Chapter 5: The Real Game Begins
Evelyn sat frozen, the glass of bourbon hovering inches from her lips. She slowly lowered it to the desk, her mind racing to connect the dots. A military-grade storage drive?
"Explain, Vance," she ordered, her voice completely devoid of emotion.
"Julian wasn't trying to frame Lily to get custody," Vance said rapidly over the encrypted line. "He panicked. The 'brooch' contains highly classified data. We’re still trying to break the encryption, but the initial metadata points to international defense contracts. Julian is broke, Evelyn. He doesn't have the clearance or the brains to get his hands on something like this."
"He was acting as a courier," Evelyn realized aloud, the pieces falling into place. "The charity gala wasn't just a front to launder money. It was a dead drop."
"Exactly. He was supposed to pass the brooch to a buyer tonight. When you showed up and confronted him, he freaked out. He realized he was being watched. He slipped it into Eleanor’s bag to get it off his person, then accused Lily of stealing it to create a massive distraction so he could slip away during the chaos."
Evelyn closed her eyes, rubbing her temples. "But I locked down the room. I trapped him inside with the buyer."
"And now the buyer knows that Julian doesn't have the drive, and that the police—or rather, you—do." Vance’s keyboard clacked loudly in the background. "Evelyn, whoever Julian was selling this to is dangerous. The tracking signal pinged for exactly three seconds before my team killed it, but it was enough. They know the drive isn't at the precinct. They know you have it."
Evelyn stood up, walking over to the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the city skyline. She had spent five years building a fortress of wealth and power to protect herself and her daughter from petty, abusive men like Julian. She thought she was playing a game of corporate chess. Now, she realized she had just kicked over a hornet’s nest of international espionage.
"Double the security detail around the estate," Evelyn commanded, her eyes narrowing as she spotted a pair of black, unmarked SUVs idling at the bottom of the hill leading to her compound. They hadn't been there ten minutes ago.
"Already on it. Do you want me to bring the drive to you?"
"No," Evelyn said, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Keep it in the underground vault. If they want what’s on that drive, they’re going to have to come through me."
May you like
She hung up the phone and walked over to an antique bookshelf in the corner of her office. She pulled a specific leather-bound book, and a hidden compartment clicked open. Inside rested a suppressed 9mm pistol and a stack of passports with names she hadn't used in a very, very long time.
Julian had always called her a helpless woman. He was about to find out just how wrong he was.
