Chapter 2 - The Calling Card
Vincent stared at the dark street ahead of him.
The rain soaked his expensive suit, but he did not feel the cold.
“Who is this?” Vincent asked softly.
The mechanical voice let out a distorted chuckle.
“Just a ghost from your father's past.”
“You have one hour, Vincent.”
The line went dead.
Vincent shoved the phone into his pocket and signaled his driver, who was idling in a black armored SUV across the street.
The vehicle pulled up immediately.
Vincent opened the back door and lifted Emma inside.
“Is Mommy at the docks?” Emma asked, clutching her stuffed rabbit.
Vincent did not lie to her.
“I don't know yet, Emma.”
He slid into the seat beside her and looked at his driver, Marcus.
“Take us to the secure penthouse.”
Marcus nodded and floored the accelerator.
Vincent pulled out his primary phone and dialed his second-in-command, a ruthless enforcer named Thomas.
“I have a situation,” Vincent said when Thomas answered.
“Someone grabbed a civilian named Claire Bennett.”
“They are using her as bait to pull me out.”
Thomas swore over the line.
“Who is stupid enough to hit you through a blind date?”
“Find out,” Vincent ordered.
“And send a heavily armed detail to my penthouse.”
“I have a package that needs absolute protection.”
Twenty minutes later, the SUV pulled into the underground garage of a luxury high-rise.
Vincent escorted Emma up the private elevator.
He unlocked the massive steel door of his safehouse.
It was a beautiful, sterile apartment that overlooked the glittering skyline of New York.
“Emma, you are going to stay here with Marcus,” Vincent said, kneeling down to her eye level.
“He is going to protect you while I go get your mother.”
Emma’s bottom lip trembled.
“Are you going to hurt the bad men?”
Vincent looked into her innocent gray eyes.
“Yes.”
He stood up, loaded a fresh magazine into his pistol, and walked back to the elevator.
When the doors opened in the basement garage, Vincent stepped out.
He stopped dead in his tracks.
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Marcus's armored SUV was completely engulfed in flames.
And standing in the center of the burning garage were six men wearing tactical masks and holding assault rifles.
