Chapter 1
The first thing I heard was the rope creaking above my sister’s head. The second was her husband laughing as if her pain were entertainment.
Elena hung beneath a cracked ceiling beam, wrists tied high, bare feet inches above a floor buried in moldy papers. Bruises darkened her legs. Silver tape covered her mouth. Across the room, Victor Hale leaned against a broken desk in an expensive coat, smiling like a man who believed the night belonged to him.
“She belongs to me,” he said.
I removed my gloves slowly. Behind me stood three men in black, silent and still.
“No,” I replied. “She’s my blood.”
Victor’s smile widened. He had known me years earlier as Adrian Moretti, the quiet older brother who disappeared after our father’s funeral. Elena had protected my secret, telling everyone I ran a shipping business overseas. Victor saw a harmless businessman with polished shoes and no stomach for violence.
He had made the same mistake with her.
For two years, he isolated Elena from friends, controlled her bank accounts, and blamed every bruise on her “clumsiness.” When she threatened to leave, he stole documents from her charity foundation and used them to hide money from his construction empire. Tonight, she had discovered enough evidence to destroy him. So he dragged her to this abandoned property and demanded the password to her encrypted drive.
Victor stepped closer. “Tell your men to leave. Sign over Elena’s foundation, and perhaps I’ll let both of you walk.”
Elena’s eyes found mine. Fear trembled there, but beneath it was trust.
I glanced at the small camera hidden inside my coat button. Everything was being transmitted to a secure server, including Victor’s confession, the armed men in the next room, and the bruises on my sister’s body.
“What makes you think I came to negotiate?” I asked.
Victor snapped his fingers. Two guards appeared with pistols.
My men did not move.
Victor laughed. “You are outnumbered.”
“Only in this room.”
For the first time, his expression shifted.
I raised one hand, not to attack, but to signal the emergency medical team waiting two buildings away. Then I looked at Elena.
May you like
“Close your eyes, little star.”
The lights died.
