Chapter 14: Blood and Boardrooms
The smell of deployed airbags and burning rubber filled the cabin. Maya coughed, her head spinning, a sharp pain radiating from her shoulder.
“Ma'am! Maya, are you okay?” The bodyguard in the front was bleeding from a cut on his forehead, but he was already unbuckling his seatbelt, drawing his weapon, and scanning the highway.
“I’m okay,” Maya gasped, kicking the jammed passenger door open.
Within minutes, sirens wailed in the distance. When Julian arrived at the hospital an hour later, he looked like a man possessed. He bypassed security entirely, storming into the private ER room where a doctor was bandaging Maya’s bruised shoulder.
“Maya,” Julian choked out, falling to his knees beside her bed and burying his face in her lap. His whole body was shaking.
“I’m fine, Julian. Just a few bruises,” she whispered, stroking his hair.
Julian looked up, his eyes entirely black with fury. “My security chief just finished inspecting the wreckage. It wasn't a malfunction. The brake lines were cut, and a remote jammer was installed on the emergency system. Someone tried to assassinate you.”
Eleanor, who had rushed to the hospital with Julian, stood in the doorway, her face pale. “Harrison,” she whispered. “He knows we’re closing in.”
Maya slid off the hospital bed, ignoring the protests of the doctor. Her brush with death hadn't made her fearful; it had ignited a blinding, righteous fury. The street rat was gone. In her place stood the Queen of the Sterling Empire.
“Get my clothes,” Maya ordered, her voice chillingly calm.
“Maya, you need to rest,” Julian said.
“I am done resting. I am done playing defense,” Maya said, her eyes blazing. “Call an emergency board meeting. Right now. Lock down the building. No one leaves until I say so.”
Two hours later, Harrison sat in the Sterling boardroom, sipping a glass of water, pretending to review quarterly reports. When the double doors opened, he expected to hear the tragic news of a car crash.
Instead, Maya walked in. She was wearing a tailored black suit, her arm in a sleek black sling, looking like an angel of death. Julian flanked her, flanked by six heavily armed private security contractors who immediately positioned themselves at the doors.
Harrison’s glass slipped from his hand, shattering on the mahogany table.
“Surprised to see me, Harrison?” Maya asked, walking slowly toward his chair.
“Arabella... my God, what happened to your arm?” Harrison stammered, his face turning a sickly shade of gray.
“A funny thing happened on FDR Drive today,” Maya said, leaning over the table, her face inches from his. “Someone tried to kill me. Again. Just like they tried to kill me twenty-four years ago.”
“I... I don't know what you're talking about,” Harrison sputtered, looking at the other board members who were completely frozen in shock.
Julian stepped forward, throwing a massive stack of banking records onto the table. “These are the wire transfers from the Cayman Islands account you used to pay Arthur’s hitman. And these,” Julian threw down a second stack of papers, “are the security footage stills of your private driver accessing the garage where Maya’s car was kept last night.”
Harrison began to hyperventilate. “You can’t prove anything! I am a founding member of this board!”
“You are a parasite,” Maya snarled. “You used Arthur’s greed to do your dirty work because you wanted to tank the company’s stock, buy it out for pennies, and sell it to the Vance Syndicate. We know everything, Harrison.”
May you like
Harrison looked at the armed guards blocking the doors. He realized he was entirely, utterly trapped. The old man broke, burying his face in his hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Call the police,” Maya commanded Julian without breaking eye contact with Harrison. “Tell them we have the mastermind. And tell them he’s ready to confess.”
