Chapter 7 - The Woman Everyone Underestimated
Silas Vale kissed Mara’s hand.
Roman looked as though he wanted to remove Silas’s.
Mara squeezed Roman’s fingers once.
Control yourself.
His eyes flicked toward her.
She almost enjoyed that Roman Mercer listened to her.
Almost.
“Miss Bennett,” Silas said. “You’ve become surprisingly difficult to kill.”
Several nearby guests laughed because they assumed it was a joke.
Mara smiled.
“So I’ve been told.”
Silas studied her.
He had expected fear.
She gave him none.
That was the first victory.
The charity auction began at eight.
At 8:17, Roman started an argument with a state senator exactly as planned.
It was spectacular.
People turned.
Phones appeared.
Security shifted toward the ballroom.
Mara slipped upstairs.
“Hall clear,” Noah whispered through her earpiece.
She reached Silas’s office.
Locked.
Noah had prepared her.
Six digits.
The keypad opened.
She entered.
The room smelled of leather and cedar.
“Desk,” Noah instructed.
Mara found the hidden server connection.
She inserted the device.
TRANSFER: 1%.
“Come on.”
12%.
Footsteps outside.
Mara froze.
“Noah?”
“Someone’s coming.”
“Helpful.”
31%.
The door opened.
Ethan entered.
Mara’s blood ran cold.
He closed the door behind him.
“You really should have stayed a waitress.”
Mara backed toward the desk.
“I liked the tips.”
Ethan almost laughed.
“You know what your problem is?”
“Currently? You.”
“You think Roman can save you.”
“No.”
That surprised him.
Mara looked at the transfer.
48%.
“I think Roman spent years believing violence could solve every problem.”
“And?”
“I’m beginning to convince him he’s wrong.”
Ethan raised his gun.
“You won’t live long enough to find out.”
Mara grabbed a crystal decanter and threw it.
Ethan ducked.
She ran.
He caught her dress.
Fabric tore.
Mara kicked backward.
His grip loosened.
63%.
Ethan slammed her against the desk.
Her vision flashed white.
Then the door exploded inward.
Roman.
He hit Ethan.
The gun skidded beneath a chair.
Ethan recovered quickly.
The two men collided.
Mara crawled toward the device.
78%.
Roman took a punch.
Ethan grabbed the gun.
Mara saw it first.
“Roman!”
She kicked the chair.
The gun slid away.
Roman tackled Ethan.
91%.
Security alarms began screaming.
Noah’s voice came through.
“Ten seconds!”
Silas appeared at the doorway with two armed guards.
“Enough.”
Everyone froze.
Silas pointed a gun at Mara.
Roman immediately stepped away from Ethan.
Silas smiled.
“Interesting.”
He gestured.
“Roman Mercer, surrendering because I point a weapon at a waitress.”
Mara looked toward the screen.
97%.
Silas noticed.
His smile disappeared.
He fired.
Roman lunged.
The bullet struck the computer.
Mara screamed.
TRANSFER COMPLETE.
Noah shouted in her ear.
“Got it!”
Silas realized.
“What did you do?”
Mara smiled despite herself.
“I stopped being invisible.”
Chaos erupted.
Roman’s men entered from the corridor.
Guests fled downstairs.
Ethan escaped again through a hidden passage.
Silas was surrounded.
But he was smiling.
“Check your phone, Roman.”
Roman did.
His expression changed.
Mara’s stomach dropped.
“What?”
Silas smiled.
“I planned for this.”
Roman showed her the screen.
Noah.
Bound to a chair.
Live video.
Mara stopped breathing.
“How?”
Silas nodded toward Ethan’s abandoned earpiece.
“Your brother was clever. Ethan was cleverer.”
Mara heard Noah shouting through her own earpiece.
Then static.
Silas continued.
“My men found him twenty minutes ago.”
Mara moved toward Silas.
Roman caught her.
“Where is he?”
Silas smiled.
“The old Union Stockyards.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“What do you want?”
“The device.”
“No.”
Mara looked at him.
Roman continued.
“The ledger has already been copied.”
Silas’s smile vanished.
Roman lifted his phone.
“And sent.”
“To whom?”
Mara answered.
“Everyone.”
Noah had built a dead-man distribution system.
The evidence was already traveling to federal investigators and multiple journalists.
Silas’s empire was collapsing in real time.
Phones throughout the mansion began ringing.
Silas stared.
“You stupid girl.”
Mara shook her head.
“That’s the problem with people like you.”
“What?”
“You never notice the person carrying your champagne.”
Police sirens approached.
Silas grabbed Mara.
His gun pressed against her ribs.
Roman froze.
Silas dragged her toward the balcony.
“You ruined everything.”
“No,” Mara whispered.
“My brother did.”
Silas struck her.
Roman moved.
Silas aimed at him.
“Stay back!”
Mara looked at Roman.
For once, she saw genuine terror on his face.
She remembered the ballroom.
One, two, three.
She moved on three.
Mara dropped.
Roman lunged.
The gun fired.
Glass shattered.
Silas fell against the balcony railing.
Roman wrestled the weapon away.
Police flooded the mansion.
Silas was arrested.
Mara barely noticed.
She grabbed Roman.
“Noah.”
He nodded.
“We’re going.”
They raced downstairs.
Halfway to the car, Mara’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then Ethan’s voice.
“Come alone, Mara.”
Her blood turned cold.
“If Roman follows you, Noah dies.”
A scream sounded in the background.
Her brother.
Then Ethan whispered the words that changed everything.
May you like
“And there’s something Noah still hasn’t told you about your father.”
The call ended.
