Chapter 3 - The Men in the Front
The atmosphere inside the limousine transformed instantly from a tragic marital breakdown into a pressure cooker of lethal tension. I looked through the glass partition at the three men I had known for half a decade.
Nolan Price: Adrian's head of security for ten years. A quiet, terrifyingly efficient ex-military man who personally checked my car every morning and managed the estate's digital grid.
Carter Reeve: Adrian's chief financial officer and legal counsel. The slick, brilliant strategist who managed the Vale family's legitimate corporate empire and held the keys to all encrypted communications.
Eli Vance: The young, loyal driver who had escorted me to my art gallery openings, brought me coffee when I worked late, and always remembered my favorite flowers.
One of them had spent six months tormenting me, driving me into a state of silent madness until I finally cracked and fled into the night.
"Which one?" I whispered to Adrian, my breath hitching.
"I don't know yet," Adrian admitted, his hand subtly drifting toward the concealed holster beneath his armpit. "Nolan has root access to the estate server. Carter built the network encryption. Eli has physical access to your vehicle and your personal devices whenever he drives you."
"Adrian... they can hear us?"
"The partition is soundproof," Adrian replied softly. "I flipped the isolation switch the moment I got into the car. Right now, they think I am still on my knees begging my wife to forgive him."
A dark, bitter smile touched his lips. "It's a good cover. No one expects a man who is weeping for his marriage to be planning an execution."
I stared at my husband, feeling a sudden, dizzying rush of conflicting emotions. For five years, I had hated his secrecy, his lethal caution, his inability to let me into his world. But now, sitting in the dark with a invisible enemy closing in on us, that very lethality was the only thing keeping my heart beating.
"What are we going to do?" I asked.
"We aren't going to your sister's house," Adrian said flatly. "And we aren't going back to the estate. If the snake is inside the house, we burn the house down."
May you like
He reached out, taking my cold, bare foot once more, gently sliding a pair of soft leather flats from his coat pocket onto my feet. He had brought them from my closet before chasing after me.
"Put these on, Claire," he murmured gently. "Tonight, the king and queen of the Vale family go hunting."
