Chapter 1 - THE ROAD WITHOUT A NAME
The SUV hit the first curve too fast.
Emily felt the tires slide before she heard them.
Her hand shot to the door handle, and Matthew Carter caught her wrist.
“Don’t.”
The word was quiet.
That made it worse.
Behind them, white headlights filled the rear window.
“They’re going to hit us,” Emily said.
Matthew looked past her toward the mirror.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because if they wanted you dead, they would’ve used a rifle at the mansion.”
Emily stared at him.
The driver glanced back once.
“Sir.”
“Sorry,” Matthew said, not sounding sorry at all.
He let go of Emily’s wrist.
“I should have said that differently.”
“You think?”
Another flash of lightning turned the road silver.
The SUV behind them surged closer.
Matthew leaned forward.
“Elias, orchard road.”
“There’s a washout.”
“I know.”
Emily’s head snapped toward him.
“You know this road?”
Matthew did not answer.
Elias yanked the wheel left.
Their car left the pavement and plunged between two rows of black trees.
Branches slapped the doors.
Mud sprayed high over the windows.
Emily grabbed the seat belt with both hands.
“Where are we going?”
“Away from them.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
For the first time since climbing into the car, anger pushed through her fear.
She turned on him.
“Who are you?”
“Matthew Carter.”
“I heard your name.”
“Then we’re making progress.”
She almost laughed.
It came out as something close to a sob.
Matthew’s expression shifted.
Not pity.
Something more uncomfortable.
He opened the console, pulled out a small first-aid pouch, and placed it on the seat between them.
“Your feet are bleeding through the carpet.”
Emily looked down.
A bright red smear had formed beneath her right heel.
She had not noticed.
The SUV behind them followed onto the orchard road.
Elias muttered something under his breath.
Matthew reached into his jacket.
Emily flinched.
His hand stopped.
Slowly, he pulled out a phone instead.
“You can call anyone you trust.”
“I don’t know the number.”
“Anyone?”
“My best friend changed hers last month.”
“What about your father?”
Emily went still.
“He’s dead.”
Matthew lowered the phone.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
The answer came too fast.
She looked away.
Her father had been dead for eleven months, and she still hated the way sympathy turned him into a clean, simple tragedy.
Nothing about the last year had been clean.
Not his funeral.
Not the will.
Not Diane’s sudden authority over the company.
Not the way every office door that used to open for Emily now required permission from someone her stepmother had hired.
The car jolted violently.
Emily slammed into Matthew’s shoulder.
“Washout,” Elias said.
Ahead, the narrow dirt road had collapsed into a brown channel of rushing water.
“Can we cross?” Matthew asked.
“Maybe.”
“That’s not a yes.”
“It’s also not a no.”
Elias accelerated.
Emily stared at him.
“Are all of you insane?”
“Mostly him,” Elias said, pointing at Matthew.
It was the first human thing anyone had said in ten minutes.
Then the car hit the water.
The front end dropped.
Emily screamed.
Brown water burst around the hood.
For two terrible seconds, the tires spun with no grip.
The pursuing SUV stopped at the edge behind them.
Its headlights disappeared as water climbed across their rear window.
“Elias.”
“I know.”
The engine roared.
The car lurched sideways.
Matthew braced one hand against the roof and the other against the seat in front of Emily, forming a barrier without touching her.
The tires caught.
They climbed.
The car burst onto the other bank with a grinding scrape underneath.
Emily squeezed her eyes shut.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Elias exhaled.
“I want a raise.”
Matthew said, “Approved.”
Emily laughed once.
She did not mean to.
It hurt her split lip.
She covered her mouth.
Matthew looked at her, and something almost like relief moved across his face.
Behind them, the second SUV remained on the far side of the washout.
Its doors opened.
Three men stepped out.
One raised a phone.
Another raised something longer.
Elias killed the interior lights.
“Down,” Matthew said.
Emily ducked.
A sharp crack came from behind them.
The rear windshield starred but did not break.
Emily froze.
“That was a gun.”
“Yes.”
“You said they wouldn’t—”
“I said they didn’t want you dead.”
A second crack hit the trunk.
Matthew’s voice hardened.
“Apparently they’re willing to negotiate with the definition.”
Elias accelerated deeper into the orchard.
Emily curled under Matthew’s coat.
The fabric smelled faintly of cedar and rain.
Her hands would not stop shaking.
She hated that he could see it.
She hated more that he did not tell her to calm down.
After several miles, the orchard ended at a low concrete building without a sign.
A steel gate opened before they reached it.
Emily sat up.
There were cameras on the fence.
Men in plain jackets stood beneath a covered entrance.
One carried a medical bag.
Her stomach dropped.
“No.”
Matthew looked at her.
“What?”
“You knew where you were taking me.”
“Yes.”
“You knew this was here.”
“Yes.”
“What is this?”
“A private emergency facility.”
“For who?”
“My employees.”
Emily reached for the door handle again.
The car was still moving.
Matthew’s hand covered the lock button.
Not her wrist this time.
“Emily.”
“How do you know my name?”
Silence.
Elias stopped the car under the concrete awning.
Rain hammered above them.
Emily’s breathing became shallow.
“I never told you my name.”
Matthew’s jaw tightened.
No one moved.
Then he said, “No, you didn’t.”
Emily pulled the coat off her shoulders.
The warmth vanished at once.
“Open the door.”
“Listen to me first.”
“Open it.”
“Your stepmother’s people are less than five miles away.”
“And you knew who I was before I got into your car.”
Matthew looked toward the cracked rear windshield.
Then back at her.
“Yes.”
The door lock clicked.
Emily shoved it open and stepped out barefoot into the cold concrete bay.
Pain stabbed through her right foot.
She nearly fell.
A woman with a medical bag moved toward her.
Emily backed away.
“Don’t touch me.”
The woman stopped immediately.
Matthew got out on the other side.
He kept several feet between them.
“Emily Hale,” he said.
Her full name sounded wrong in his mouth.
Too prepared.
Too certain.
“I was supposed to meet Diane Hale tonight.”
Emily stared at him.
Matthew continued.
“She wanted me to buy Hale Systems before the banks forced a sale.”
The rain seemed to get louder.
Emily’s bruised cheek burned.
“You were one of her business partners.”
“No.”
“You were at the mansion.”
“I never made it through the front gate.”
“Why?”
Matthew’s eyes stayed on hers.
“Because twenty minutes before I arrived, I received a file showing your name on forty-one percent of Hale Systems.”
Emily forgot the pain in her feet.
“That’s impossible.”
“I thought so too.”
“My father left everything to Diane.”
“Maybe.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the file included a second document.”
Matthew reached inside his jacket again.
This time Emily did not flinch.
He took out a folded photocopy sealed inside a plastic sleeve.
At the bottom of the page was her father’s signature.
Above it were four words that made her knees weak.
IRREVOCABLE TRANSFER TO EMILY.
She looked up.
Matthew’s face was unreadable.
“Your stepmother wasn’t trying to save her company tonight,” he said.
May you like
“She was trying to sell yours.”
And somewhere beyond the gate, an alarm began to scream.
