Chapter 15 - The Price of Following Fear
Elena did not cry.
That scared Adrian more.
She stood in the center of Nico’s empty room gripping the phone until her knuckles turned white.
“Tell me where,” she said.
Julian laughed. “That sounded almost like your father.”
“Tell me where my brother is.”
“Old Lakeshore Hotel. Ballroom level. Come with the original phone evidence.”
“The FBI has it.”
“Then bring Vale. He has copies.”
Adrian took the phone. “Julian.”
“Oh good. The king speaks.”
“If Nico is hurt—”
“He already is. Ask him why.”
A muffled voice shouted in the background. Nico.
Then the line died.
Mara wanted tactical teams first.
Elena wanted movement now.
They compromised only because Adrian refused to repeat Victor’s pattern of deciding for her.
“You can come,” he said, “but you stay behind the first entry team.”
Elena shook her head. “No.”
“Then give me a better plan.”
She stared at the hotel floor map.
“I know Julian’s weakness.”
Adrian frowned. “You met him?”
“Once. At a charity dinner. He spent forty minutes explaining himself to anyone who listened.”
Despite everything, Dante almost smiled.
Elena pointed to the ballroom’s old service corridor. “He wants an audience. He wants Adrian to hear why he deserves everything. So let him talk.”
The plan was simple and dangerous: Adrian would enter the ballroom carrying a decoy drive. Elena would speak through an earpiece from the service corridor while agents surrounded the building.
Inside, Julian had Nico seated beside Victor Moretti.
Victor’s face was swollen, his hands zip-tied.
For the first time in Elena’s life, her father looked powerless.
Adrian stepped into the room.
Julian raised a gun.
“There he is.”
“Where’s Kane?” Adrian asked.
Julian smiled. “Finally asking the right question.”
Victor suddenly shouted, “He left us! Kane has Bell’s files. He’s going to the airport!”
Julian struck Victor with the gun.
Elena flinched at the sound in her earpiece.
Adrian did not.
“You were never Kane’s partner,” he told Julian. “You were disposable.”
Julian’s smile faltered.
That was the opening.
Nico kicked the chair sideways into Julian’s knees.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Federal agents burst through three doors.
Julian was tackled.
Victor crawled toward Adrian.
“Get me out!”
Adrian looked past him.
Elena had entered the ballroom.
Victor saw her and froze.
She walked toward the man who had controlled her life.
May you like
Then she stopped just out of reach.
“No,” she said. “This time, you stay where you are.”
