Chapter 5 - THE DRIVE
I couldn't breathe. The garden spun around me.
Julian burst through the patio doors, his face pale, taking in the shattered glass and my trembling form. Marcus handed him the photograph. Julian looked at it, his jaw clenching so hard a muscle ticked in his cheek.
“Pack your things,” Julian ordered Marcus. “We’re moving to the safe house.”
“No,” I sobbed, standing up. “I’m putting you in danger. He tracked me. I need to leave. I’ll take Maya and we’ll run—”
“You wouldn’t make it to the bottom of the hill,” Julian said sharply. He stepped forward, gripping my shoulders. His touch was firm, grounding me. “Look at me, Sarah. You’re not leaving. But you need to tell me exactly who Richard is.”
“He’s a logistics manager!” I cried. “He’s nobody! He just likes to control me. He likes to hurt me.”
Julian’s eyes darkened. “A logistics manager doesn't have the resources to hire private trackers in a foreign country within twenty-four hours. Bring me the rabbit.”
Ten minutes later, we sat in Julian’s massive mahogany study. Maya was in the nursery with Leo and a female guard.
Julian took a small pocketknife and carefully slit the seam of the pink rabbit. He reached inside the cotton and pulled out a small, black USB flash drive.
I stared at it in horror. “I’ve never seen that before.”
Julian plugged it into a secure, encrypted laptop on his desk. His fingers flew across the keyboard. Code scrolled across the screen, followed by thousands of spreadsheets. Bank routing numbers. Cargo manifestos.
Julian went perfectly still.
“Sarah,” he breathed, his voice laced with disbelief. “What company did you say Richard works for?”
“Global Meridian Logistics,” I answered, my heart pounding.
Julian leaned back in his chair, rubbing a hand over his face. “I bought out Global Meridian’s parent company six months ago. We found massive discrepancies in their European shipping routes. Drugs. Weapons. Human trafficking.”
The room suddenly felt devoid of oxygen.
“I came to Rome to work with the Italian authorities to expose the cartel using Meridian’s ships,” Julian continued, looking at me. “We knew there was an inside man in Ohio managing the US side of the logistics. We didn't know his name. The cartel has been trying to kill me to stop the investigation.”
I stared at him, the pieces violently clicking together.
Richard didn't hit me just because he was angry I was leaving. He hit me because he was panicking. He had hidden the ledger—the one piece of evidence that could put him away for life—inside Maya’s toy to keep it out of his house during a corporate audit.
And I had unknowingly smuggled his death warrant across international borders.
“He’s not tracking you to bring you home, Sarah,” Julian said softly. “He’s tracking you to silence you. And get this drive back.”
Before I could process the magnitude of the danger I had put my daughter in, the heavy oak doors of the study burst open.
Marcus stood there, breathing heavily.
“Mr. Vance,” the bodyguard said, his voice tight. “The local Polizia are at the front gate. They have a warrant.”
May you like
Julian stood up. “For what?”
Marcus looked at me with deep regret. “For Sarah. Richard filed an international kidnapping charge. They’re here to take her in and put Maya in state custody.”
