Chapter 2 - The Audit of the DocksThe service elevator opened directly into the subterranean private parking bay beneath the Grand Meridian Hotel.
Waiting in the shadows was a sleek, armor-plated midnight-black Maybach sedan. The rear door was thrown open by Marcus Vance—Victor's chief security director, a broad-shouldered man carrying a tactical rifle.
"Boss!" Marcus gasped, his eyes widening as he saw Victor covered in blood, accompanied by a woman wearing only a blouse and dark trousers. "The hit squad was led by Julian Vance! They compromised the hotel's third-floor security grid!"
"Julian moves fast when he smells blood," Victor replied smoothly, sliding into the leather rear seat, pulling me inside beside him before Marcus slammed the heavy door shut.
The Maybach roared out of the subterranean garage, accelerating into the rainy, neon-lit streets of downtown Chicago.
I pulled a leather throw blanket over my shoulders, shivering as the adrenaline crash hit my body. "Who is Julian Vance?" I asked, looking at Victor as Marcus handed him a medical trauma kit from the glove compartment.
Victor opened the kit, expertly applying antiseptic wipes and a heavy pressure bandage to his ribs without flinching.
"Julian Vance is my stepbrother," Victor revealed, his baritone cold and flat as glass. "And the junior chairman of Castle Maritime. For three years, he has been secretly selling shipping terminal access to foreign cartels through our East Coast ports. He knew I was compiling the final forensic audit tonight."
"The audit you were reviewing in room 4201," I realized, the pieces finally coming together.
"Room 4201 was where Julian's team left the decoy file," Victor explained, looking directly into my eyes. "You didn't make an exhausted mistake by picking the wrong floor, Hazel. Julian's men altered the room assignment log on your event coordinator tablet to ensure a staff member opened the door and triggered the security lockout."
My stomach dropped into an icy abyss. "I was used as a distraction...?"
"You were brought up to be collateral damage," Victor corrected, his storm-gray eyes burning with a terrifying, absolute fury that dropped the car's temperature to freezing. "Julian wanted a civilian body found in the room to make my death look like a botched robbery."
He reached out, his warm, calloused fingers gently catching my jaw, lifting my face so I was forced to meet his gaze.
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"Ma'am," Victor murmured, his voice thick with a sudden, fiercely protective authority. "Nobody uses an innocent woman as target practice in my city. Tonight, Julian Vance loses everything he built."
He turned to Marcus. "Call legal counsel Bridget Colton. Convene the emergency board meeting at Castle Tower at 11:00 PM. And bring Miss Brooks's boss from Luminara Events into the holding suite."
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