Chapter 14 - THE CHASE DOWN TWENTY FLOORSGerald Vance should not have been able to run.
He was older, polished, built for leather chairs and private clubs, not stairwells and panic. But fear made him fast.
He shoved his attorney into an agent and bolted through the side door before anyone reached him.
“Stairs!” Marcus shouted.
Ethan moved instantly.
Aria followed.
“Stay here!” Ethan snapped.
She ignored him.
For once, not because she wanted danger, but because she knew the building. The boardroom side door did not lead only to stairs. It connected to the old executive service corridor her father used when he wanted to avoid cameras.
Victoria knew that corridor.
Vance clearly did too.
Aria kicked off her heels and ran.
Pain flared through her injured feet, but adrenaline swallowed it. Ethan caught up within seconds, fury and concern battling across his face.
“I said stay.”
“You also said fear pays attention. Pay attention to me.”
He cursed under his breath but did not stop.
They raced down the service corridor. Behind them, agents shouted. Ahead, an emergency door slammed.
Aria veered left.
“Not there,” she said. “He’ll take the private elevator.”
“It’s locked.”
“Victoria had overrides installed after Dad died.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
They reached the elevator bank just as the private doors began closing.
Vance stood inside, breathing hard, one hand pressed to the panel.
His eyes met Aria’s.
For the first time, he looked at her with pure hatred.
“You should have stayed in the room,” he said.
The doors slid shut.
Ethan jammed his hand between them too late. Metal sealed.
“Marcus,” he barked into his earpiece. “Private elevator descending. Override now.”
Aria stared at the floor indicator.
Twenty-seven.
Twenty-six.
Twenty-five.
“He won’t go to the lobby,” she said.
“Garage?”
“No. Too obvious.”
The numbers dropped.
Twenty-two.
Twenty-one.
Aria closed her eyes, picturing the building as it had been when her father owned it. He had loved secret renovations, emergency exits, clever old routes from the hotel days.
“The mezzanine,” she said. “There’s a skybridge to the parking structure next door.”
Ethan grabbed her hand.
They ran again.
At the mezzanine level, chaos waited. Office workers had come out of rooms, whispering. An alarm pulsed red against white walls.
Vance emerged from the private elevator ahead, moving toward the skybridge doors.
An agent shouted, “Stop!”
Vance grabbed a young assistant and pulled a small blade to her throat.
Everything froze.
The woman whimpered.
Vance’s face twisted. The mask was gone now. He looked old, cornered, and vicious.
“Back up!” he shouted.
Ethan lifted both hands slowly.
Aria stood behind him, heart hammering.
Vance dragged the assistant toward the glass skybridge. Rain hammered the city outside. Far below, police lights flashed.
“You think you won?” Vance shouted at Aria. “You have no idea how many men owe me their lives.”
“No,” Aria said, stepping slightly around Ethan. “But I know how many women owe you their nightmares.”
His eyes sharpened.
“Aria,” Ethan warned quietly.
She kept her gaze on Vance.
“You like rooms with locked doors,” she said. “You like people afraid and alone. But look around.”
Cameras were up.
Phones recording.
Agents watching.
Vance’s hostage shaking in his grip.
“You’re the one trapped in a room now,” Aria said.
His hand twitched.
The assistant cried out.
Ethan moved half an inch.
Vance saw.
“Don’t,” Vance hissed.
Then Celeste’s voice came from behind them.
“Gerald.”
Vance’s face changed.
Celeste stood at the corridor entrance, supported by Marcus but upright. Her skin was pale from surgery. Her eyes were fire.
“You stole ten years from me,” she said. “You took Daniel. You took Richard. You took every woman who thought money could not reach locked doors.”
Vance’s breathing grew ragged.
“You should be dead,” he said.
Celeste smiled faintly. “You tried.”
For one second, his blade lowered.
Ethan took that second.
He moved like violence had been waiting politely inside him all along.
The assistant was pulled free. Vance hit the glass wall hard enough to crack it. The blade skittered across the floor. Agents swarmed.
Aria exhaled for the first time in what felt like minutes.
Vance was forced to his knees.
His eyes found Aria again as cuffs closed around his wrists.
“This doesn’t end with me,” he said.
Aria stepped closer.
“No,” she said. “It starts with you.”
Vance laughed softly.
Then he looked past her.
At Victoria.
She stood at the far end of the corridor, escorted by two agents. Her face was unreadable.
Vance smiled.
“Tell her,” he said.
Victoria went pale.
Aria turned toward her stepmother.
“Tell me what?”
Victoria’s silence was more frightening than any scream.
Vance’s smile widened.
“Tell your precious stepdaughter,” he said, “why Richard married you in the first place.”
The corridor went silent.
Aria looked at her father’s widow.
May you like
For the first time, Victoria did not look angry.
She looked ashamed.
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