Chapter 5 - THE MIDNIGHT ESCAPE AND THE ALLY IN THE SHADOWS
The muffled sound of David slamming his fists against the heavy oak front door echoed furiously down the quiet apartment hallway as I sprinted toward the building's emergency stairwell. My lungs burned with every breath, but I didn't dare slow down or look back until I had cleared the third-floor security gate.
Bursting out into the cool, damp night air of the underground parking garage, I pulled out my keys with trembling fingers and unlocked my sleek black sedan parked in its designated private stall. The garage was eerily silent, illuminated only by the harsh, flickering yellow light of overhead fluorescent tubes buzzing softly in the damp air.
Just as I pulled the driver's side door open, a strong, gloved hand suddenly clamped firmly over my mouth from behind, cutting off my startled gasp before it could escape my lips.
"Don't make a sound," a low, urgent voice whispered directly into my ear, carrying an accent that sounded distinctly foreign and unmistakably lethal. "If you scream, both of us are dead before we reach the exit ramp."
My mind raced through a frantic dozen survival scenarios as I instinctively drove my sharp elbow backward into my attacker's ribs with full force. The man grunted softly from the impact, but his grip didn't loosen an inch; instead, he skillfully spun me around, pressing me gently but firmly against the cold metal side of my car door.
As my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the parking stall, I found myself staring up into a pair of cold, sharp steel-gray eyes framed by a rugged, weather-beaten face I had never seen before in my life.
"Are you quite finished trying to break my ribs, Mrs. Thorne?" the stranger asked dryly, slowly releasing his grip from over my mouth while keeping his hands raised in a non-threatening gesture.
"Who the hell are you, and how do you know my married name?" I demanded, panting heavily as I reached behind my back for the spare metal key I kept tucked into my waistband.
"My name is Viktor, and I'm the man currently keeping you from walking straight into David Vance's trap upstairs," the stranger replied, casting a quick, cautious glance toward the main garage entrance where the security elevator doors had just chimed softly.
"How do you know about David?" I snapped, narrowing my eyes at him with deep suspicion. "Are you working with Sterling & Vance?"
"If I were working with Marcus Sterling, you would already be tied up in the trunk of this sedan," Viktor said, stepping back slightly to give me room to breathe. "Marcus has been paying local security guards to monitor your movements for the past week. The moment you locked David inside your condo, the entire building's security grid was overridden."
"Overridden?" I repeated, my blood running cold as I looked up at the overhead surveillance cameras mounted along the garage ceiling. The small red recording lights had all blinked off simultaneously.
"They're locking down the exits right now," Viktor said urgently, reaching out to grab my car keys right out of my hand with lightning-fast reflexes. "If you drive out through the main gate, you'll drive straight into a police blockade called in by Marcus under a fake B&E charge against you."
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"I have the live recording of David breaking into my home," I argued, though a cold knot of dread was rapidly forming in my stomach. "The police will see the truth."
"The police in this district are entirely on Marcus Sterling's payroll, Elena," Viktor stated bluntly, unlocking the driver's side door and motioning for me to get inside immediately. "In twenty minutes, you won't be a victim defending her home; you'll be an embezzler fleeing the scene of a staged robbery. Now get in the car, or lose everything."
