Chapter 7 - THE UNCLE WHO OFFERED ME TEN MILLION DOLLARS
Vincent Drake looked nothing like a monster.
That frightened me more.
He was sixty-three, silver-haired, elegantly dressed, and carried himself like someone’s favorite grandfather.
He stopped several feet away.
“Nathan.”
“Vincent.”
Nathan moved slightly in front of me.
Vincent noticed.
His smile widened.
“So this is Bella.”
“You stay away from her.”
Vincent ignored him.
“My condolences about your mother.”
My stomach turned.
“You knew her?”
“I knew many people.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Something flickered in his eyes.
Then disappeared.
Vincent handed me a business card.
“I’d like to discuss your newly discovered interest in Drake Harbor.”
“I’m not selling.”
“I haven’t made an offer.”
“You came to my mother’s grave.”
His smile faded.
“Ten million dollars.”
Nathan laughed once.
Coldly.
“The shares are worth more than that.”
Vincent looked at him.
“This is family business.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“She is family business now.”
The words surprised all three of us.
Vincent’s eyes sharpened.
He leaned toward me.
“Ask Nathan how many people have disappeared because they crossed him.”
“Nathan isn’t the one I’m investigating.”
“No?”
Vincent smiled.
“You spent one night in his hotel room, and suddenly you believe you know him?”
Heat rushed into my face.
Nathan’s expression became lethal.
“Leave.”
Vincent adjusted his cuff.
“Think carefully, Miss Carter. Your mother survived for twenty-four years because she understood when to disappear.”
He walked away.
I watched his car leave.
“That was a threat.”
“Yes.”
Nathan called his security chief.
“Luca. Move Bella somewhere protected.”
I folded my arms.
“Nathan.”
He stopped.
“We decide together.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“Right.”
That night, I agreed to stay in a secure house near Lincoln Park.
Not because Nathan ordered it.
Because somebody had already destroyed my apartment.
At 2:11 a.m., breaking glass woke me.
Nathan was in the next room.
He reached the hallway just as a masked man climbed through the rear window.
Everything happened fast.
A struggle.
A shout.
Then Luca, Nathan’s security chief, appeared behind the intruder and brought him down.
Police arrived minutes later.
The attacker carried no identification.
But there was a phone in his pocket.
Only one message had been received.
CARTER GIRL. TONIGHT. NO MISTAKES.
Nathan looked at Luca.
“Who knew this address?”
Luca answered carefully.
“You. Me. And Vincent.”
Nathan stared at the phone.
Then Luca said something worse.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The message didn’t come from Vincent’s phone.”
May you like
He looked directly at Nathan.
“It came from mine.”
Related Stories
