Chapter 5 - The Leverage
The shrill ringing echoed like a siren in the small, dark box.
Leo reached past her and pulled the heavy red receiver from the wall.
“Speak.”
Tessa leaned closer, her ear practically pressed against the plastic receiver to hear.
It was Greg.
“I told you I was coming, Leo.”
Greg’s voice was infuriatingly calm, lacking any of the fake warmth he had used at the coffee shop.
“You are trapped in a dead steel box, Gregory, you have nothing.”
“I have something she wants.”
A new sound came through the speaker.
It was the rhythmic, mechanical beeping of a hospital heart monitor.
Tessa’s blood ran entirely cold.
“Dad?”
She whispered the word into the dark.
“Hello, Tessa,” Greg said smoothly.
“I am sitting in your father’s room at the care facility right now.”
Tessa grabbed Leo’s arm, her fingernails digging into his skin.
“Don't hurt him, Greg, please!”
“That is entirely up to your boss.”
Greg's tone turned lethal.
“Open the elevator, Leo, and hand her over to me.”
“Or what?”
“Or I turn off her father’s life support.”
Leo did not hesitate for even a fraction of a second.
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“He is an old man who has already lived too long.”
Leo slammed the phone back onto the receiver, disconnecting the call.
