Chapter 6 - The Hostage
Evelyn slowly opened her eyes.
The world was spinning, and the harsh smell of gasoline filled the air.
She was hanging upside down, secured by her seatbelt.
Her first instinct was to grab her stomach.
The baby was kicking furiously, a comforting sign that they had survived the crash.
She looked over at the driver's seat.
Caleb was slumped against the steering wheel, completely unconscious, blood dripping from a gash on his forehead.
“Caleb!” she screamed, struggling to unbuckle her belt.
Before she could free herself, the shattered window of the SUV was ripped away completely.
A man wearing a tactical mask reached inside and grabbed her by the arm.
He dragged her out of the wreckage, ignoring her kicks and screams.
Two more masked men pulled Caleb from the front seat, tossing his unconscious body onto the wet pavement.
Evelyn was thrown roughly into the back of a waiting black van.
The doors slammed shut, plunging her into total darkness.
The van sped away, leaving Caleb bleeding on the bridge.
“Where are you taking me?” Evelyn demanded, struggling against the zip-ties they had placed on her wrists.
No one answered.
The drive lasted for hours.
When the doors finally opened, she was blinded by the morning sun.
They dragged her out of the van and pushed her toward a rusted, abandoned lighthouse sitting on a desolate, rocky cliff.
The Atlantic Ocean crashed violently against the jagged rocks below.
They dragged her up the spiraling metal stairs to the top of the lighthouse.
A wooden platform had been bolted to the side of the structure, suspended terrifyingly high above the deadly rocks.
They tied her roughly to a wooden post on the platform.
A few minutes later, another van pulled up to the lighthouse.
The mercenaries dragged a second woman out of the vehicle and hauled her up the stairs.
It was Vanessa.
They tied her to a second platform, directly across from Evelyn.
Vanessa was sobbing hysterically, completely terrified.
“What is going on?” Vanessa screamed.
“Why am I here?”
Evelyn looked at her adopted sister with cold indifference.
“Karma, Vanessa.”
A man wearing a black mask stepped out onto the balcony between them.
He held a massive steel lever mechanism that connected to both wooden platforms.
He set up a laptop and a camera, pointing the lens directly at Evelyn and Vanessa.
“What do you want?” Evelyn demanded, refusing to show fear.
The masked man smiled, his eyes cold and dead.
“I want the ledger, Evelyn.”
“I know you have the key.”
“But only you know the biometric password to open the vault in Geneva.”
Evelyn froze.
He wasn't working for her father.
He wasn't working for Dominic.
He was a third party, trying to steal the empire's secrets for himself.
The masked man typed something on the laptop.
A live video feed flickered to life.
Dominic Moretti appeared on the screen, looking absolutely frantic, sitting in his private office.
“Dominic!” Vanessa screamed.
Dominic’s eyes instantly locked onto Evelyn, ignoring Vanessa completely.
“Evelyn,” he breathed, his voice cracking with emotion.
“Are you hurt?”
The masked man stepped in front of the camera.
“Your adopted sister-in-law knows who ordered the death of your son, Dominic.”
Evelyn’s blood ran cold.
Her son.
The baby she had lost years ago, long before she married Dominic.
The baby Dominic believed had died of natural causes.
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“Save Vanessa, and she gives you the evidence,” the masked man continued smoothly.
“Save your wife, and the evidence disappears forever.”
