Chapter 5 — The Truth Behind the Tire
That night, Daniel found the answer he didn’t want.
Under the lifted SUV in his own shop, he found a second mark.
Not damage from the road.
Not wear.
A deliberate scoring pattern along the rim line.
He stepped back slowly.
Someone had wanted that tire to fail.
And someone had wanted it to fail after a specific location.
A location he realized only after Victoria mentioned her meeting.
Daniel wiped his hands slowly.
“This isn’t my world,” he muttered.
But his world had just been pulled into it anyway.
At 11:13 p.m., Victoria returned alone.
No security.
No entourage.
Just her.
“You found it,” she said immediately, seeing his face.
“Yes.”
She closed her eyes briefly.
“Then it’s worse than I thought.”
Daniel straightened. “Tell me what’s going on.”
She hesitated for the first time.
Then finally:
“There’s a board vote in two days. If I lose control of my company’s transport division, someone else takes over my entire security network.”
“And?”
“And whoever gains that network gains access to every protected movement contract in three states.”
Daniel felt it land.
“You think someone’s trying to remove you.”
“I think someone already started.”
Silence stretched.
Then Daniel said the only thing that mattered.
“Why involve me?”
Victoria looked at him for a long moment.
May you like
Then quietly:
“Because whoever did this already tried to frame you.”
