Chapter 5 - Someone Inside the Penthouse
The lights died one floor at a time.
Nathan moved fast.
“Bedroom. Now.”
Claire grabbed his sleeve. “My security room is down the hall.”
“Exactly where they expect you to go.”
A soft metallic click came from the balcony door.
Claire’s blood turned cold.
They were sixty floors above the street.
Someone was outside.
Nathan pulled Claire behind a column as the glass door slid open.
A masked man entered wearing black tactical gear.
Then another.
Nathan waited until the first passed the kitchen.
He struck hard and fast, driving the attacker into the wall. The second man raised a weapon, but Claire hurled a heavy glass vase.
It smashed against his shoulder.
“Run!” Nathan shouted.
Claire did not run.
She kicked the attacker’s wrist when he reached for the fallen weapon.
Nathan stared at her for half a second.
“My father made me take self-defense.”
“Remind me to thank him.”
The first attacker recovered and tackled Nathan.
Claire grabbed the kitchen fire extinguisher and blasted both men with white powder.
Nathan rolled free and slammed the attacker against the floor.
The second man bolted for the balcony.
Before Claire could stop him, he clipped a rope to his harness and disappeared over the edge.
The remaining man bit down on something.
Nathan grabbed his jaw.
Too late.
The attacker went limp.
Claire backed away, shaking.
“What did he do?”
“Poison capsule.”
Nathan searched the man’s pockets.
No wallet. No phone.
Only a hotel key card.
THE LANGLEY - ROOM 1814.
Claire stared at it.
“The Langley belongs to Moretti Holdings.”
“I know.”
Police sirens rose in the distance.
Nathan looked at the security panel.
“Did you call them?”
“No.”
“Neither did I.”
Claire’s face went pale.
Nathan grabbed her coat.
“We leave before whoever called them arrives.”
“Why?”
“Because six months ago, the first officer at my crash scene was Detective Aaron Pike.”
Claire recognized the name.
Pike had comforted her at the hospital.
Nathan opened the dead attacker’s sleeve.
A small tattoo marked the inside of his wrist.
A black crown.
Claire whispered, “What is that?”
Nathan’s eyes darkened.
“Pike’s private security company uses the same symbol.”
May you like
And then someone knocked on the front door.
“Mrs. Moretti? NYPD. Detective Pike.”
