And I found myself, at the very same time, desperately hoping that he would, because there was no one else in the world I could call, and because the thing I had just read on the second page of that file had a name attached to it that belonged to both of us, and there was no way through what was coming that did not run straight back through the brother I had not spoken to in nine years.

Chapter 9 — Arthur Vance

The phone rang a fourth time, and then it picked up, and a sharp, familiar voice came down the line, brisk and impatient and exactly as I remembered it.

“Arthur Vance.”

My breath caught in my throat.

Just his name, said in his own voice, and nine years collapsed to nothing.

Arthur was my brother.

Once, we had been close, before the money and the empire and the endless corporate battles had gotten in between us and worn us down to opponents.