Chapter 13
The heavy oak door shuddered under Julian's repeated blows, the reinforced frame groaning with every impact. Inside the dimly lit master suite, the city skyline cast long, fractured shadows across the king-sized bed and the walk-in closet. Elena pressed her back against the cool wood of the locked door, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her hands trembling as she pulled the heavy brass key from her handbag.
The key wasn't for the penthouse doors. It was the key to her father's study floor safe back in the suburbs—the one place Marcus hadn't been able to raid before the federal agents closed in. But right now, she needed a weapon or an exit, not a suburban treasure hunt.
Another massive crash echoed against the door as the wood began to splinter near the deadbolt. Julian was not going to stop until he had the master ledger and her life.
Elena pushed off the door and sprinted toward the master bathroom, locking that door behind her as well. The en-suite bathroom was a sanctuary of white tile, glass, and chrome, featuring a large walk-in shower and a frosted floor-to-ceiling window that opened onto a narrow maintenance catwalk running along the exterior of the fifty-story skyscraper.
She threw open the frosted window. A blast of cold, rainy wind rushed into the bathroom, carrying the deafening roar of city traffic far below. Leaning out onto the metal catwalk, Elena looked down. Fifty stories straight drop into the glowing urban abyss. It was an impossible route, but staying inside meant facing Julian with a gun or a knife.
Behind her, the bathroom door handle rattled violently, followed by the sickening crunch of wood splintering under a boot kick. Julian had breached the bedroom.
"You can't run, Elena!" Julian's muffled voice echoed through the bedroom suite. "The building is locked down on every floor! Hand over the drive and make this clean!"
Elena didn't answer. She climbed out onto the narrow metal catwalk, the cold rain instantly soaking her brown blazer and plastering her dark hair to her face. She gripped the metal railing with white-knuckled hands, her heart pounding against her ribs as she began to shuffle sideways along the slippery ledge toward the adjacent balcony of the penthouse's guest suite.
Below her, the city lights blurred into a dizzying streak of neon and shadow. One misstep, one gust of wind, and it would all be over. But as she inched along the freezing glass facade, she heard the bathroom window slide open behind her.
Julian stepped out onto the catwalk, his gray suit drenched in rain, holding a heavy tactical knife in his right hand. The wind whipped his dark hair across his forehead as he grinned like a predator cornering its prey on a mountain ledge.
"End of the line, Elena," Julian shouted over the roar of the wind, taking a slow, steady step toward her along the narrow metal grating.
Elena stopped, her back pressed hard against the glass pane of the guest suite window. She reached into her pocket, pulled out the heavy brass key, and held it out toward him with a cold, fearless smile.
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"You missed one hiding spot, Julian," she yelled back over the storm.
Before Julian could lunge forward, Elena smashed her elbow through the tempered glass of the guest suite window, tumbling headfirst into the dark, empty room just as Julian's knife slashed through the empty air where she had been standing a second before.
