Chapter 9 - The Code of Silence
Victoria choked on a scream as Clara tightened her grip, bending her fingers backward until the cartilage clicked warningly.
"I don't know it!" Victoria gasped, tears of pain ruining her pristine eyeliner. "Arthur changed the master code this morning! He doesn't trust me with the biometric override!"
Clara stared into Victoria’s eyes and saw the raw truth: even Victoria was just another pawn in Arthur's clinical game.
"Who has the bypass key?" Clara demanded.
"Nathan... Nathan keeps the backup security token in his briefcase at the gala," Victoria sobbed, all her aristocratic composure stripped away. "Please... Clara, let me go. I'll give you money. Millions. Arthur is a monster, you don't know what he's capable of!"
"I know exactly what he is," Clara said coldly.
Clara picked up a silk dressing robe from the chair, bound Victoria’s wrists securely behind her back, and shoved a silk handkerchief into her mouth. She dragged the heiress into the walk-in closet and turned the exterior lock.
"Marcus," Clara spoke into her earpiece, pressing a hand against her bleeding shoulder. "Victoria’s neutralized. Nathan has the penthouse override token. He’s in the main ballroom."
"Clara, the hotel security just went on high alert. The gunshot registered on their acoustic monitors. You have guards flooding the fourth-floor stairs right now!"
Clara glanced toward the heavy mahogany door. Heavy footsteps and static-laced radio chatter were already rushing down the hallway.
"I'm not leaving through the stairs," Clara said.
She grabbed the fire escape rope ladder stored beneath the suite's balcony window, kicked out the decorative French doors, and hooked the steel clasps to the iron railing. The icy wind howled outside, twelve stories above the concrete alley.
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Below her, two black SUVs suddenly pulled into the alleyway, headlights cutting through the fog. Men in dark tactical gear poured out.
Arthur Vance had anticipated the fire escape.
