CHAPTER 8 – THE SHOT
CHAPTER 8 – THE SHOT
Khloe did not feel the bullet.
She felt Marcus strike her from the side.
They fell together behind a steel cabinet.
The bullet hit the wall where she had been standing.
Adrian fired once.
Victor’s gun flew from his hand.
Detective Morales and the security officers moved instantly, forcing the armed men to the floor.
Isabella grabbed the silver flash drive and ran toward a maintenance passage at the rear of the archive.
Eleanor shouted, “There’s another exit!”
Marcus looked at Khloe.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
Then pain tightened across her abdomen.
Her face changed.
Marcus saw it.
“What is it?”
“The baby.”
The physician rushed toward her.
Another contraction followed.
Too strong.
Too soon.
“We need to return to the hospital,” the physician said.
“The exit is locked,” Adrian replied.
Eleanor moved toward the archive wall.
“William built a tunnel beneath the old wine cellar.”
She pressed a concealed switch.
A narrow panel opened.
Isabella had already disappeared through it.
Marcus lifted Khloe into his arms.
Adrian ordered two officers to pursue Isabella while the others secured Victor.
They moved through the tunnel.
Khloe clung to Marcus, breathing through the pain.
“Don’t let her escape.”
“I care about you, not her.”
“She has the drive.”
“The evidence already transmitted.”
“You don’t know what else is on it.”
The tunnel opened beneath the estate’s greenhouse.
Rain hammered the glass ceiling.
An engine roared outside.
Isabella was driving away in a black SUV.
Adrian’s officers fired at the tires but missed.
Marcus carried Khloe toward the waiting ambulance.
As the doors closed, Eleanor approached.
“Marcus.”
He looked at her.
She held a second flash drive.
“Where did you get that?”
“William never trusted a single copy.”
Marcus took it.
“What is on it?”
“The truth about the company.”
“Then give it to the police.”
“I will.”
Eleanor looked at Khloe.
“There may be something else.”
“What?”
“Evidence that William changed the Thorne trust before he died.”
Marcus frowned.
“Changed it how?”
Eleanor did not answer.
The ambulance doors closed.
Inside, Khloe’s contractions intensified.
The physician checked the monitor.
“We may not reach the hospital before delivery begins.”
Marcus held Khloe’s hand.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“You and the baby will survive.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“I can promise I won’t leave.”
Khloe’s eyes filled with tears.
“You already left.”
Marcus lowered his head.
She was not talking about the ambulance.
She was talking about the months before the gala.
The dinners he missed.
The calls he ignored.
The doubts he allowed Isabella to create.
“I know,” he said.
“I don’t know whether I can forgive you.”
“You don’t have to decide now.”
The ambulance accelerated.
Behind them, Adrian received a call from federal investigators.
The archive transmission had reached six government agencies.
The files named judges, bankers, corporate executives and politicians.
But the largest account belonged to a company that no longer existed.
Rossi Strategic Holdings.
Victor Rossi had stolen billions.
And someone inside Thorne Group had helped him.
Adrian opened the list of authorized signatories.
May you like
The second name stopped him.
Eleanor Thorne.
