Chapter 2 - The Getaway
The rain hit Clara's bare shoulders the moment they stepped out of the Grand Meridian.
She barely felt the freezing December wind.
Her mind was completely paralyzed by the word prison.
A sleek, black armored SUV idled at the curb.
One of Adriano's men immediately opened the back door.
Adriano gestured for her to get inside.
Clara hesitated, clutching her small evening bag to her chest.
"What do you mean by what I signed?" she demanded, her voice shaking.
"Get in the car, Clara."
"I am not getting into a vehicle with a stranger until you tell me what you know."
Adriano sighed, glancing up and down the wet Manhattan street.
"You are not a stranger to me."
"I know you live on East 73rd Street."
"I know you take your coffee black."
"And I know that for the past six months, Martin Hale has been using your digital signature to authorize transfers from a shadow account."
Clara's knees nearly gave out.
The shadow accounts.
Martin had told her those were highly classified off-shore investments for their elite clients.
He had demanded she handle the paperwork exclusively.
"He told me those were legal blind trusts," she whispered.
Adriano's lips curled into a grim, humorless smile.
"They were money laundering funnels."
"And the money he was laundering belonged to my family."
Clara felt the breath leave her lungs.
Martin hadn't just committed corporate fraud.
He had stolen from the mafia.
And he had framed her for it.
"Get in the car," Adriano repeated softly.
"Because my men are not the only ones watching you right now."
Clara turned her head sharply.
Across the street, parked under a broken streetlight, a dark sedan sat with its headlights off.
A man in the driver's seat was pointing a camera with a massive telephoto lens directly at them.
May you like
Before she could scream, a deafening crack shattered the night air.
The window of the SUV right next to Clara's head exploded into a million pieces.
