Chapter 3
Victor came down the stairs slowly.
He always had.
Even at the mansion, he moved like a man entering a room he already owned.
Now each step echoed through the basement hall.
Emily stood behind me, barefoot and shaking, one hand wrapped around the back of my coat.
I motioned her toward the boiler room.
She shook her head.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You are going to Lily.”
That got through.
Her eyes filled, but she slipped into the shadows beside the old pipes.
I stepped into the hall.
Victor stopped halfway down the stairs.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
He looked at me.
Then at the unconscious guard near my feet.
Then at the open steel door.
His face changed only slightly.
Disappointment.
Not shock.
“You found her faster than I expected,” he said.
“You underestimated a three-year-old.”
His jaw tightened.
“Lily.”
“She remembered you.”
Victor sighed.
“That child should have stayed asleep.”
My hand tightened around the gun.
“Careful.”
He lifted both hands.
“Easy. You shoot me here, you lose the bigger truth.”
“The Judge.”
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
So Emily had been right.
I smiled coldly.
“There it is.”
“You don’t understand what you found.”
“I found your company. Your payments. Daniel Hart.”
Victor looked past me.
Emily stepped out before I could stop her.
“You killed my husband.”
Victor’s mouth twisted.
“Your husband killed himself when he talked to the wrong inspector.”
Emily flinched like he had struck her.
I moved in front of her.
Victor laughed.
“Look at you. Protecting the maid like some wounded hero.”
“She has a name.”
“Yes. Emily Hart. Widow. Mother. Problem.”
“And you thought kidnapping her solved that?”
“It delayed disaster.”
“For who?”
“For all of us.”
He descended another step.
“You think I enjoyed this? You think I wanted any of this? Daniel heard things. Emily found files. You were distracted by a child and a housekeeper while enemies moved around us.”
“You sold my routes.”
“I preserved power.”
“You sold families.”
His face hardened.
“Collateral.”
The word landed like poison.
Emily whispered, “Daniel had a baby.”
Victor looked at her.
“Daniel should have stayed quiet.”
I moved before I decided to.
One second Victor stood on the stairs.
The next he was against the wall with my forearm under his jaw.
His gun clattered down the steps.
“You talk about her husband again,” I said, “and I forget I need you alive.”
Victor smiled through the pressure.
“There he is. Your father’s son.”
I did not move.
He knew exactly where to cut.
“You can play soft for the child,” Victor rasped. “But we both know what you are.”
Emily’s voice came from behind me.
“No.”
I did not look back.
Victor did.
Emily stood shaking, but her eyes were steady.
“He is not what you said.”
Victor laughed.
“You know him after eleven months of cleaning floors?”
“I know what men look like when they enjoy fear,” she said. “You enjoyed mine. He didn’t.”
Something in Victor’s face cracked.
Not guilt.
Anger.
He shoved against me.
I slammed him back.
“Who is the Judge?”
Victor’s smile returned.
“You already know him.”
That froze me.
Victor saw it and leaned into the wound.
“Every empire has a court, Adrian. Your father built one. You inherited more than money.”
“Name.”
“You will hear it soon enough.”
Above us, tires screamed.
Not Marcus.
Too many engines.
Victor’s smile widened.
“You came alone.”
I pulled him away from the wall and struck him hard enough to drop him to one knee.
Emily gasped.
I grabbed Victor’s collar.
“How many?”
He spat blood.
“Enough.”
Marcus’s team was still minutes away.
Men poured into the lobby overhead.
Boots.
Voices.
Weapons.
Emily stepped close.
“Adrian.”
I shoved Victor into the boiler room and locked the pipe chain through his wrists.
He laughed.
“You think a chain stops this?”
“No.”
I picked up his phone from the floor.
“But fear does.”
I pressed the barrel of my gun to his knee and looked at him until he stopped smiling.
“Tell your men to stand down.”
“They aren’t mine.”
That answer mattered.
The Judge had sent them.
Emily touched my arm.
“There’s an old service tunnel.”
I turned.
“What?”
“This hotel had laundry carts. I heard them talking. It leads to the beach road.”
“Show me.”
Victor lunged against the chain.
“Emily.”
She did not look at him.
“Shut up.”
I almost smiled.
Even terrified, Emily Hart had steel in her.
We moved through a rusted side door behind the boilers.
The tunnel was narrow and damp.
Emily stumbled twice.
I held her up.
Behind us, someone found the basement.
“Boss!”
Victor shouted, “Tunnel!”
I cursed.
Emily pushed forward.
The passage opened into a storage room packed with broken furniture.
Beyond it, moonlight silvered a cracked exit door.
We were almost there.
Then a man stepped into the doorway.
Gun raised.
Emily froze.
I fired first.
He dropped.
Emily covered her mouth.
I took her hand.
“Don’t look.”
“I have to.”
“No. You have to live.”
We ran.
Cold air hit us.
The beach road curved below the hotel, empty except for one black sedan.
Marcus.
He stepped from the driver’s side with a rifle in hand.
“Move.”
Emily fell into the back seat.
I climbed in after her.
Bullets struck the rear window as Marcus drove.
Glass spiderwebbed.
Emily curled into herself.
I covered her with my body.
The car tore down the road into fog.
Only when the hotel disappeared behind us did Emily start crying.
Not softly.
Not neatly.
She broke open.
“I thought I would never see her again.”
“You will.”
“I kept hearing her voice.”
“She waited for you every day.”
Emily sobbed harder.
“I told her I always come back.”
“You did.”
She looked at me through tears.
“Because of you.”
“No,” I said. “Because she pointed.”
Marcus glanced at us in the mirror.
“The mansion is compromised.”
“I know.”
“Victor’s people?”
“Some. Not all.”
“The Judge’s?”
“Maybe.”
Emily wiped her face.
“Who is the Judge?”
I looked at Victor’s phone in my hand.
A new message lit the screen.
You should not have taken her, Adrian.
My blood chilled.
A second message followed.
Bring the drive.
Or Lily pays for what her mother stole.
Emily saw my face.
“What is it?”
I looked at Marcus.
“Call Rose.”
He already had his phone out.
No answer.
He tried again.
No answer.
Emily grabbed my sleeve.
“Lily?”
I called the nursery line.
Nothing.
The mansion security feed on my backup device was black.
Every camera.
Every hall.
Every door.
Someone had shut my house blind.
Emily whispered, “No.”
I turned to Marcus.
“Faster.”
The sedan surged forward.
But we were twenty-two minutes away.
And in my mind, I saw Lily on the marble step, clutching Mr. Buttons and waiting for a mother I had just found.
I had promised her no one would take anyone from my house.
May you like
Now the house was dark.
And someone was inside.
