Chapter 2
Julian’s fingers tightened around Grace’s arms, feeling the tremor running through her slight frame. The headlights of the idling black SUV cast long, distorted shadows across the wet driveway, illuminating the steam rising from the cooling engine. Around them, the storm raged unabated, but the silence between the three adults on the pavement felt far heavier than the thunder rolling over the distant hills.
“Grace, stand up slowly,” Julian instructed, his voice lower now, stripped of panic and replaced by a cold, calculating determination. He reached down to take the golden retriever puppy from her, handling the small animal with surprising gentleness. The puppy whimpered softly, pressing its nose against Julian’s wet lapel.
Grace nodded, her teeth chattering as she pushed herself up from the pavement with Julian’s assistance. Her left knee flared with pain where it had slammed against the stone, but she pushed the physical agony aside. Her mind raced back to the study just ten minutes ago—the shattered porcelain vase, the locked drawer, and the terrifying coldness in Eleanor’s voice when she discovered what the puppy had uncovered beneath the floorboards.
“She found the ledger, Mr. Vance,” Grace murmured, her voice barely audible over the hiss of the rain. “The one from the offshore accounts. The puppy dug it out from under the loose floorboard in the conservatory. Mrs. Vance saw everything.”
Julian’s face went completely blank, a mask of dark realization settling over his features. The offshore accounts were supposed to be untraceable, buried deep within a labyrinth of shell corporations he had spent years constructing. Yet, Eleanor had known. More than that, she had tried to silence the innocent creature that had exposed her secret, and by extension, she had marked Grace for termination.
Up on the balcony, the white dress fluttered slightly in the wind, but Eleanor was gone. The light in the upper hallway clicked off, plunging that section of the mansion into deep shadow.
“Get into the SUV,” Julian commanded, handing the puppy back to Grace and opening the rear passenger door. “The keys are in the ignition. Go to the lodge by the lake. Wait for me there.”
“No, Mr. Vance,” Grace said, stopping him with a hand on his soaked sleeve. “She knows I saw her face. If I leave, she’ll hunt me down before sunrise. We need to go to the authorities.”
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Julian looked at Grace, truly seeing her for the first time. She wasn’t just a twenty-two-year-old girl working to pay for her mother’s medical treatments; she possessed a spine forged in steel. He nodded slowly, closing the car door without getting in.
“The police in this county are on her payroll, Grace. We have one chance, and it’s inside that house.”
