Chapter 1
“You saved that ride for me,” I said, staring at Valerie. “Now you take it first.”
My aunt’s face lost its color.
The elevator doors remained open behind Daniel. Nicholas was still half-buried beneath the overturned luggage trolley, but he had stopped trying to rise. He was watching Valerie now.
That told me who understood the plan better.
Harper stood between two of my guards with both arms wrapped around Daniel’s jacket. She had stopped crying, but every time the elevator chimed, her little shoulders tightened.
I noticed.
So did Valerie.
“Adrian,” she said carefully, “you’re frightening the child.”
I almost smiled.
“You shoved her into an elevator.”
“She was throwing a tantrum.”
Harper’s head snapped toward her.
“I wasn’t.”
Children are inconvenient witnesses because they answer accusations nobody asked them to debate.
I looked at Daniel.
“Check it.”
He stepped inside without allowing the doors to close, examined the control panel, then looked toward the narrow service slot beside it.
His expression changed.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“This car isn’t running normal guest service.”
Nicholas closed his eyes.
There.
I walked closer.
Daniel explained that the elevator had been placed under a hotel service override. Whatever floor a guest pressed, the car had been instructed to bypass the main guest levels and descend to the restricted loading floor beneath the ballroom.
I turned toward Nicholas.
“That your hand on the control panel?”
He said nothing.
Valerie scoffed.
“It’s a hotel. Elevators get serviced.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Not five minutes before Mr. Falcone was scheduled to use this one.”
Silence.
That mattered.
After the gala reception, I was supposed to take this exact elevator upstairs to the private suite before returning for the midnight family toast.
Someone knew my route.
Someone changed the elevator.
And Harper had overheard enough to know it would not stop where I expected.
I crouched beside her.
“Sweetheart, what exactly did you hear?”
She pointed at Nicholas.
“He said Daddy goes down.”
My chest tightened.
“And then?”
Harper looked at Valerie.
“Aunt Valerie said everybody upstairs has to hurry before you come back.”
The atrium went completely still.
I stood.
The elevator was not meant to hurt me.
May you like
It was meant to remove me.
For just long enough that something important could happen without me.
