Chapter 4 - The Diary of Lies
Adrian kicked the wooden door with the flat of his boot, shattering the brass lock instantly.
The door flew open, revealing a room bathed in the eerie glow of dozens of computer monitors.
It was not a dusty storage room of past memories.
It was a state-of-the-art server farm, humming with heavy cooling fans.
Adrian stepped inside, his gun raised, scanning the shadows.
The room was completely empty of people, but the floor was slick with the blood he had seen in the hallway.
He followed the crimson trail to a large mahogany desk in the center of the room.
There was no body, only a blood-soaked ledger sitting open next to a keyboard.
Adrian holstered his weapon and picked up the heavy leather book.
The pages were filled with Claire’s elegant handwriting.
He began to read the entries, his blood turning to ice with every sentence.
The journal was not a record of a hostage suffering in captivity.
It was a meticulous ledger of weapons shipments, blackmail materials, and assassination orders.
Claire had not been hiding from his criminal empire.
She had been secretly running a rival syndicate from this very room for the last seven years.
Every major attack on Adrian’s businesses, every lost shipment, every murdered ally was detailed in her handwriting.
She had orchestrated the brutal death of his mentor three years ago.
Adrian staggered back, dropping the ledger onto the desk.
The video on the tablet had been a complete fabrication, a bait designed to lure him back to this house.
A soft click echoed behind him.
Adrian turned slowly.
David Vance was standing in the doorway, bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound to his shoulder.
The detective was holding his gun with his left hand, aiming it weakly at Adrian.
“She played us both, Vale,” David coughed, spitting blood onto the floor.
“She used me to fake her death, and she used your daughter to lure you into the kill zone.”
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Before Adrian could ask a single question, a red laser dot appeared on David’s forehead.
A suppressed sniper round shattered the window and blew through the back of David’s skull.
