Chapter 4 - THE SENATOR’S ULTIMATUM
At 3:00 AM, the secure satellite phone on Adrian’s desk began to chiming.
Adrian sat in his leather armchair in the library, a tumbler of aged scotch resting untouched beside an old leather-bound file containing the medical records of Evelyn Bennett.
He picked up the handset. "Speaking."
"Vale, you arrogant bastard."
The voice on the line was thick, gravelly, and laced with absolute authority. Senator Richard Whitmore—a veteran politician who had spent thirty years controlling the state legislature.
"Senator," Adrian greeted him coldly. "I trust you received the photo of your daughter's white coat?"
"If you harm Charlotte, I will bring the entire weight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation down on your head," Whitmore snarled. "I have connections in the Justice Department that can declare your security firm a terrorist organization by sunrise!"
"Try it," Adrian replied without hesitation. "And before the order is signed, I will air the bank accounts of your shell corporations in the Cayman Islands live on national television. Every bribe you took from the pharmaceutical lobbies... every illegal land deal... and every payment you made to tamper with Evelyn Bennett’s medication."
A heavy silence descended over the line. Senator Whitmore's breathing turned ragged.
"Evelyn Bennett was a thief," Whitmore muttered defensively. "She stole documents that didn't belong to her."
"She saved documents that proved you were a murderer," Adrian corrected him sharply. "Where is the physical ledger, Richard?"
"I don't have it!" Whitmore snapped. "Evelyn hid it before she died! She left it with her daughter, but the stupid girl was too young to know what she had!"
Adrian froze. His eyes shifted toward the ceiling, directly above where Mara was sleeping in the master suite.
"Mara doesn't have it," Adrian said, testing the water.
"She has it and doesn't even realize it," Whitmore sneered. "Evelyn kept everything in an old metal music box she gave the girl on her tenth birthday. The key to that box was buried with Evelyn at Blackwood Cemetery!"
Adrian’s eyes narrowed into slits of razor-sharp realization.
That was why Vance's men had been at Blackwood Cemetery. They weren't just following Charlotte—they were preparing to exhume Evelyn Bennett’s grave under cover of night to retrieve the key!
"If your men go near that grave again, Richard," Adrian whispered softly, "I will not send you to prison. I will handle you personally."
He slammed the phone down and immediately pressed the intercom button.
"Marcus!" Adrian called out to his chief of security. "Deploy Unit Alpha back to Blackwood Cemetery immediately. Secure Evelyn Bennett's grave site. No one gets within five hundred yards!"
Before Marcus could reply, a piercing alarm shattered the quiet of the fortress!
WAAAH! WAAAH! WAAAH!
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The red emergency lights flooded the library as the glass walls rattled from a massive detonation at the front gate!
"Boss!" Marcus's voice cracked through the speakers. "We've got a breaching team at the main gate! Heavy explosives! It's a private military contractor—Whitmore hired mercenaries to raid the estate!"
