Chapter 7 - Victor Dane
I spun.
Victor Dane stood ten feet away.
Not on a screen.
Not in a photograph.
In front of me.
Two men flanked him.
Armed.
Daniel backed away.
"Victor."
Victor barely looked at him.
His eyes stayed on me.
"My daughter."
"Don't call me that."
A faint smile.
"You have your mother's temper."
"Where are my children?"
"Safe."
"You seem to enjoy that word."
He nodded toward my uniform pin.
"The eagle."
I didn't move.
Victor sighed.
"Your mother always made simple things difficult."
"You mean refusing to let you steal from her?"
His smile disappeared.
Good.
Behind the field, tactical officers would be watching.
Unless Victor had somehow disrupted communications.
I needed time.
"You paid Daniel to marry me?"
Daniel snapped, "That's not—"
Victor lifted one hand.
Daniel stopped.
That told me everything about their relationship.
Victor said, "I paid him to get close to you."
My throat tightened.
"And he did."
"Very effectively."
Daniel looked ashamed.
Not enough.
Victor continued.
"Then he developed feelings. Very inconvenient."
I looked at Daniel.
"Is that true?"
He didn't answer.
Victor laughed.
"He did love you, eventually. That's what made him useless."
I hated that those words hurt.
Even after everything.
"He came back to you four months ago," I said.
"Because he needed money."
Daniel clenched his jaw.
Victor looked amused.
"Real-estate investments. Bad debt. A mistress with expensive tastes."
Lauren hadn't known half of it.
Maybe none.
Victor held out his hand.
"The eagle."
"Children first."
"You negotiate like Eleanor."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
He studied me.
"She taught you well without ever teaching you."
My pulse hammered.
"Why Vale Tower?"
"Because your mother buried a twenty-five-year-old secret there."
"The ledger."
"Not merely a ledger."
"What else?"
Victor's expression shifted.
Greed.
Real greed.
"Ownership."
Thomas had said private companies and anonymous investors.
I understood.
"The tower isn't all Arthur left me."
Victor smiled.
"Now you're thinking."
"Who owns Vale Holdings?"
"You do."
I stared.
He laughed.
"Not twenty-four million, Evelyn. That's pocket change."
Daniel's head snapped toward him.
Victor enjoyed that.
"Through your mother's trust, you control interests worth approximately 1.3 billion dollars."
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Daniel whispered, "You said..."
Victor glanced at him.
"I told you what you needed to hear."
Daniel's face transformed.
He had destroyed his marriage over wealth he never truly understood.
Victor reached toward my pin.
"That key unlocks the master records."
I stepped back.
"What happens after I give it to you?"
"You get your children."
"And my mother?"
His eyes hardened.
"Eleanor and I settle old business."
"No."
"Then we all remain here."
A distant cracking sound.
One of Victor's guards turned.
Gunfire erupted.
Not toward me.
A tactical team moved from the tree line.
Victor grabbed my arm and pulled me behind the wall.
Daniel tackled one guard.
The second fled.
I drove my heel into Victor's knee.
He released me.
I struck his wrist.
His handgun dropped.
Samuel appeared over the stone wall with officers.
"Down!"
Victor raised both hands.
Daniel lay face-down nearby.
For one wild second, I thought it was over.
Then Victor laughed.
"Arrest me."
Samuel approached.
"Gladly."
Victor looked at me.
"You still don't have your children."
My blood went cold.
Police searched him.
No live phone.
No location.
Victor smiled.
"The video was delayed."
I lunged.
Samuel caught me.
"Where are they?"
Victor said nothing.
I wanted to hurt him.
My mother arrived with Thomas and officers minutes later.
The second Victor saw Eleanor, something changed in his face.
Not love.
Possession.
"Eleanor."
Mom stared at him.
"You're old."
Thomas actually laughed.
Victor didn't.
Mom approached.
"Where are my grandchildren?"
"Give me the key."
She looked at my pin.
Then at me.
"That's not the key."
Victor's expression broke.
"What?"
Mom removed her necklace.
A tiny silver eagle hung from it.
"This is."
I stared.
"You said mine—"
"I needed Victor to believe it."
He erupted.
"You lying—"
Officers restrained him.
Mom held up the necklace.
"Arthur changed the system."
Victor fought uselessly.
"Where are the children?"
He laughed.
"You'll never find them."
Mom looked almost bored.
"Then you don't know Arthur."
She pressed the eagle's wing.
A tiny USB connector slid out.
Thomas whispered, "Jesus."
Samuel plugged it into a secure tablet.
A map appeared.
One blinking marker.
Miriam stared.
"Tracking beacon?"
Mom nodded.
"The master file tracks every authorized access device linked to the trust."
Samuel enlarged the location.
A warehouse district.
Thirty-eight miles away.
I was already moving.
Then the marker changed.
One dot became two.
Then three.
Samuel frowned.
"That's impossible."
Mom's face drained.
"No."
"What?"
She pointed.
"Those aren't devices."
"What are they?"
Her voice dropped.
"They're access attempts."
One from the warehouse.
One from Vale Tower.
And one from inside my house.
Someone else was searching for the master records.
Someone who had access to my home.
Dad called at that exact moment.
I answered.
"Evelyn."
His voice was barely a whisper.
"There's someone upstairs."
Then I heard a door open.
Dad stopped breathing.
A woman's voice said:
May you like
"Robert, you should've stayed out of this."
The call went dead.
