Chapter 2 - The Shattered Lilies
Ten minutes later, two black armored SUVs pulled up onto a quiet, tree-lined street in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill.
Khloe lived on the second floor of a restored historic brownstone. It was a secure building with biometric entry locks and high-definition surveillance coverage paid for and monitored directly by Russo Security.
Damian stepped out of the vehicle, his dark tailored overcoat open against the wind, his face an unreadable mask. Leo met him at the base of the stone stoop, holding a silenced sidearm low against his leg.
"The main entrance lock wasn't forced," Leo whispered as they climbed the stairs. "Her front door was wide open when my scout got here five minutes ago."
They reached the second-floor landing. The heavy oak door to Apartment 2B was standing open two inches.
Damian pushed the door inward with his gloved hand.
The interior was silent.
The apartment looked as though a silent, violent storm had passed through in a matter of seconds. An upholstered living room chair was overturned on its side. A hand-blown crystal vase lay shattered across the hardwood floor, surrounded by a puddle of stagnant water and scattered stems of white lilies.
Damian’s amber eyes narrowed as he looked at the flowers.
Less than six days ago, he had anonymously instructed a private florist in Manhattan to deliver those exact white lilies to her apartment after she had spent seventy-two hours straight managing a critical asset acquisition in London. It was a gesture he had never acknowledged to her face, a quiet secret between them.
He scanned the room.
Khloe’s leather handbag sat on the entryway console, untouched. Her diamond earrings lay on her nightstand visible through the bedroom door. Her private iPad sat on the dining table.
Whoever had taken her was not a common burglar. They hadn't touched a single item of value.
Damian walked toward the open kitchen. On the white marble edge of the island counter, a thin, dark red smear caught the light of the morning sun.
He knelt down, pressing a gloved finger to the dried mark. It was fresh blood.
"Run the building cameras," Damian commanded softly. "Every frame from 10:00 p.m. last night to 7:00 a.m. this morning."
Leo shook his head, holding up a black rugged tablet. "That’s the problem, Damian. I just pulled the cloud backups from our central server. Every security feed covering this block—her hallway, her alley, her street corner—was perfectly erased."
"Erased?"
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"Not jammed. Not looped," Leo said, a cold sweat breaking on his forehead. "Professional military-grade override. They hit the server at 6:42 a.m. and wiped a precise three-minute window. Three minutes was all they needed to walk up those stairs, overpower her, and clear out."
Damian stood up slowly. "They didn't guess where the camera blind spots were, Leo. They knew."
