Chapter 13 - The Trap in the Corridor
The VIP hospitality suite on the fourteenth floor was quiet, tucked away from the roar of the gala below.
The long hallway was lined with deep burgundy carpets and heavy brass wall sconces.
Grace walked slowly down the corridor, her hand resting over her lower abdomen.
Her ankles were swollen from standing, and a dull, familiar ache had begun pulsing across her lower back.
Declan walked by her side, holding his encrypted phone in his right hand.
Two private security officers walked six paces ahead of them, checking the keycards at Suite 1402.
Suddenly, the overhead chandeliers flickered violently twice.
With a sharp electrical snap, the main hallway lights went completely black.
Only the dull red emergency exit lights remained illuminated at the far end of the corridor.
The heavy security fire doors on either side of the hallway slammed shut with an echoing metallic bang.
“Security breach,” the lead bodyguard shouted, reaching inside his jacket for his sidearm.
“Stay behind us, Mr. Pierce!”
Declan moved with animalistic speed.
He spun Grace around, wrapping his broad frame entirely over her, shielding her body against the wall.
“Grace, stay down,” Declan commanded, his voice cold, steady, and utterly lethal.
Before the guards could breach the suite door, the service stairwell door burst open with a loud screech.
Ethan Calloway stepped into the dim red light of the corridor.
His face was pale, his eyes wild, carrying a heavy metal wrench he had grabbed from the maintenance cart.
Behind him, Vanessa stepped into the hallway holding a small canister of commercial pepper spray.
“Grace!” Ethan shouted, his voice echoing off the narrow walls like a madman’s scream.
“Don’t touch that door!”
The two security guards immediately raised their weapons, red laser sights painting Ethan’s chest.
“Drop the weapon and get on the floor!” the lead guard ordered.
“Do it now!”
“Don’t shoot him!” Vanessa shrieked from the stairwell.
“There are hidden cameras in my purse broadcasting this to a live cloud server!”
“If you shoot an unarmed man, the footage goes to the press within sixty seconds!”
Declan did not flinch.
He slowly stepped away from Grace, keeping his body positioned squarely between Ethan and his pregnant wife.
“You are committing first-degree aggravated assault and corporate extortion, Ethan,” Declan said, his tone chillingly calm.
“Did you honestly believe a cheap electrical trip and a maintenance wrench would intimidate me?”
Ethan laughed hysterically, stepping forward despite the red laser dots dancing across his heart.
“I don’t want your money, Pierce!” Ethan lied, his voice cracking with pure jealousy.
“I want my wife back!”
“I want my son back!”
“You stole my life! You seduced my wife while she was carrying my flesh and blood!”
Grace stepped out from behind Declan’s shoulder, resting her hand lightly against Declan’s arm to steady herself.
A sharp contraction rippled through her abdomen, but she did not let her knees buckle.
She stood tall, her eyes cutting through the red gloom of the hallway.
“Declan did not steal anything from you, Ethan,” Grace said, her voice freezing the air in the corridor.
“You threw everything away the moment you decided your ego mattered more than your family.”
“You brought your mistress to extortion?”
Grace looked at Vanessa, who was cowering near the stairwell door.
“You think a live stream will save you, Vanessa?” Grace asked quietly.
“Check your phone.”
Vanessa blinked, looking down at her device with shaking fingers.
The screen displayed a solid red error code: Signal Jammed by Local Frequency Interceptor.
“Pierce Global owns the telecommunications relay for this entire block,” Declan stated with surgical detachment.
“Not a single byte of data has left this floor since you cut the primary breaker.”
Ethan’s face went dead white.
He raised the heavy metal wrench in a blind, pathetic rage, taking a lunging step toward Grace.
“You ruined me!” Ethan screamed.
Declan did not wait for the bodyguards.
Declan closed the distance in a fraction of a second, his left hand deflecting the descending wrench with effortless precision.
In the same fluid motion, Declan’s right fist drove hard into Ethan’s solar plexus.
The air exploded from Ethan’s lungs with a sickening gasp.
The wrench clattered harmlessly to the carpeted floor.
Declan caught Ethan by the collar of his coat, spinning him violently around, and slammed him face-first against the marble doorframe.
Ethan groaned in agony, his knees collapsing beneath him as Declan pressed him into the floor with an iron knee to his spine.
The two security guards instantly swarmed Vanessa, twisting her arms behind her back and slapping steel handcuffs onto her wrists.
“Let me go! Let me go!” Vanessa shrieked in terror as the handcuffs clicked shut.
Ethan lay pinned to the floor, gasping for air against the carpet.
Declan looked down at him with utter disgust.
“Boston Police tactical units are already in the lobby,” Declan said quietly.
“You are going to prison for a very long time, Calloway.”
Behind them, Grace let out a soft, sharp gasp, her hand suddenly clutching her lower stomach.
Declan released Ethan and spun around immediately.
“Grace?” Declan asked, his voice filled with urgent, protective concern.
Grace leaned heavily against the wall, her breathing rapid and shallow.
Beneath the hem of her midnight-blue velvet dress, a clear pool of water spread across the carpet.
“Declan,” Grace whispered, looking into his eyes with wide, breathless clarity.
May you like
“My water just broke.”
“The baby is coming.”
