Chapter 8 - The Target on Her Back: A Terrifying Warning
The retaliation from Arthur was swift, desperate, and terrifying.
Two days before the decisive shareholders' meeting, I left the Blackwood corporate tower in Midtown accompanied by Marcus, Sebastian’s head of personal security. We were heading to the upstate recovery center to bring Diego home for the weekend.
As our armored SUV stopped at a red light near the entrance to the West Side Highway, a heavy delivery truck suddenly swerved across two lanes of traffic, ramming violently into the driver’s side of our vehicle.
The impact sounded like an explosion of tearing metal and shattering glass. The SUV spun out across the intersection, slamming hard against a concrete barrier.
Dazed, blood dripping from a minor cut on my forehead, I tried to unbuckle my seatbelt. "Marcus!"
Marcus was already drawing his sidearm, kicking open his crushed door. "Stay down, Miss Santos! It’s an ambush!"
Two masked men in tactical gear emerged from an idling van behind the truck, carrying crowbars and sidearms, rushing toward my door.
Before they could reach the handle, sirens wailed through the intersection. Two unmarked black sedans screeched to a halt, and four plainclothes private security operatives leaped out with weapons drawn.
The masked attackers realized their window had closed. "Fall back! Go!" one screamed, scrambling back into the van before speeding away into the congested traffic.
Within ten minutes, the intersection was cordoned off by police cruisers.
A sleek Maybach tore through the police tape, stopping abruptly in the center of the road. Sebastian leaped out before the car had fully stopped, bypassing officers and paramedics, his face pale with absolute panic.
"Maria!" he roared, pushing past a detective.
When he saw me sitting on the back of an ambulance, wrapped in a shock blanket with a paramedic bandaging my forehead, his knees almost gave out. He reached me in two strides, pulling me into a crushing, desperate embrace, his hands trembling against my back.
"I’m here. I’ve got you," he breathed, his voice ragged and raw with terror. "I'm so sorry. I should never have let you leave the tower."
"I’m okay, Sebastian," I whispered, holding onto his lapels tightly. "Marcus protected me. Diego... is Diego safe?"
"Diego is already in a secure bunker at Blackwood Manor under twenty-four-hour armed guard," Sebastian said, pulling back to cup my face, inspecting every inch of my injury with fierce, protective fury. "Arthur has crossed the line into madness. He knows the digital files are being decrypted by federal investigators. He’s cornered, and a cornered rat will bite anything in sight."
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Sebastian turned to his head of security, his voice dropping into a chilling tone of absolute war.
"Lock down the estate. Authorize lethal force on perimeter breach. And inform the federal strike team that we are moving the timeline forward. We end this tonight."
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