Chapter 16 - Blood in the Ballroom
Emergency lights came on red.
Nathan pulled me behind the conference table.
“Stay down.”
Gunfire sounded two floors below.
Hotel alarms began screaming.
Sebastian’s security team moved toward the service corridor.
Andrew grabbed Olivia.
Margaret slapped his hand away.
“Don’t touch her.”
He stared at his wife.
For a second, the war inside the family became smaller than the one outside.
Then the ballroom doors on the level below blew open.
Nathan checked cameras on his phone.
“Three men. Maybe four. Black tactical clothing. No visible insignia.”
I looked at Andrew.
“Your people?”
“No.”
“Convenient.”
“If they were mine, I wouldn’t be hiding behind furniture.”
Fair point.
Olivia grabbed my hand.
“There’s a private catering elevator.”
Margaret said, “No.”
Olivia ignored her.
“It connects to the kitchen service tunnel. Dad showed me when I was a kid.”
Andrew stared.
“I told you never to use that.”
“Today has been full of broken family rules.”
We moved.
Nathan stayed behind with Sebastian’s guards while Elias carried the hard drive containing Clara’s released archive.
In the service corridor, Olivia ran ahead.
She stopped at the elevator.
“Keypad.”
Andrew entered a code.
The doors opened.
I looked at him.
“You still know every back door.”
“I built some of them.”
The elevator dropped.
Halfway down, it stopped.
Darkness.
Margaret whispered, “No.”
Then the ceiling hatch opened.
A man dropped inside.
I saw a gun.
Andrew moved faster than anyone expected.
He drove his shoulder into the man before the weapon cleared.
The gun hit the floor.
Olivia screamed.
I kicked it beneath the railing.
Margaret struck the attacker with the metal emergency flashlight.
Once.
Twice.
The man collapsed.
We all stared at her.
She looked at the flashlight.
“What? I grew up with brothers.”
Even then, I almost laughed.
The elevator restarted.
We reached the kitchen.
Staff were evacuating through the rear loading dock.
Nathan called.
“Charlotte, the ballroom team is retreating.”
“Why?”
“Police are entering.”
“Good.”
“No.”
His voice tightened.
“They weren’t trying to kill anyone.”
“Then what were they doing?”
“Destroying servers.”
I looked at Elias.
The hard drive was in his hands.
“They know Clara released the archive.”
Nathan continued.
“And there’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The emergency board meeting moved online.”
Andrew’s face changed.
“The sale.”
Nathan said, “Vote starts in eighteen minutes.”
Sebastian’s voice came over the phone.
“If North Bridge gets control before police freeze the transaction, Clara’s evidence may expose crimes in a company that no longer belongs to us.”
I looked at Andrew.
“You planned this.”
“No.”
“But you started it.”
He had no answer.
Olivia picked up the attacker’s dropped phone.
The screen was unlocked.
A text thread was open.
The latest message read:
DO NOT HARM CHARLOTTE VALLE.
She stared at me.
The next line appeared.
DAVID WANTS HIS DAUGHTER ALIVE.
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