Chapter 14 - Fire in the Vault
Damian reached the vault corridor as Voss struck the match.
“Don’t.”
Voss froze.
The security officer beside him raised a gun.
Grant fired first.
The officer dropped, wounded in the shoulder.
Voss let the match fall anyway.
Flame raced across the gasoline.
Damian grabbed a fire extinguisher while Grant dragged the wounded officer away. Smoke filled the vault.
Documents blackened at the edges.
Tessa rushed in behind them.
“You’re supposed to stay back!” Damian shouted.
“You’re on fire.”
He looked down.
His sleeve was burning.
Tessa smothered it with her jacket.
Voss stood against the wall, coughing.
“Why?” Tessa demanded.
He looked at her with exhausted eyes.
“Because some things should die.”
“My sister did.”
Voss flinched.
“Nora.”
Tessa slapped him.
The sound cracked through the smoke.
“Say her name again and I swear to God -”
“She wasn’t supposed to be in the trial.”
Tessa stopped.
“What?”
Voss sank to the floor.
“Her tumor markers disqualified her. Adrian ordered me to change them.”
“Why?” Damian asked.
“Because Nora worked for a law firm reviewing a whistleblower claim against Vale Therapeutics. Adrian thought she had copied documents.”
Tessa stared at him.
“She was targeted?”
Voss nodded.
“She never knew.”
Tessa looked like she might collapse.
Damian caught her elbow.
Voss continued.
“I tried to reduce her dosage. Adrian found out. After she died, I started keeping copies.”
“The letter from my mother?” Damian asked.
“Beatrice gave it to me years ago. I was supposed to deliver it if Adrian moved against her.”
“Then why burn the vault?”
Voss laughed weakly.
“Because this isn’t your evidence vault.”
Damian looked around.
“What?”
“Adrian told me you had the Rosewood archive. I came to destroy it before he could.”
“You’re helping him?”
“No.”
Voss pointed toward the ceiling.
“I’m trying to keep him from finding what your father left here.”
Damian’s blood went cold.
“My father?”
Voss coughed.
“He recorded everyone. Adrian. Evelyn. Me. Investors. Regulators.”
“Where?”
“Not here.”
“Where?”
Voss looked toward Damian’s childhood wing.
“The boy in the walls knows.”
Damian understood.
His childhood hiding place.
And suddenly he remembered something he had forgotten for almost thirty years.
May you like
A metal box behind the wall.
A box his father had once beaten him for touching.
