Chapter 1 - The Predator's Game
Clara stopped breathing. The glowing name on the darkened screen—Victoria Sterling—felt like a physical blow to her chest. She had thrown herself out of one monster’s cage directly into the jaws of another.
Alexander Croft did not blink. He did not frantically explain himself or hide the phone. He simply held her terrified gaze as the heavy SUV behind them accelerated, its high beams flooding the charcoal sedan’s cabin with harsh, blinding light.
"She called you," Clara whispered, her voice cracking. "You're one of them."
"If I were one of them," Alexander replied, his voice a low, unbothered rumble over the sound of the rain, "I would have instructed my driver to stop and hand you over to those men. I did not."
The SUV rammed into their rear bumper. Clara cried out, instinctively curling into a ball.
Alexander’s expression shifted from calm to lethal. He pressed a button on the center console. "Evasive, Marcus. Lose them. Then disable their vehicle."
"Yes, Mr. Croft," the driver replied smoothly.
The sedan surged forward with terrifying, unnatural speed, its twin-turbo engine roaring to life. The driver took a sharp, sliding turn onto a narrow, unpaved logging road. The heavy SUV attempted to follow, but it lacked the precision of Alexander’s custom-built car. As the SUV careened around the bend, Marcus deployed a localized spike strip from the sedan’s rear chassis.
A loud series of pops echoed through the storm, followed by the screech of metal grinding against asphalt. Clara looked out the back window and watched the SUV skid wildly into a muddy ditch, its tires shredded, entirely incapacitated.
Alexander picked up his phone, wiping a droplet of rainwater from the screen. "Victoria Sterling called me because I am in the process of acquiring her most valuable shipping ports. She was calling to beg for a grace period on her loans. I declined." He turned to look at Clara, his dark eyes analyzing every inch of her battered, shivering form. "She did not mention she was attempting to traffic her own stepdaughter to clear her debts."
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Clara gripped his coat tighter around her shoulders. "Are you going to take me back to her?"
"No," Alexander said simply. "Victoria Sterling is a parasite. And you, Miss Sterling, are the key to destroying her entirely."
