Chapter 15 - THE NIGHT ELENA DISAPPEARED|
Elena finished her shift at midnight.
She had refused Adrian's offer to send a driver, choosing instead to walk to the subway station with two coworkers. The streets were slick with rain, and the city smelled of wet pavement and exhaust.
At the corner, her coworkers said goodbye.
Elena turned toward the station.
A woman in a gray coat approached her, holding a phone.
“Excuse me. Are you a nurse?”
Elena stopped.
“Yes?”
“My brother was hurt. Someone told me you might know how to help.”
The woman looked frightened enough to be convincing.
Elena took one step closer.
“Where is he?”
The woman pointed toward a parked car.
A man's voice spoke behind Elena.
“Right here.”
A hand covered her mouth.
She fought, striking backward with her elbow, but another person seized her arms. A sharp chemical smell filled her nose. The streetlights blurred.
Her last clear thought was of the ring.
She twisted her hand, trying to protect it.
Then darkness swallowed everything.
When Adrian arrived at the clinic forty minutes later, Elena was gone.
Her locker was open. Her phone lay broken beneath a bench. A security camera had been turned toward the wall.
Adrian watched the footage from the street.
He saw the gray-coated woman approach, the men surround Elena, and the car pull away.
“Find the vehicle,” he ordered.
Dominic was already making calls.
Within an hour, they traced the car to an abandoned warehouse in Queens. The vehicle had been wiped clean, but a security camera across the street captured a second car following it.
The registration led to a company linked to Vincent.
Adrian stared at the image.
“Where is he?”
“No one knows,” Dominic replied. “His apartment is empty. His private jet has been moved.”
Adrian's phone rang.
An unfamiliar number.
He answered.
Vincent's voice filled the line.
“You should have stayed out of my business.”
“Where is Elena?”
“Alive. For now.”
“If you touch her—”
“You'll do what? Expose me? You already did that. The council has suspended me, and investigators are asking questions. You have taken away everything I spent forty years building.”
“You built it on murder.”
“I built it on survival.”
Adrian closed his eyes, forcing himself to remain calm.
“What do you want?”
“The ledger. The original recording. And the ring.”
“Let her go, and we can discuss terms.”
Vincent laughed.
“You still negotiate as though we're equals.”
A faint sound came through the phone.
Elena's voice.
“Adrian, don't give him anything!”
A slap cracked through the line.
Adrian's blood turned cold.
“Vincent.”
“Bring me what I asked for. Tomorrow night. The old river terminal. Come alone.”
“If you hurt her, there will be nowhere on earth you can hide.”
Vincent disconnected.
Adrian lowered the phone.
Dominic watched him.
“We can storm the terminal.”
“No. He'll move her the moment he sees us.”
“Then what do we do?”
Adrian looked at the ring's photograph on his screen.
“We give him what he thinks he wants.”
“And Elena?”
May you like
Adrian's voice became dangerously quiet.
“We bring her home.”
