Chapter 10 - Fire in the Records Room.
Nathan stared at Rebecca.
“You’re alive.”
Rebecca nodded.
Tears streamed down her face.
“I’m sorry.”
Nathan pulled her into his arms.
For several seconds, even the armed men around Victor Dane seemed irrelevant.
Then Nathan stepped back.
“Why didn’t you call?”
Rebecca looked toward Julian.
“Because I was stupid.”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
Rebecca continued.
“I found the laundering accounts when I worked here.”
“Harrison paid you?”
“Yes.”
“To disappear?”
“He offered money.”
Rebecca wiped her face.
“But I never took it.”
Harrison frowned.
Rebecca looked at him.
“Julian did.”
Claire stared.
Rebecca nodded toward her former husband.
“He intercepted the transfer.”
Julian shook his head.
“She’s lying.”
Rebecca laughed.
“You haven’t changed.”
She looked at Claire.
“I married Julian six years before you.”
Claire felt numb.
“He told me he was an investigator.”
“That part was almost true.”
Rebecca continued.
“He said he needed access to the hotel’s internal systems.”
“I helped him.”
“When I realized he was stealing information for Victor’s people, I tried to leave.”
Nathan whispered.
“What did he do?”
Rebecca looked at her brother.
“He made everyone believe I ran away.”
Claire looked at Julian.
A pattern.
Not one disappearance.
Several.
Rebecca moved closer to Claire.
“He did to you what he practiced on me.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“I saved your life.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You sold my identity.”
Victor Dane interrupted.
“That’s enough.”
Rebecca turned.
“You don’t want them hearing the rest.”
Victor smiled faintly.
“There is no rest.”
Rebecca looked at Claire.
“Yes, there is.”
She pointed toward the ceiling.
“The real records aren’t on that USB.”
Claire frowned.
“Then what is?”
“A map.”
Claire pulled the drive from her apron for the first time.
Several men immediately moved.
Victor raised one hand.
They stopped.
Rebecca continued.
“The USB identifies where the original transaction ledgers are stored.”
“Where?”
Rebecca looked toward Harrison.
“Under this hotel.”
Harrison went pale.
Sloane stared at him.
“You knew?”
Harrison whispered.
“I thought they were destroyed.”
Victor’s expression changed.
Rebecca smiled.
“No.”
A fire alarm began screaming.
Nathan looked upward.
“This one is real.”
Smoke appeared beneath the ballroom doors.
Guests panicked.
Victor shouted orders.
His men moved toward the exits.
Claire grabbed Anne’s cart.
Sloane helped.
Rebecca joined them.
Julian remained in the center of the ballroom.
Claire looked at him.
For one second, he looked completely abandoned.
Then he ran toward a side door.
Rebecca saw him.
“He’s going downstairs.”
Claire understood.
“The records.”
Nathan moved after Julian.
Claire caught his sleeve.
“No.”
“He knows where my sister’s evidence is.”
“And he wants to destroy it.”
Rebecca pointed toward a catering corridor.
“There’s another way.”
Smoke rolled across the ceiling.
Sprinklers activated.
Cold water crashed down.
The perfect chandeliers disappeared behind rain.
Claire pushed her mother through the chaos.
They entered the kitchen.
Employees rushed toward emergency exits.
Rebecca led them toward a freight staircase.
“Basement level three.”
Sloane stared.
“This hotel only has two basement levels.”
Rebecca looked back.
“That’s what guests are supposed to believe.”
They reached the stairs.
Behind them, an explosion shook the building.
Claire nearly fell.
Anne screamed.
Nathan looked upward.
“The records room.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
May you like
She looked toward the darkness below.
“That was just the distraction.”
