Chapter 7 - The Ghost
The mysterious shooter stepped completely into the dim moonlight filtering through the stormy, dark canopy.
He was a tall, heavily scarred man wearing a thick leather jacket and holding a smoking, suppressed pistol.
David kept his weapon aimed directly at the stranger through the wooden floorboards, entirely unwilling to trust anyone.
"You can lower the gun, David, I am absolutely not here to hurt you or your daughter," the man called out loudly.
The voice was deeply raspy and completely unfamiliar, yet it carried an strange tone of undeniable authority.
David slowly opened the wooden trapdoor and climbed carefully down the slippery ladder, keeping his gun raised.
He ordered Sophie to stay completely hidden inside the blind until he was absolutely certain they were safe.
"Who exactly are you, and why did you just save our lives?" David demanded, his finger resting heavily on the trigger.
The scarred man calmly holstered his weapon and raised his hands to show he was no longer a threat.
"My name is Richard, and I am the man your beautiful wife supposedly murdered five years ago," he revealed quietly.
David felt the entire world violently spin around him as he stared at the supposed ghost standing in the mud.
Richard explained that he had barely survived Vanessa's incredibly lethal poisoning attempt by escaping his own yacht.
He had lived entirely in the shadows for years, meticulously gathering hard evidence to completely destroy her criminal network.
"She is not just a greedy gold-digger, David, she is a highly trained operative for a massive corporate syndicate," Richard explained.
He revealed that Vanessa had been specifically assigned to target David's massive tech empire from the very beginning.
"We absolutely have to team up if we want to survive this night and put her behind bars forever," Richard offered.
David slowly lowered his weapon, incredibly relieved to finally have a highly capable ally in this terrifying nightmare.
He agreed to the partnership, turning his back for a brief second to call Sophie down from the hunting blind.
The unmistakable, highly terrifying sound of a heavy pistol cocking loudly echoed directly behind David's head.
David froze completely, entirely realizing he had made a massive, potentially fatal mistake in trusting the stranger.
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"I actually need you to hand over that silver flash drive right now, David," Richard demanded with a cold, ruthless tone.
Richard revealed that the illegal bank transfers on the drive actually incriminated him in a massive fraud scheme as well.
