Chapter 6 - The Hunt
The restaurant was swarming with firefighters and police within ten minutes.
Ethan refused medical attention.
His custom suit was ruined, covered in soot and ash.
His eyes were bloodshot, but they burned with a terrifying, lethal focus.
He had transformed from a broken ex-lover into the ruthless billionaire the magazines wrote about.
"Lock down a ten-block radius," Ethan barked into his cell phone.
He paced the alleyway like a caged tiger.
"I want every traffic camera, every ATM camera, every security feed sent to my head of security right now."
Hannah sat on the bumper of an ambulance, wrapped in a shock blanket.
She stared blankly at the ground, paralyzed by fear.
Richard sat beside her, his face pale and lined with exhaustion.
"We will find him, Hannah," Richard said softly. "My son will burn this city to the ground before he lets anyone harm that boy."
Ethan walked over to them.
He knelt in the dirt in front of Hannah.
"I promise you," Ethan said, his voice completely steady. "I will bring him back to you."
"Why did she take him?" Hannah whispered, her voice broken. "Why couldn't she just leave us alone?"
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
"Because she knows she’s going to prison for forgery and medical fraud."
He looked at his father.
"She didn't take him out of revenge. She took him for leverage."
Suddenly, the burner phone Victoria had dropped in the restaurant rang from the evidence bag nearby.
A police officer handed it to Ethan.
Ethan answered and put it on speakerphone.
"Victoria," Ethan snarled. "If you touch one hair on his head—"
A harsh, mechanical laugh interrupted him.
It wasn't Victoria.
The voice was distorted, modulated heavily by a computer program.
"Victoria is currently indisposed," the robotic voice said.
Ethan’s blood ran cold.
Hannah gasped and grabbed Ethan’s arm.
"If you want to see your newfound heir alive," the distorted voice continued.
"What do you want?" Ethan demanded.
"I want everything," the voice replied. "I want your entire fifty-one percent controlling stake in Blackwood Holdings transferred to my offshore trust by midnight."
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"Done," Ethan said instantly.
"Don't be so quick to agree, Ethan," the voice mocked. "Because once you sign the papers, you’re going to have to choose who lives: your son, or the woman who broke your heart."
