Chapter 6 - Bloodlines and Paper Trails
Within four hours of Julian Thorne’s brazen invasion, our corporate headquarters felt like occupied territory. Julian’s private auditors and security personnel flooded the 40th floor, demanding access to every server, ledger, and private file dating back three decades.
My father had locked himself in his private corner office, refusing to speak even to our senior legal counsel. When I banged on his door, his assistant tearfully told me that Arthur had taken his heart medication and was resting under strict doctor's orders.
I was entirely on my own.
Sitting at my desk, I slammed my laptop shut in frustration. My phone rang on the private line. The caller ID was restricted.
I answered with venom in my voice. "Who is this?"
"Victoria... please. Don't hang up."
The voice on the other end was frantic, trembling, and unmistakably female.
"Vanessa?" I scoffed, disgust rising in my throat. "You and Adrian are facing thirty years for corporate espionage, grand larceny, and fraud. Any conversation between us will take place in a federal deposition room."
"Wait! Please!" Vanessa sobbed into the receiver. "Adrian left me! He took the offshore emergency funds Thorne promised him and tried to flee to the Caymans! But Thorne’s men intercepted him at Teterboro Airport. They took him, Victoria! Adrian is gone, and now they're watching my apartment!"
I paused, my mind calculating the sudden shift in the board. "Why are you calling me, Vanessa? You spent the last year sleeping with my fiancé and helping him forge my signature."
"Because I have Adrian’s personal hard drive!" she blurted out, her voice ragged with sheer panic. "He kept an offline backup of everything. Not just his deals with Thorne, but the private surveillance Thorne had on your family. Adrian was terrified Thorne would kill him once the takeover was complete, so he built a dead-man's switch! If you protect me from Thorne’s men, I will give it to you!"
My instincts screamed trap, but the leverage was too critical to ignore. If Adrian had proof of illegal market manipulation, extortion, or Thorne's private operations, I could petition a federal judge for an emergency injunction to freeze Thorne's voting shares before Friday's shareholder meeting.
"Where are you?" I demanded.
"A motel off Route 9 in New Jersey. The Starlight Motor Lodge, room 114. Come alone, Victoria. If Thorne sees your private security detail, he’ll kill us both!"
The line clicked dead.
I stood up, grabbed my coat, and slipped my late mother’s pearl-handled pocket knife into my purse—a habit I had kept since college. I wasn't naive enough to go completely unguarded, but I couldn't risk bringing a caravan of Davenport bodyguards that Thorne’s spies would instantly spot.
As I exited the private executive elevator on the underground parking level, the lights flickered in the dim concrete garage. The sound of footsteps echoed behind me.
I spun around, my hand instantly gripping the strap of my bag.
Stepping out from behind a concrete pillar was Liam Thorne.
He was dressed in a dark overcoat, his hands casually tucked into his pockets, but his jaw was tight and his posture was coiled like a spring.
"Going somewhere dangerous, Miss Davenport?" he asked quietly.
"Get out of my way, Liam," I warned, stepping toward my car. "Or I’ll have my garage security remove you for harassment."
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"Your garage security was bribed an hour ago," Liam said flatly, taking two steady steps toward me. "And if you’re heading to the Starlight Motor Lodge to meet Vanessa, you’re walking straight into an execution."
***
