Chapter 2 - The Fall of the HeiressInside the warehouse, Evelyn Sterling straightened up, smoothing her designer coat, her diamond earrings catching the pale light of the single hanging bulb.
"It's really a pity, Nora," Evelyn said softly, stepping toward her two armed guards who stood near the entrance. "You were quite good at making his coffee. But Roman needs a woman of status by his side, not a charity case from Highlandtown who looks at him with soft eyes."
Evelyn turned to the lead guard—a former mercenary named Viktor. "Finish it. Make sure her body is weighed down before you toss her into the harbor channel."
"Understood, Miss Sterling," Viktor grunted, reaching into his jacket for a suppressed pistol.
BOOM!
The heavy steel door didn't just open—it was blown off its hinges by a hydraulic breaching charge, sending sharp metal splinters and a cloud of white dust billowing into the warehouse.
Before the smoke could clear, two suppressed gunshots echoed through the rafters.
THWIP-THWIP!
Viktor and his secondary guard dropped flat onto the wet concrete without making a sound, blood pooling around their heads.
Evelyn let out a high-pitched, hysterical shriek, stumbling backward, her high heels catching on a rusted pipe as she fell onto her hands and knees in the dirt.
Stepping through the ruined doorway, holding a custom black pistol at low-ready, his dark wool coat sweeping behind him like a funeral cloak, was Roman Calder.
The single bulb overhead cast long, jagged shadows across his severe features, making his gray eyes burn like silver fire in the dark.
Evelyn’s face turned an ugly, paper-white shade of green. She scrambled backward on her knees, clutching her pearl necklace, her eyes bulging in pure, unadulterated terror.
"R-Roman...?!" Evelyn gasped out, her voice cracking into a high, pathetic squeak. "How... how did you find this place?!"
Roman ignored her completely. He didn't even glance at the woman who had been his arranged fiancée for six months.
He walked past her, his heavy leather boots clicking sharply against the concrete, stopping right beside the shivering, broken body of Nora Hayes.
Nora slowly raised her swollen eyelids. Through the fog of dehydration and pain, she saw the dark silhouette towering above her.
"Mr... Calder...?" she whispered, her voice barely a thread.
Roman dropped to his knees in the filth. With incredible, gentle precision, his broad, calloused hands pulled a combat blade from his boot, slicing through the thick ropes binding her wrists and ankles in one swift motion.
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He reached down, lifting her frail, shivering body into his arms, pulling her tight against his broad chest.
"I'm here, Nora," Roman whispered near her ear, his deep baritone thick with an emotion no man in Baltimore had ever heard from him before. "I've got you."
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