Chapter 3 - Blood on the Marble
The penthouse was eerily silent.
Sebastian pushed me back into the elevator and held his finger over the "close door" button.
"Stay here," he ordered.
He stepped out, his weapon raised, sweeping the luxurious living room.
I ignored his command, creeping out just enough to see what was happening.
Lying in the center of the pristine white marble floor was a man in a tailored suit.
It was Elias, Sebastian's head of security, and he was completely motionless.
Sebastian knelt beside him, checking for a pulse that was no longer there.
"Elias is the only person who knew this address," Sebastian whispered.
"My entire organization is compromised."
He stood up, his gray eyes burning with a lethal fury.
"My grandfather owns the police, the judges, and now my inner circle," he said.
I looked down at my three children, who were blissfully unaware of the danger.
"We can't stay in your world, Sebastian," I said firmly.
"We have to go to mine."
He looked at me in surprise as I pressed the button for the basement garage.
I directed him to a rundown neighborhood in Queens.
We parked behind an abandoned laundromat and climbed three flights of rusted fire escape stairs.
I unlocked a small, heavily fortified apartment I had bought entirely with cash.
Sebastian looked around the cramped space, seeing the cheap toys and secondhand furniture.
"You lived like this for four years?" he asked, his voice cracking with guilt.
"I kept them safe," I replied fiercely.
I walked over to a loose floorboard and pulled out a small metal lockbox.
"I kept everything," I said, handing him the original letters his grandfather's men had intercepted.
Sebastian opened the envelope and stared at the signature on the rejection notice.
His face turned absolutely pale.
May you like
"This isn't my grandfather's signature," he whispered.
"This is my brother's handwriting."
