Emerald Chains

11. The Lake House

Sitting on the front deck of his lake house, sipping on his early morning coffee, Ethan turned the page in his novel. He glanced up when he noticed a bird swoop its wing against the shimmering water before flying high into the sky.

Erica really did a good job with this place, thought Ethan as he placed his coffee on the side table, basking in the light of morning sun. He leaned back into his chair, laying his book on his chest and closed his eyes feeling the most relaxed he had been in years.

He opened his eyes slowly as he heard a faint ringing in the background. It took him a moment to realise it was his phone so he hopped up quickly and headed inside. He was given a burner phone which he replaced every week to keep in touch with Erica.

He picked up the phone and placed it to his ear. "You're a bit early for our weekly catchup Erica," he said.

"We have a slight issue and I thought you should be informed," replied Erica. "Richard missed his scheduled check-in, we haven't been able to locate him since."

"How long ago was his last check-in?" asked Ethan.

"Four days ago," replied Erica. "Just keep an eye out Ethan. We'll do our best to bring him in."

"I know you will," replied Ethan before hanging up.

There shouldn't be a chance of Richard finding him outside of the country. He would just have to lay low for a little while, take fewer trips into town to be on the safe side.

***

"And why haven't you found him yet?" scolded Richard to a group of five very intimidating men.

"Apologies sir, there is no trace of him. We received word that he went into the witness protection program." replied the older of the men.

"We have contacts in the police do we not?" barked Richard, pacing back and forth in front of them.

"His location is too highly classified. Only three people know of his whereabouts and to touch them would blow the cover of the entire operation. They were smart, I think they may be on to a potential leak in their team" explained the man.

"Mother fucker!" cursed Richard. "Get rid of our informants, and bribe some new ones. Now get out of here!"

Richard stood there and leaned up against the wall overlooking the manufacturing floor. He had to think of another plan before Demios decided to get involved. His men couldn't find Richard in almost two weeks. At most, it had never taken longer than three days to find someone. His trackers were some of the best and he was pissed that Ethan had managed to stay under the radar.

He didn't know enough about Ethan's personal life to take a stab at where he would be located. He knew though that he wasn't foolish enough to go somewhere connected to him. It turns out that Ethan's last name wasn't Reed, it was Ryker. His record was minimal though, no mention of family, friends, hometown or anything.

Richard had to lure him out, but how? He thought back to the one time he saw him outside of the office, the Italian restaurant. He was with that girl, the smoking hot piece of ass from the cafe. Come to think of it he did see them talk together a few times in the cafe. Was it enough to go on though? If Ethan was anything like Richard he would have just wanted to fuck that sexy body into the ground and be done with it. But Ethan was different from Richard, there could be some connection he didn't see.

Either way, he had to do something before Demios stepped in. At least this way he could kill two birds with one stone. Perhaps it would even work. He picked up his phone and dialled. "I need you to look into someone for me".