Chapter 2 - The Fire in the CourtyardDust, smoke, and fine plaster rained down from the ceiling as the blast wave knocked me onto the bed.
"DOWN!" Adrian bellowed, throwing his heavy, broad frame over my body on the mattress, shielding me from the flying debris.
Through the haze of smoke filling the doorway, armed men in tactical gear poured into the corridor, firing automatic bursts into the room. Caleb Ross returned fire instantly, taking down two hitmen before dropping behind the heavy mahogany desk near the entrance.
Adrian rolled off the bed, firing three precise, deadly shots through the smoke that cleared the threshold.
"Caleb! Move her to the secondary elevator!" Adrian ordered, his baritone booming through the gunfire.
"I'm not leaving without answers!" I screamed, scrambling off the bed, clutching my black maid's apron as adrenaline surged through my veins.
From the hallway outside, a dark, raspy voice echoed through the gunsmoke—a voice that had haunted my nightmares for six long years.
"Elena!" Victor Vance taunted, stepping past his fallen hitmen. At fifty-two, my stepfather looked as cold and reptilian as ever, wearing a dark trench coat, his face scarred, holding a heavy revolver. "You ran all the way to Vegas just to become a maid for Adrian Vale? Your mother would be so disappointed!"
Adrian stepped out into the doorway, his weapon trained dead center on Victor’s chest.
"Victor," Adrian spoke, his voice dropping into a deadly, frozen register that stopped the gunfire in the hall. "You made a mistake breaking into my house."
"You lied to me for six years, Vale!" Victor spat, his eyes wild with greed and fury. "You told me the girl died in the accident, too! You hid her in Texas while you built her mother's inheritance into your casino empire!"
My stomach dropped into a cold, bottomless pit. "Inheritance...?"
"Your mother didn't marry me for love, Elena," Victor sneered, looking past Adrian at my pale face. "She was the sole heiress to the Carter Mining & Casino Trust—a four-hundred-million-dollar estate! And when she tried to hand the voting shares over to Adrian, I made sure her car went off that cliff!"
Adrian’s storm-gray eyes flashed with an apocalyptic rage.
"You pushed her off that cliff, Victor," Adrian whispered softly. "And tonight, you pay the interest."
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Adrian fired.
The bullet struck Victor flat in his shoulder, sending him staggering backward into his men as Caleb detonated a flashbang grenade in the corridor, blinding the remaining mercenaries in a flash of white light and thunder!
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