Chapter 2 - The Vanguard Threat
I stared at the bloody hunting knife driven deep into the plaster of the wall.
Someone had been inside my heavily fortified mansion while I was sitting just down the hall.
I handed Grace back to her terrified mother.
"Do not move from this spot," I commanded Hannah.
I walked into the destroyed room and pulled the knife from the wall.
The pristine white envelope fluttered down into my waiting hand.
I opened the seal and pulled out a single sheet of heavy black paper.
The message was written in elegant, silver ink.
"We know about the heir, Leo," the note read.
"Sign the Vanguard merger by midnight, or the little girl joins her father."
My blood ran completely cold as I recognized the emblem embossed at the bottom of the page.
It was the official crest of Vanguard Enterprises.
Vanguard was the exact same company offering me the sixty-million-dollar deal currently sitting on my desk.
They were not just trying to buy out my shipping empire.
They were the ones who murdered my brother eighteen months ago.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed my head of security.
"Vincent, initiate a full lockdown of the estate immediately," I barked into the receiver.
"Seal the gates and bring every armed guard to the east wing."
Within sixty seconds, the blaring sound of the security alarms echoed through the marble halls.
Vincent arrived with three heavily armed men, his expression grim and professional.
"What happened here, boss?" Vincent asked, scanning the destroyed bedroom.
"Someone bypassed our perimeter and left a threat against my family," I explained.
I watched Vincent's face carefully for any sign of deception.
He had designed this security system himself, and it was supposed to be completely impenetrable.
"I need you to pull the surveillance footage for this hallway," I ordered him.
"We are going to find out exactly who let the Vanguard syndicate into my home."
Vincent nodded sharply and pulled a portable security tablet from his tactical vest.
His fingers flew across the screen as he accessed the internal camera network.
Hannah stood shivering in the corner, clutching her daughter tightly to her chest.
"Mr. Caruso, Julian warned me that Vanguard had eyes everywhere," Hannah whispered.
"He said he faked his death because the syndicate had infiltrated your inner circle."
I turned to look at her in absolute shock.
"Julian faked his death?" I asked, my mind struggling to process the impossible truth.
"There was no car accident," Hannah confirmed through her tears.
"He went into hiding to find the mole, but Vanguard caught him before he could warn you."
Vincent suddenly cursed loudly, interrupting our desperate conversation.
"The footage from the last hour has been completely wiped from the server," Vincent announced.
"Someone used an executive override code to delete the files."
There were only two people in the world who possessed that specific executive code.
One was me.
The other was my beautiful fiancée, Elena, who was the lead negotiator for Vanguard Enterprises.
Before I could even process this horrific betrayal, the heavy oak doors at the end of the hallway swung open.
Elena walked in wearing a stunning red designer dress, flanked by four men I had never seen before.
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She looked at the terrified baby in Hannah's arms and smiled with absolute, chilling malice.
"It looks like you found the little secret, Leo," Elena said smoothly, drawing a suppressed pistol from her designer handbag.
