CHAPTER 7 — The Name She Had Buried
The first rule Holly had lived by for six years was simple.
Never say your real name.
The second...
Never return to the place where your family died.
By sunrise...
She had already broken both.
Weston read the anonymous message for the tenth time.
Protect Holly... or bury your daughter next.
He deleted it.
Not because he wasn't afraid.
Because fear was useless.
He turned toward Tristan.
"Double every guard."
"It's already done."
"Triple them."
Tristan hesitated.
"You really believe they'll come after Mary?"
Weston's expression never changed.
"They already did."
Inside the mansion...
Mary laughed as Midnight gently nudged her wheelchair with his nose.
It was the first real laugh anyone had heard from the little girl since her mother's funeral.
Holly smiled.
Only for a second.
Then she noticed something.
Midnight stopped moving.
His ears pointed toward the woods.
Every muscle beneath his black coat tightened.
Holly's heartbeat accelerated.
"No..."
She whispered to herself.
"They found me."
At exactly 9:12 a.m.,
every security monitor on the estate went black.
One after another.
The generators were still running.
The cameras hadn't failed.
Someone had taken control of them.
Weston's head of security grabbed his radio.
"We've lost visual on every perimeter."
Before anyone could react—
A package appeared at the front gate.
No courier.
No vehicle.
Just a small wooden box.
Weston ordered the bomb squad.
Holly stepped forward.
"Wait."
She recognized the carving burned into the lid.
A silver falcon.
Her face turned white.
Weston noticed immediately.
"You've seen that before."
Holly nodded.
"It isn't a bomb."
"What is it?"
She closed her eyes.
"A warning."
Inside the box...
lay an old leather horse halter.
Dark brown.
Cracked with age.
Weston frowned.
"Why would they send this?"
Holly slowly reached for it.
Her hands trembled before her fingers even touched the leather.
"There should be something underneath."
She turned it over.
A folded photograph slipped onto the table.
The room fell silent.
The picture showed Holly.
Age sixteen.
Standing beside her father.
Behind them...
stood Midnight.
Only...
his mane was shorter.
His body smaller.
He wasn't called Midnight then.
His name had been Eclipse.
Weston stared at the photograph.
"That's impossible."
Holly swallowed hard.
"My father bred him."
Finn O'Donnell's knees nearly gave out.
"No..."
He whispered.
"I bought that colt at auction after the Ashcroft Ranch burned."
"They told everyone the bloodline had gone extinct."
Holly looked at Midnight through the stable window.
"They lied."
The stallion hadn't simply trusted her.
He had remembered her.
Before anyone could speak again...
another object fell from the box.
A folded letter.
Written in black ink.
Only one sentence.
Bring Helena Ashcroft to Black Ridge Ranch before sunset... or the next coffin will be Mary's.
No signature.
No demands for money.
Just a location.
Weston slowly folded the letter.
"They want you alive."
Holly's eyes filled with memories she had spent years trying to forget.
"They don't."
She looked directly at Weston.
"They want what only I know."
"And what is that?"
For several long seconds...
she said nothing.
Then she whispered the words that changed everything.
"I know who betrayed my family."
Silence consumed the room.
Weston expected the name of an enemy.
A politician.
A rival crime boss.
Instead Holly quietly said,
"It was someone..."
"...inside my own house."
Even Midnight let out a low, uneasy snort, as if he understood.
Before Weston could ask another question...
his encrypted phone rang.
Only three people in the world had that number.
He answered.
No one spoke.
Only the sound of slow breathing.
Then an old man's voice finally whispered,
"Mr. Hargrove..."
"...don't take Holly to Black Ridge."
Weston's eyes narrowed.
"Who is this?"
The answer froze every person in the room.
"I'm the only survivor who escaped the Ashcroft massacre..."
"...and the killer has been standing beside you since the day Holly arrived."
The call disconnected.
Weston slowly lifted his eyes.
Around him stood dozens of loyal guards...
his brother Tristan...
Finn...
servants...
drivers...
bodyguards...
For the first time in years...
the feared mafia boss realized the enemy wasn't outside the estate.
May you like
The enemy was already inside.
TO BE CONTINUED...
