Chapter 3 - The Brother Nobody Mentioned
The countdown continued.
Nine minutes.
Fifty-two seconds.
Olivia stared at Derek.
“Why would your brother want you dead?”
Derek looked toward the camera.
“Because I tried to destroy him.”
Mason laughed without humor.
“That’s convenient.”
Derek ignored him.
He moved toward Caleb and checked the injured guard’s pulse.
“He’s alive.”
Olivia pulled a linen napkin from the bar and pressed it against Caleb’s shoulder.
Mason stood beside her.
“Tell us everything.”
Derek said nothing.
Mason grabbed his jacket.
“This is not your private game anymore.”
Derek looked at Mason’s hand.
“Take your hand off me.”
Mason did not move.
Olivia rose.
“Stop.”
Both men turned toward her.
She was tired of watching them compete.
Tired of being treated like a secret to be managed.
“If we have nine minutes before somebody locks this place down, then we don’t have time for either of you to prove anything.”
Mason released Derek.
Olivia looked directly at Derek.
“Who is Adrian?”
Derek walked toward the bar.
He poured water into a glass.
His hand trembled slightly.
“Adrian is my older brother.”
“You told me you were an only child.”
“I lied.”
“That part is obvious.”
Derek drank.
“Our father built Vaughn Strategic Holdings.”
Mason frowned.
“The investment firm?”
“That’s what the public sees.”
Olivia remembered Derek’s endless closed-door meetings.
The private flights.
The political donors.
The men who never gave last names.
“What’s underneath it?”
Derek stared at the floor.
“A financial network.”
“For what?”
“For anything people were willing to pay to hide.”
Olivia’s stomach turned.
Mason asked, “Money laundering?”
“Sometimes.”
“Blackmail?”
Derek did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Olivia stepped backward.
“You knew.”
Derek looked at her.
“I inherited it.”
“You stayed.”
“At first.”
The countdown showed eight minutes.
Derek continued.
“Adrian believed the network was the only thing that mattered.”
“And you?”
“I believed we could turn the company legitimate.”
Mason scoffed.
“You expect us to believe you developed a conscience?”
“No.”
Derek looked at Olivia.
“I developed something to lose.”
Olivia’s expression hardened.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
She knew what he was about to say.
That she had changed him.
That he had done terrible things because he loved her.
She had heard versions of that excuse before.
She refused to hear it now.
Mason looked at the drive.
“So Adrian wants the files because they expose the network.”
“Yes.”
“And why does Olivia have them?”
Derek looked at her.
“Because she found my private ledger.”
Olivia shook her head.
“I found a flash drive.”
“You found the ledger first.”
She remembered.
A black notebook in Derek’s office.
Names.
Dates.
Numbers.
She had thought it was business accounting.
Then she found a photograph tucked between the pages.
A young woman standing beside a car.
A red circle had been drawn around her face.
Two days later, Olivia saw the same woman on the news.
Missing.
She had confronted Derek.
He had told her the book belonged to a client.
She had pretended to believe him.
From that night forward, she had started looking.
The countdown showed seven minutes.
Mason asked, “Why didn’t you go to the police?”
Olivia looked at him.
“I tried.”
Derek’s eyes dropped.
Mason noticed.
“What happened?”
Olivia replied, “The detective I spoke to called Derek twenty minutes later.”
Mason stared at Derek.
Derek did not deny it.
Olivia continued.
“He came home before midnight.”
She could still remember his expression.
Not angry.
Worse.
Disappointed.
He had sat across from her at the kitchen table and asked why she had embarrassed him.
He had taken her phone.
Her car keys.
Her passport.
Then he had spent three days convincing her she had misunderstood everything.
Mason’s voice became quiet.
“You should’ve called me then.”
Olivia laughed bitterly.
“You were in Seattle.”
“I would’ve come back.”
“I know.”
That was exactly why she had not called.
Derek looked between them.
Something unreadable crossed his face.
The distorted voice returned through the speakers.
“Five minutes.”
Derek looked up.
“Adrian.”
The voice laughed.
“So you finally said my name.”
Olivia felt a chill.
Derek walked beneath the nearest camera.
“You injured Caleb.”
“He made a poor decision.”
“You’re not getting the drive.”
“Then you’ll all stay inside.”
Mason raised the flash drive.
“Maybe we destroy it.”
Derek snapped, “Don’t.”
Adrian’s voice responded immediately.
“That would be unfortunate.”
The television screens changed.
Live security footage appeared.
The building’s ballroom.
Dozens of guests.
Waiters.
Staff.
The doors were closed.
Several security guards stood outside.
Then another feed.
The parking garage.
Several black SUVs blocked the exits.
Another feed.
The rooftop.
Two men waited beside the emergency stairwell.
Olivia felt sick.
Adrian’s voice filled the room.
“Derek understands now.”
Mason stared at the screens.
“He locked everyone in?”
Derek answered quietly.
“He wants leverage.”
Adrian continued.
“Upload the drive.”
Olivia looked at Derek.
“If we do, will he let everyone leave?”
Derek’s answer came immediately.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I taught him never to leave witnesses.”
The room went quiet.
Olivia looked at the countdown.
Three minutes.
She thought about the guests downstairs.
People laughing fifteen minutes earlier.
People who had no idea what was happening.
She looked at Caleb.
She looked at Mason.
Then Derek.
“There has to be another exit.”
Derek shook his head.
“Not one Adrian doesn’t know.”
Olivia thought about the lounge.
She had been here before.
Derek used the room for private meetings.
Once, months earlier, she had wandered behind the bar while waiting for him.
She remembered feeling cold air.
A draft.
Coming from somewhere behind the wine shelves.
She looked toward the illuminated bottles.
“What’s behind that wall?”
Derek followed her gaze.
“Storage.”
“No.”
Olivia walked toward it.
“I felt air here once.”
Derek’s expression changed.
Mason noticed.
“You know something.”
Derek said, “There’s an old service corridor.”
Olivia turned.
“You said there was no exit.”
“I said there was no exit Adrian knows.”
The countdown showed two minutes.
Mason grabbed Caleb under one arm.
“Then we move.”
Derek helped him.
Olivia searched behind the bottles.
She found a brass release beneath the lowest shelf.
She pressed it.
Nothing happened.
Derek reached past her.
He twisted the release.
The shelving unit opened two inches.
Cold darkness waited beyond.
Adrian’s voice returned.
“One minute.”
Mason supported Caleb.
Olivia stepped into the passage.
Derek followed.
The television countdown reached thirty seconds.
Mason pulled the shelving shut behind them.
Darkness swallowed the corridor.
They moved quickly.
Then Olivia heard a sound ahead.
Footsteps.
Derek stopped.
Mason whispered, “Adrian?”
Derek listened.
The steps approached.
Slowly.
Olivia backed against the wall.
A flashlight appeared around the corner.
Then a familiar woman’s voice whispered.
“Olivia?”
She froze.
She knew that voice.
It belonged to the person she had trusted with the only other copy of Derek’s files.
Her best friend.
May you like
Grace Holloway.
And Grace was supposed to be in Boston.
