Chapter 10 - The False Victory
The warehouse smelled of rust and old blood.
Derek was strapped to a metal chair in the center of the room.
His face was bruised and swollen from the beating Roman’s men had delivered.
He looked up as Harper walked into the room, flanked by Roman.
“Harper,” Derek choked out.
“Tell them to let me go.”
Roman stepped forward and drove his fist into Derek’s stomach.
Derek gagged, coughing violently.
“The biometric drive,” Roman demanded.
Derek spat blood onto the concrete floor.
“Left boot,” he wheezed.
“False heel.”
Roman knelt, ripped Derek’s boot off, and smashed the heel against the floor.
A small silver USB drive clattered onto the concrete.
Harper snatched it up and ran to a laptop Roman’s men had set up on a crate.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she accessed the offshore portal.
She inserted the drive, pressed her thumb against the scanner, and held her breath.
The screen flashed green.
“It’s done,” Harper gasped, executing the transfer of seventy million dollars.
She immediately dialed Davis on a fresh burner phone.
“The money is in the holding account,” she yelled.
“Let her go!”
“Look outside,” Davis replied before hanging up.
Harper ran to the rolling metal door and pushed it up.
A black car idled in the street.
The door opened, and Chloe was shoved out onto the pavement.
The car sped away into the night.
Harper rushed out, embracing her sister as they both collapsed onto the ground.
They were safe.
The nightmare was finally over.
Roman walked out of the warehouse, sliding his pistol back into his shoulder holster.
He reached into his pocket for a cigarette.
As his arm extended, the cuff of his charcoal suit pulled back slightly.
Exposed on his inner wrist was a faded tattoo of a black serpent eating a crown.
Harper froze, her breath catching in her throat.
It was the exact same tattoo she had seen on the man who murdered her father twenty years ago.
May you like
Roman had not saved her tonight.
He had been hunting her since the day she was born.
