Chapter 9 - THE ATTACK
Gunfire shattered the windows.
“DOWN!”
Marcus slammed Damian behind the counter.
Anna covered Rosa with her body.
Another shot punched through the wall.
Glass exploded.
“Back exit!” Marcus shouted.
Damian grabbed Anna.
“We have to move.”
“I’m not leaving Rosa.”
“She dies if we all die.”
Rosa clutched Anna’s sleeve.
“Go.”
Anna shook her head.
“Rosa—”
“Go!”
Marcus fired toward the window.
Damian pulled Anna toward the hallway.
Outside, tires screamed.
Security returned fire.
They reached the back stairs.
A masked man came up from below.
Damian hit him first.
The man swung.
Damian took a punch to the jaw.
Anna grabbed a fire extinguisher.
“Move!”
Damian ducked.
She smashed the extinguisher into the attacker’s face.
He tumbled down three steps.
Damian stared at her.
“What?”
“You always hit people with fire extinguishers?”
“I’m discovering new things about myself.”
Even terrified, he almost laughed.
They escaped through the bakery and into an armored SUV.
Marcus followed thirty seconds later.
“Rosa?”
He shook his head.
Anna closed her eyes.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
She turned toward the apartment.
Police sirens approached.
“She saved me twice.”
Damian looked at her.
“She won’t be forgotten.”
Anna wiped her face.
Then her hand went to the inside pocket of her sweater.
She pulled out something small.
A key.
Damian stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“Rosa put it in my hand.”
Attached was a metal tag.
Damian breathed out.
“She had the key.”
“Which means Celeste didn’t get what she came for.”
By eight in the morning, Damian’s lawyers had arranged emergency access to the safe deposit box.
The bank manager looked like he wanted to ask a hundred questions.
Damian’s face told him not to.
Box 814 contained no money.
Only a black drive.
And one photograph.
Anna picked it up.
It showed Celeste standing beside Dr. Mercer outside a private airfield.
The date stamp was three days after Eliza’s crash.
Damian’s jaw tightened.
“Got you.”
They connected the drive to an isolated laptop.
Folders appeared.
Payments.
Medical records.
Security logs.
Recorded calls.
Then Marcus opened a folder labeled H.
Inside were dozens of photographs.
Damian stared.
Pictures of Eliza taken before the crash.
At restaurants.
At Oliver’s preschool.
Leaving the mansion.
Sleeping beside a hotel pool.
Someone had been following her for months.
Anna looked sick.
“Why?”
Marcus clicked another file.
A voice recording played.
Celeste.
Clear as day.
“If she disappears, Damian will fall apart. He’ll need someone. I’ll be there.”
A male voice answered.
“And the child?”
Celeste laughed softly.
“He’ll adjust.”
Anna’s chair scraped backward.
Damian felt murder enter his bloodstream.
But the recording continued.
The man asked, “And if Eliza remembers what she saw?”
Celeste answered with five words.
“She can’t remember if she’s dead.”
Damian reached for his phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
Marcus stopped him.
“Wait.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s another file.”
He clicked it.
A security video opened.
Eliza stood inside Damian’s private office two days before the crash.
She was secretly photographing documents.
Damian stared.
“What was she doing?”
Anna touched the screen.
“I remember.”
She looked at Damian.
“It wasn’t Celeste I was investigating.”
Damian’s face tightened.
May you like
Anna looked directly at him.
“It was your company.”
