Chapter 4 - THE VAULT OF SECRETSBy dawn, Griffin’s private Boeing 737 was cruising at 35,000 feet toward his private island sanctuary off the coast of Maine—the most secure estate in the Western Hemisphere.
Sloan was secured in the onboard medical bay, surrounded by top trauma specialists Griffin had flown in from Johns Hopkins. The paralytic toxin was slowly flushed from her system, but she remained in a deep coma.
In the main cabin, Iris and Hazel sat across from Griffin at a polished mahogany table, eating warm pancakes served by the stewardess. They were wearing oversized silk shirts from Griffin’s luggage.
"Where are we going?" Iris asked timidly, her green eyes wide.
"Somewhere safe," Griffin said gently. "Where no one can ever hurt you or your mother again."
Hazel reached into her pocket and pulled out a worn leather-bound diary. "Mommy said if anything happened to her, we should give you this, too. But only if we were sure it was really you."
Griffin took the small book. On the front cover, faded gold foil spelled out: Sloan Vance.
Vance?
Griffin’s brain short-circuited. Sloan’s last name when he met her was Sloan Sterling.
He opened the diary. The first page contained a photograph from twenty years ago. It showed a young Sloan standing beside a middle-aged man in a naval uniform—and right next to him was Vance, Griffin’s trusted chief of security.
Griffin’s breath hitched. He slowly turned his head toward the front of the aircraft, where Vance was currently standing guard near the cockpit door.
The realization hit him like a freight train.
Sloan wasn't just a woman who randomly fell into his life eight years ago. She was Vance’s younger sister. And Vance hadn't been protecting Griffin for the past decade—he had been keeping watch over Sloan and the secret she carried.
Griffin flipped to the final page of the diary. Written in Sloan’s rushed, frantic handwriting was a single entry dated two weeks prior:
Griffin, if you are reading this, I am either dead or taken. Vance betrayed us. He didn't work for you to protect you—he worked for the Syndicate to find the master ledger my father died to hide. The brass key opens Vault 409 at the Zurich Alpine Bank. Don't trust anyone near you. Not even your own shadow.
May you like
Griffin looked up from the page.
At that exact moment, the cabin door creaked open. Vance stepped inside, holding a silenced pistol aimed directly at Griffin’s chest.
