Chapter 3 - The Bloodline’s Price
"What do you mean, my name is written all over it?" I stood up, my bare feet cold against the hardwood floor. The romantic, terrifying tension from a few moments ago evaporated, replaced by a cold, suffocating dread.
Evander rose with herculean effort, ignoring the pain in his side. He grabbed his suit jacket—ruined as it was—and pulled it over his broad shoulders.
"They know where you live, Quinn. They know your mother’s maiden name. They know about the cottage your grandfather left you in upstate New York," Evander said, his words coming fast and sharp. "And most importantly, they know that out of all the people in my corporation, you are the only one who holds the cryptographic keys to restructure the Zarelli trusts."
"The trust keys?" I stared at him, my mind spinning. "I’m an operations coordinator! I manage your calendar, your travel, and your corporate compliance filings! I don't have access to trust keys!"
"You do now," Evander snapped softly, stepping closer to me until I could smell the rain, the whiskey, and the faint, expensive scent of sandalwood on his skin. "Three months ago, when the board tried to force a hostile restructuring, I buried the master override codes inside the metadata of your routine payroll audits. If anyone wants to dismantle Zarelli Capital from the inside out, they don't target me. They target you."
The room tilted.
For a year, I had thought I was just an employee working late hours, occasionally catching my boss looking at me with an intensity that made my breath catch. But I wasn't just an employee. I was the vault.
"You used me as a human safe," I whispered, the betrayal stinging sharper than any physical wound.
"I used you because you were the only person in that wretched city I could trust not to sell me out!" Evander fired back, his hands gripping my shoulders. His fingers burned through the thin fabric of my camisole. "Every single person in my family, every partner, every underboss is waiting for me to bleed so they can carve up the empire. You were safe. You were the one place they couldn't corrupt!"
"And now?" I challenged, my chin lifting as I stared defiantly into his stormy eyes. "Now they found me. Now they’re at my door."
Evander went silent. He looked down at me, his thumb instinctively brushing against my collarbone in a gesture of unconscious tenderness that felt entirely out of place in a war zone.
"Now," he said grimly, "we leave."
May you like
"Leave? Where?"
"To the one place they won't look." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a heavy, old-fashioned brass key with a jagged edge, and pressed it into my palm. "My father’s estate in the Catskills. Pack a bag. We have ten minutes before the perimeter is compromised."
