Chapter 3 - The Trap ClosesTwo days later, the world Nora had fought so hard to protect shattered completely.
It was a Tuesday afternoon when Mrs. Adler, an elderly neighbor who lived across the street from Caleb’s elementary school, called Nora’s cell phone in a panic. Her voice was shaking so badly Nora could barely make out the words.
“Nora, get down here right now! There’s a black sedan with heavy tinted windows parked right outside the school gates. It’s been sitting there since noon, idling in the alley. No one’s getting out, but I saw someone taking photographs of the children playing on the recess yard—specifically watching Caleb.”
The phone almost slipped from Nora’s sweaty palm. The blood drained from her face, leaving her dizzy. Evelyn. It had to be Evelyn.
Nora dropped her apron on the kitchen counter, sprinted out of the estate without a word to the head housekeeper, and hailed a cab straight to Roman’s downtown corporate headquarters on Pratt Street. She didn't care about protocol anymore; she didn't care if she was trespassing. Her brother was in the crosshairs of a ruthless sociopath.
Bursting through the double mahogany doors of Roman’s top-floor office, Nora bypassed the stunned executive secretary and marched straight up to Roman’s massive oak desk.
Roman looked up, his dark eyes instantly narrowing at the sight of her pale, tear-streaked face. He dismissed his chief of security with a flick of his wrist.
“Nora. What is it?” he asked, standing up so fast his chair scraped loudly against the hardwood floor.
“It’s Evelyn,” Nora gasped, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. “She sent men to Caleb’s school. She’s watching him, Mr. Calder. She knows I won’t take her money, so she’s going after my brother.”
The temperature in the room dropped below freezing. Roman’s face hardened into a mask of pure, lethal fury. The air around him seemed to thicken with menace.
“Are you certain?” he asked, his voice deathly quiet.
“Mrs. Adler called me from across the street. A black sedan. The same kind of intimidation tactics your fiancée uses!” Nora cried, her composure finally breaking. “If anything happens to Caleb—”
“Nothing will happen to him,” Roman interrupted, cutting her off with absolute authority. He grabbed his phone from the desk, his thumb flying across the screen. “Marco!” he barked into the receiver. “Take three vehicles down to Market Street Elementary right now. Secure the boy. Bring him and Mrs. Adler to the safe house on Light Street. If anyone tries to stop you, put them in the ground.”
Roman hung up and looked at Nora, his gaze burning with an intensity that made her heart race. “Listen to me, Nora. Evelyn crossed a line she will never recover from. If she touched that child, there will be no wedding. There won’t even be a funeral for her social standing.”
He ordered his most trusted driver, Marco, to drive Nora home to pack emergency bags for her and Caleb before meeting them at the safe house. Nora felt a profound wave of relief wash over her. With Roman’s protection thrown around her brother, Evelyn’s games were finally over.
Or so she thought.
As Marco’s black SUV turned onto the highway toward Highlandtown, a heavy black sedan pulled abruptly out from a roadside diner, sliding directly into their lane. Marco cursed, slamming on the brakes, but a massive commercial delivery truck suddenly swerved from the adjacent lane, blocking their path completely.
“Ambush!” Marco yelled, drawing a heavy pistol from his shoulder holster.
Before Marco could shift the SUV into reverse, the passenger doors were ripped open. Masked men wielding heavy iron pipes and stun batons swarmed the vehicle. Marco fought fiercely, managing to drop two of the attackers, but a third blindsided him with a vicious blow to the temple, sending him slumping unconscious over the steering wheel.
Nora fought like a cornered animal, kicking, scratching, and screaming as heavy hands grabbed her arms. She managed to bite deep into the wrist of her assailant, tasting copper, but a massive blow to the back of her head exploded behind her eyes in a flash of blinding white light.
Then, the world dissolved into total, suffocating darkness.
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When Nora finally regained consciousness, the agonizing cold of the warehouse floor had seeped into her bones. Her wrists were tied behind her back with thick hemp rope, and a throbbing pain hammered inside her skull.
That was when the heavy steel door creaked open, and Evelyn Sterling stepped into the dim light wearing her immaculate red wool coat, carrying the forged resignation letters and the stolen payroll logs that would soon convince the entire city—and Roman Calder—that Nora Hayes had betrayed her employer, kidnapped her brother, and run away with twenty thousand dollars of stolen cash.
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