Chapter 9
Nathan’s men.
They stepped between Warren’s crew and the surgery wing.
Warren’s jaw tightened.
For several seconds no one moved. Nurses passed at the far end of the hallway, unaware that a war had narrowed itself into a quiet hospital corridor.
Then Warren’s phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed.
Emily saw it and knew something had gone wrong for him.
The elevator doors opened.
Nathan stepped out.
He came down the hall like a storm in a black coat, eyes fixed on Warren. Every person who knew nothing still turned to look. Some men carried danger like a weapon. Nathan carried it like weather.
Warren rose slowly. “You should be at the council.”
Nathan stopped in front of him. “You should be smarter.”
A flicker of panic crossed Warren’s face before he buried it.
“If you’re here,” Warren said, “you lose.”
Nathan’s voice was quiet. “Who told you I was the only one carrying the evidence?”
Warren went still.
Nathan glanced at Grant Mercer, who stepped from the stairwell behind Warren’s men with a phone to his ear.
“The council has started,” Nathan said. “Without your friends controlling the room. Grant is presenting the files now. Your payments. Your bribes. Your theft. Danny’s murder.”
Warren’s face drained.
“You came here to take a hostage,” Nathan continued. “I let you believe that was your last move. It kept your eyes away from the real board.”
Warren’s courtesy cracked.
“You think they’ll choose you after seeing you abandon the meeting for a waitress?”
Nathan’s eyes moved, just once, to Emily.
Then back.
“Yes,” he said. “Because unlike you, they understand the difference between weakness and loyalty.”
Grant’s men closed in.
Warren’s crew reached for their weapons, but Nathan’s men were faster. The hospital remained strangely silent, the struggle contained in hard grips and whispered threats.
Warren stared at Emily with sudden hatred.
“This is because of you.”
Emily lifted her chin. “No. This is because of you.”
Nathan stepped closer to Warren.
“If you ever speak her name again,” he said, “you will wish the council had been the worst thing waiting for you.”
Warren was taken away through the service elevator.
Nathan turned to Emily.
For one second, the terrifying man disappeared, and only the man who had promised a child he would return stood there.
“Lily?” he asked.
Emily looked at the red light over the operating room doors.
“Still inside.”
Nathan sat beside her.
He did not go to the council. He did not send more orders. He sat with Emily in the hallway while his empire balanced on the evidence she had uncovered and the loyalty he had chosen to trust.
May you like
Hours passed.
Then the red light went off.
