Chapter 6 - The Trap Springs
Back at the Kane estate, the rain had stopped, leaving the stone walls glistening under a pale, watery afternoon sun.
Emma was finishing her shift in the second-floor library when her phone buzzed in her pocket.
It was an unknown number.
She swiped and answered. “Hello?”
“Miss Harper?” a gravelly, unfamiliar voice hissed through the speaker. “I hope you’re enjoying your stay at the Kane fortress. Too bad you won't be checking out.”
Emma froze, the duster dropping from her hand. “Who is this?”
“A friend of Vito Moretti’s. Your car broke down outside the estate gates ten minutes ago, didn't it? Three flat tires. And look out the window, sweetheart—your bus isn't coming either.”
Emma’s heart slammed into her ribs.
She rushed to the library window and looked down at the long winding driveway leading out to the main iron gates.
Her old, dented sedan was parked by the security booth, all four tires flat.
A black van was idling fifty yards down the country road, its doors sliding open.
Before she could turn around, the library doors flew open.
Two burly men in tactical gear—traitors from Dominic’s outer security detail who had been bought off by Moretti’s desperate cash reserves—pushed their way into the room.
“Don’t make a sound, sweet-cheek,” one of them growled, stepping forward with a zip-tie in his hand. “We’re taking a little ride to visit your mother at Willow Glen.”
Emma screamed, backing away until her spine hit the heavy oak bookshelves.
She lashed out with her foot, catching the first man squarely in his injured knee—the same defensive reflex she had learned growing up on the rough docks of Harbor City.
The man cursed, grabbing his leg, but his partner lunged forward, grabbing Emma by the arm and dragging her toward the private service elevator.
“Let me go!” she screamed, kicking and thrashing. “Let me go!”
They dragged her into the elevator car, punching the button for the basement garage.
As the heavy steel doors slid shut, Emma caught one final glimpse of the second-floor hallway.
Dominic Kane was rolling his wheelchair out of his study.
May you like
His face was no longer cold.
It was the face of an absolute monster.
