ever met was her roommate, Sophie Brooks.
Last year, I was invited to Westbridge University to give a career-planning lecture. Sophie was the student-government representative assigned to coordinate with me.
Not long after we met, she sent me a message asking for help.
Her roommate had taken a part-time job and been cheated by the agency. It was a predatory lending scam disguised as an employment contract. She hadn’t discovered the truth until after she signed. The agency refused to return her deposit, and she was suddenly saddled with a debt. The poor girl was terrified and cried herself sick, too afraid to tell her family.
I looked over the contract and called a friend who worked as an attorney. Two days later, the money was returned.
It was a small favor, but they insisted on taking me out to dinner.
That was where I met Lily Reed for the first time.
A white T-shirt. Jeans. No makeup.
Chapter 3
She wasn’t stunning in the conventional sense, but something about her landed exactly on the point of my taste.
She wasn’t loud, clingy, or forward.
I couldn’t even say exactly when I started falling for her.
Later, Lily began asking me to dinner alone. The dinners stretched later into the night, and our conversations grew more personal.
What happened after the third dinner probably doesn’t need explaining.
In the past six months, she hadn’t done a single thing to make me suspicious. She never checked my phone, never asked when I would be home, and never messaged me first on the weekends.
The financial support I’d given her amounted to at least five hundred thousand dollars. Rent, living expenses, even her mother’s hospital bills after surgery.
I had never shortchanged her.
Over a mere hundred thousand?
No. It didn’t make sense.
She had no motive.
And certainly not the nerve.
I opened my eyes and looked out the car window.
Claire Bennett.
My wife.
She was three months pregnant.
But, honestly, I wasn’t invested in the child. In today’s society, as long as a man had enough money, there would always be countless women eager to bear him a child.
The only reason I had agreed to Claire’s pregnancy was that it would better reassure my parents.
She had changed so much since becoming pregnant.
She looked worse. She was constantly exhausted.
Most mornings, she woke up and dry-heaved over the sink. She couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, and had no energy for anything.
How could a woman in that condition have the energy to plan something like this?
Besides, I’d hidden everything perfectly these past few months.
I came home when I was supposed to, gave her massages, and read stories to the baby every day without missing once.
Then who else could it be?
My company was in the middle of bidding for an important corporate contract. We’d already invested a great deal of money and effort into it.
If those photographs came to light now and Claire filed for divorce, the consequences would be disastrous.
So was it possible that one of my competitors was behind this?
I couldn’t sit around and wait.
I had twenty-four hours to drag the person responsible into the light.
I picked up my phone and scrolled through my contacts until I found a name.
Ryan Carter. He worked in security systems.
The phone rang three times before he answered.
“Ryan, I need a favor.”
“Go on.”
“I want a few people monitored.”
There was silence on the other end for several seconds. Then I heard a lighter click and the soft draw of a cigarette. He inhaled and slowly exhaled.
“There are two options. The first tracks movement only. You put a coin-sized tracker in the lining at the bottom of each woman’s bag. It uses a magnetic mount, gives you real-time location, and is accurate to within six feet.”