Austin's trap was simple but elegant, just the way he liked it. Fake transfer. Controlled surveillance leaks. And a security trail so obvious, any insider watching wouldn't be able to resist.
The mole bit.
At exactly 2:16 a.m., an encrypted signal pinged from the control room, an unauthorized clone of the decoy flash drive had been accessed. Elias's alert system lit up like fireworks.
Austin stood, all calm stripped away.
"Where?" he barked.
Elias pointed at the screen. "Sector 4. East Wing server bank."
Austin clenched his jaw. "That's inside my house."
He was halfway out the door when Elias called, "You want backup?"
Austin didn't look back. "I want blood."
Clair was up late, scribbling down a recipe she wanted to try for Austin, apple cinnamon rolls with bourbon caramel glaze. It calmed her, the way cooking always did.
She heard the sound before she felt the danger, footsteps that didn't belong.
Too heavy. Too rushed.
She quietly placed her notebook down and reached for the emergency drawer beside her bed.
A low voice echoed through the hallway.
"Clair."
Her body froze.
That wasn't Austin.
She grabbed her phone, heart pounding. No signal. Static.
Then the door burst open.
And standing there wasn't Isadora.
It was Verna, Austin's trusted financial advisor, a woman with silver hair, soft hands, and a grandmotherly smile. Only now, she held a tranquilizer pistol.
"Don't scream," Verna said gently.
Clair backed up. "What... What are you doing?"
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I truly am. But loyalty has a price. And I never agreed to die for the Montgomerys."
"You worked for him for fifteen years."
"I worked for his father. And his father before that. But Austin?" Her voice turned bitter. "He changed the rules."
Verna raised the gun.
Clair reached for the panic button.
Too late.
A sharp sting in her neck. Everything blurred.
The last thing she saw was the glint of betrayal in Verna's eyes.
Austin moved like a predator through his home, each step silent but purposeful. He didn't need maps. This was his castle.
He reached the East Wing server corridor.
The security door was already hacked—someone on the inside.
And there she was.
Verna.
Kneeling by a terminal, trying to download the fake drive to an external chip.
Austin didn't speak.
He let the gun cock speak for him.
Verna flinched, then turned, hands slowly raised.
"I didn't mean for it to go this far."
"You tranquilized my wife."
"It was just to stall her. Isadora offered me more than money.... she offered freedom. Real freedom."
Austin stepped closer, gun trained on her chest. "From what?"
Verna's lip quivered. "From the blood. The killing. I just wanted out."
"You could've asked."
She laughed, bitter and broken. "No one just asks to leave the Montgomery family."
He didn't argue.
Instead, he said, "Where is Clair?"
Verna hesitated.
And that was all the answer Austin needed.
He hit her with the butt of the gun, fast and hard. She slumped unconscious.
Elias appeared behind him seconds later.
"She's not in the East Wing," Elias said, breathless. "Her phone was disabled. Panic system jammed."
Austin turned, fury radiating from him like heat. "Check the tunnels."
Elias moved.
Austin didn't wait. He took a shortcut, heart racing.
Not from fear.
From rage.
Clair woke to cold concrete.
A basement.
No... worse.
A panic shelter beneath the house, one only top-level staff knew about.
She groaned, her limbs heavy.
"You should've stayed asleep," a voice murmured from the shadows.
Clair squinted. "Who...."
A woman stepped forward.
Isadora.
Clad in tailored black, eyes glittering with hate.
"I must admit," Isadora said, "you lasted longer than I expected. Most of Austin's toys break within weeks."
Clair's voice was hoarse. "I'm not his toy."
"No. You're his weakness. And now? You're his leash."
Clair tried to stand, but her knees buckled.
Isadora crouched down, tilting her head. "He took everything from me. My position. My loyalty. My place in this world. But soon... he'll lose everything too."
Clair stared at her. "You never loved him. You just wanted power."
Isadora leaned in close. "And you think you do love him? You don't even know what he's capable of."
"I know more than you ever did," Clair spat.
A slap cracked across her cheek.
"You'll regret that," Isadora hissed.
Before she could move again, a deafening sound echoed through the shelter.
The steel door exploded inward.
Gunfire.
Screams.
And then....
Austin.
A shadow, a storm, his gun smoking, face twisted in fury.
"Touch her again," he growled at Isadora, "and I'll bury you in this concrete tomb."
Isadora raised her hands, laughing.
"So dramatic. So loyal. I wonder how long it'll last once she finds out who killed your father."
Austin's breath caught.
"What did you say?"
Isadora tossed a USB drive toward his feet. "Not everything in your kingdom is what it seems."
Then, without another word, she pulled a smoke canister from her belt, slammed it to the ground, and vanished in the haze.
By the time the fog cleared, she was gone.
Clair was safe in his arms.
Shaking, but alive.
He held her for what felt like hours, brushing her hair back, checking her pulse, grounding himself in her heartbeat.
"I'm okay," she whispered.
"No," he said, "you're not. But you will be. I swear it."
"Verna?" she asked.
"Arrested."
"Isadora?"
"Gone."
Clair looked up at him. "What was she talking about? About your father?"
Austin didn't answer.
He picked up the USB drive.
And his world, once again, teetered on the edge of something darker.