Chapter 6 - The Broken Lock
Willa woke up at 6:00 AM to the harsh sound of heavy boots echoing down the hallway.
She sat up abruptly, her mind snapping back to full alertness. She looked down at her hand. Everett’s fingers were resting still against the sheet, motionless once again. She wondered if she had dreamed the sensation of his grip during the night.
The suite door flew open with a bang.
Sterling Kane stepped into the room, flanked by two towering men in tactical jackets—his primary enforcement lieutenants, Petrov and Marcus. Sterling’s hair was uncombed, his eyes bloodshot, his tie loosened at his neck.
He was holding an iPad displaying a live stock market ledger.
"Where is it?" Sterling roared, throwing a vase off the side table. The glass shattered violently across the hardwood floor.
Willa stood up instantly, stepping between Sterling and Everett’s bed. "Where is what? What are you talking about?"
"The master encryption key!" Sterling snarled, stepping up to her and grabbing her upper arm with a bruising grip. "The board meeting is in two hours! I went to execute the dockland transfer, and Everett’s private Swiss accounts locked down automatically! Someone accessed the central server from a terminal inside this house last night!"
Willa gasped as his fingers dug into her bruised skin. "I don't know anything about Swiss accounts! I don't even have a computer!"
"Don't lie to me, you little gutter rat!" Sterling shoved her backward.
Willa stumbled, her lower back slamming hard against the corner of the heavy wooden desk. Pain exploded across her spine, bringing tears to her eyes.
In the bed, Everett’s heart rate monitor spiked wildly—jumping from sixty to ninety-five in three seconds.
Petrov, the larger lieutenant, glanced at the monitor. "Boss, his heart rate..."
"I don't care about his heart rate!" Sterling spat, kicking a piece of shattered porcelain across the floor. He stepped over to Willa, leaning down until his face was inches from hers. "Listen to me, girl. You are here for one reason: to keep your mouth shut and look like a grieving wife when the news cameras show up at his funeral next week."
He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"If I find out you’re hiding anything... if you so much as breathe a word to the lawyers... I will stop payments to St. Mary’s Care Center within ten minutes. Your mother will be on the concrete sidewalk before sunset. Do you understand me?"
Willa swallowed the copper taste of fear in her mouth. She glared into Sterling’s eyes with cold, unyielding hatred.
"I understand," she whispered.
"Good." Sterling released her face, wiping his hands on his trousers as if touching trash. "Petrov, stay in the hallway. Lock the doors. Nobody comes in or out until Whitfield arrives with the final dosage tonight."
They turned and walked out, the heavy oak doors slamming shut with a echoing deadbolt click.
Willa leaned against the desk, her chest heaving as tears of anger slipped down her cheeks. She held her bruised arm, trembling.
From the bed, a sound cut through the silence.
It wasn't the monitor. It wasn't the wind.
It was a low, deep, rasping sound—like rusted iron sliding across stone.
Willa froze. She slowly turned her head toward the bed.
Everett Kane’s head was turned toward her on the pillow.
May you like
His dark, heavy eyelids were open.
And his coal-black eyes, burning with a terrifying, absolute fury, were fixed directly on her face.
