Chapter 2 - THE VIPER’S NESTWe boarded my private jet back to New York at dawn. The honeymoon was over; the war had officially begun.
While Elara slept fitfully in the cabin, I sat with my chief intelligence analyst, Devlin. As the head of risk management for my firm, Sterling Capital, Devlin was a master at finding secrets people killed to hide.
"Marcus, we have a problem," Devlin said, sliding a tablet across the table. "Arthur’s suspension made the morning news, but by 8:00 AM, three major media outlets pulled their stories down. Someone powerful is issuing gag orders."
"Her father," I muttered. Judge Richard Vance. A man who had spent thirty years on the federal bench, weaving a web of favors and blackmail.
"It gets worse," Devlin continued. "Look at the medical records from the hospital where Arthur worked. Over the last five years, seven young female interns filed confidential HR complaints against Arthur for 'unprofessional conduct.' Every single one of those interns mysteriously resigned, took massive non-disclosure payouts, and vanished from the medical board registry."
A sick feeling turned in my stomach. Arthur hadn't stopped at Elara. The family hadn't cured him; they had simply given him a higher hunting ground—the operating room.
When we landed in Manhattan, armored SUVs were waiting for us on the tarmac. We drove straight to my penthouse fortress in Tribeca. But as our vehicle pulled into the private underground garage, the lights flickered and died.
Click.
The heavy steel garage doors slammed shut behind us, locking out the sunlight.
Out of the shadows walked three men in dark suits. And standing in the middle, wearing a bespoke double-breasted suit with a golden scalpel pin on his lapel, was Dr. Arthur Vance.
May you like
He looked strikingly like Elara—the same sharp cheekbones, the same striking grey eyes. But where Elara’s eyes held deep humanity, Arthur’s were completely hollow.
"Welcome home, brother-in-law," Arthur smiled, his voice slick as oil. "I believe you have something that belongs to me."
