Chapter 6 - THE TRAP
“No!” I screamed, stepping backward. “No, they can’t take her!”
“Marcus, lock down the gate,” Julian commanded, his voice a whip crack in the quiet study. “No one comes on this property.”
“Sir, it’s the Polizia di Stato. If we deny them entry, it’s an international incident.”
“Then stall them!” Julian roared. He slammed his laptop shut, pocketing the flash drive. He turned to me, his hands gripping my arms again. “Sarah, listen to me. If you go out those gates, Richard’s men will intercept the police transport. You and Maya will disappear. Do you understand?”
I nodded, tears streaming down my face. “What do we do?”
“We play his game,” Julian said, his eyes blazing with a cold, terrifying fire. He pulled out his phone. “He wants to use the law? So will I.”
For the next hour, I hid in the nursery, holding Maya and Leo in my arms, listening to the muffled sounds of shouting in Italian from the courtyard. Julian was out there with a team of lawyers he had woken up in Milan.
Finally, the front door slammed, and Julian walked into the nursery. He looked exhausted, but triumphant.
“I bought us forty-eight hours,” Julian said. “My lawyers filed a counter-injunction claiming you are a protected whistleblower under my corporate employ. The police have backed off, but they are watching the gates.”
I let out a shaky breath, burying my face in Maya’s hair. “Thank you.”
Julian crouched down beside us. For the first time, he reached out and gently brushed a tear from my cheek. His touch was warm. “I promise you, he is never touching you or your daughter again.”
The intimacy in his eyes made my breath catch. In just a few days, this terrifying, powerful man had become my sanctuary.
“But we can’t stay locked in here forever,” I said.
“We aren’t going to,” Julian said. He stood up. “We have the ledger. We have his name. But if we hand it to the police now, Richard will claim it’s fake. He’ll claim you stole it. We need him to come here and admit it. We need to catch him in the act.”
“How?”
Before Julian could answer, Marcus stepped into the doorway. The massive bodyguard wouldn't meet Julian’s eyes.
“Marcus, prep the team,” Julian said. “We’re setting up a meeting.”
“Sir,” Marcus said, his voice breaking. He reached into his jacket and pulled out his badge and earpiece, setting them on the changing table.
Julian frowned. “What are you doing?”
“I have to resign,” Marcus said quietly. He finally looked at me, his eyes full of shame. “When we were on the plane… I saw her passport. I thought she was a corporate spy sent by the cartel. I didn’t know she was a victim. I tipped off a contact at Global Meridian to see if they knew her.”
My stomach plummeted. Reversal. Richard didn’t find me through a tracker. Marcus had accidentally handed me to him.
Julian’s face went deadly pale. “You told them she was with me?”
“I thought I was protecting you, sir,” Marcus whispered.
Julian stared at his oldest friend and protector. “Pick up your badge, Marcus.”
May you like
“Sir—”
“Pick it up,” Julian said, his voice devoid of anger, replaced by cold steel. “You want to protect my family? You fix this tonight. Because Richard is already in Rome. And we’re going to invite him in.”
