Chapter 9 - THE BROTHER
Nathan arrived twenty minutes later.
He looked furious.
“This is insane.”
Ethan threw the tablet onto the table.
“Your credentials accessed the server.”
“My credentials were stolen.”
“By who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try harder.”
Nathan looked at me.
“I’m sorry about what happened.”
“Did you give Andrew those emails?”
“No.”
“Did you know him?”
Nathan hesitated.
Ethan saw it.
“Nathan.”
“We played golf.”
“When?”
“A few times.”
“With Mercer?”
Nathan went pale.
That was enough.
Ethan slammed his palm against the table.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing!”
“What did you do?”
Nathan snapped.
“I borrowed money!”
Silence.
“How much?” Ethan asked.
“Two million.”
I blinked.
“From Andrew?”
“From Mercer.”
Ethan stared at his brother like he didn’t recognize him.
Nathan ran a hand through his hair.
“I had a bad investment. I needed liquidity before the board meeting.”
“And Mercer helped you?”
“Yes.”
“For free?”
Nathan said nothing.
Ethan stepped closer.
“What did he want?”
“Information.”
My skin went cold.
“What information?”
“Foundation schedules. Internal hospital audits. Donor lists.”
Ethan looked ready to kill him.
“You gave a hospital executive confidential audits?”
“I didn’t know what he was covering.”
“You didn’t care.”
Nathan shouted back.
“I was trying not to lose everything!”
“You mean my money?”
Nathan flinched.
Then everything exploded at once.
Marcus’s phone rang.
He listened.
His face changed.
“What?”
He hung up.
“The hospital archive room is on fire.”
My stomach dropped.
“The complaints,” I said.
Marcus nodded.
“Physical personnel files were stored there.”
Andrew wasn’t just protecting his reputation.
He was destroying evidence.
Ethan grabbed his jacket.
“I’m going.”
“So am I.”
“No.”
I stared at him.
His expression immediately changed.
He knew what he had just done.
“Sorry,” he said.
“Good correction.”
We drove to the hospital.
Fire trucks surrounded the building.
Smoke poured from a lower floor.
Employees filled the sidewalk.
Then I saw someone across the street.
Charles Mercer.
He stood beneath an umbrella, watching the hospital burn.
Our eyes met.
He smiled.
Then he walked away.
“Ethan.”
He followed my gaze.
“That’s Mercer.”
We started toward him.
Suddenly, a black SUV tore around the corner.
Marcus shouted.
“MOVE!”
Ethan grabbed me and pulled me backward.
The SUV jumped the curb.
It missed us by inches.
Then slammed into a fire hydrant.
The driver’s door opened.
A man ran.
Marcus chased him.
Ethan held me against his chest.
For one second, everything was noise.
Water.
Sirens.
Shouting.
Then I looked inside the abandoned SUV.
On the passenger seat was a photograph.
Me.
Taken that morning.
May you like
And across my face, someone had written:
NEXT TIME, HE WON’T MISS.
