Chapter 13
The rain sheeted down over the glass facade of the luxury apartment building, turning the city lights into blurred smears of neon. Using the master maintenance key Evelyn had kept tucked away in her sewing box for a decade, she, Marcus, and Agent Hayes bypassed the electronic turnstiles in the service lobby, slipping past the sleeping security guard in the basement control room, and boarding the private freight elevator directly to the twentieth floor.
The elevator doors slid open with a soft chime. The hallway was dead silent, bathed in the cool, sterile glow of recessed emergency lighting.
Evelyn led the way down the carpeted corridor, her steps light and steady, holding the heavy brass key ring in her hand. They reached the service entrance of Nyah’s penthouse. With a quiet click, the master key turned the deadbolt, and the heavy door swung inward without a sound.
The apartment was pitch black, save for the faint amber glow of the city lights bleeding through the floor-to-ceiling glass balcony doors at the far end of the living room. The dark puddle of orange juice on the wooden floor had long since dried into a sticky, grim stain near the kitchen island, a silent monument to the night everything broke apart.
"Check the master bedroom walk-in closet," Marcus whispered to Agent Hayes, gesturing toward the hallway. "The mainframe router should be wired behind the wall safe."
As Hayes crept down the hall, Evelyn walked slowly into the center of the living room, stopping just a few feet from the glass balcony door where she had rescued Leo less than twenty-four hours ago. She stared out at the rainy ledge, her reflection ghosting softly against the pane.
Suddenly, the overhead lights in the living room clicked on with a sharp snap, flooding the space with brilliant, blinding illumination.
Evelyn spun around.
Standing at the edge of the kitchen island, dressed in a silk bathrobe, was Nyah. Her short-haired bald head gleamed under the harsh light, but her face was a mask of cold, unbridled fury. In her right hand, she held a sleek, silenced semi-automatic pistol, pointed directly at Evelyn’s chest.
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"You just don't know when to quit, do you, Mother?" Nyah whispered, her voice laced with venom as she stepped out from behind the counter, her eyes fixed on Evelyn with murderous intent. "You just had to come back and finish destroying everything I've built."
Before Evelyn could reply, a loud crash echoed from the master bedroom down the hall, followed by Agent Hayes shouting a warning as a masked operative tackled him out of the walk-in closet.
