Part 20:
You should go home, he told Clara. Be with Lily. If something goes wrong. If something goes wrong, I’ll be exactly where I need to be. This is my company, Daniel. I’m not running. This isn’t about courage. It’s about keeping you safe. No, it’s about showing whoever’s behind this that Clara Donovan doesn’t abandon her people or her responsibilities.
She met his eyes steadily. Would you leave if positions were reversed? He wouldn’t, and they both knew it. Then we do this together, she said. The afternoon crawled by with agonizing slowness. Daniel checked and rechecked equipment, ran through scenarios with Jake’s team coordinated with building security, who thought this was just an elaborate drill.
At 4:00, he sent everyone home except essential personnel claiming system maintenance required a skeleton crew. At 5, Clara appeared with coffee and sandwiches. You need to eat. Not hungry. Wasn’t a request. She pushed a sandwich toward him. Ethan needs you functional, not heroic. They ate in silence, the weight of coming violence hanging between them.
Outside, the sun was setting, painting the city in shades of amber and shadow. Somewhere in that dying light, threats were mobilizing. I’ve been thinking, Clara said quietly, about what happens after tonight, assuming we survive. We’ll survive. Your confidence is reassuring, if not entirely convincing, she turned her coffee cup in slow circles.
But after, when the threat is neutralized and life goes back to normal, what then? Then we figure out what normal means. Does it mean Sunday dinners? Does it mean you and Ethan being part of our lives beyond professional obligations? Daniel sat down his sandwich. What do you want it to mean? I want She stopped frustrated. I don’t know how to do this.
I negotiate billion dollar deals, but I don’t know how to tell you that watching you with Lily, seeing how gentle you are despite everything you’ve been through, it makes me feel things I thought I’d buried with my marriage. Clara, and I know it’s complicated. You work for me. Our kids are involved.
There are a thousand reasons why this is a bad idea. But but when you texted me at 3:00 in the morning about electromagnetic fields, I smiled for the first time that day. When Ethan fell asleep on my couch, it felt like home in a way that house hasn’t in years. When you look at me, you see Clara, not the CEO or the billionaire or the divorcee, just Clara.
Daniel wanted to reach for her to bridge the space between their chairs, but the monitors around them showed security feeds of a building under threat, reminding him why they were here. After tonight, he promised we’ll talk about everything. You keep saying that. Yeah, because I need you focused on surviving, not on what comes next.
I’m a multitasker. Not tonight. Tonight, you’re just staying alive. At 7:00, Daniel’s phone chimed with a message from Jake. movement. Three vehicles approaching from different directions. They’re here, Daniel told Clara to Time to go. They moved to the security command center, a reinforced room with monitors showing every angle of the building.
Clara had insisted on staying despite his protests, and he’d finally agreed on the condition that she wear a bulletproof vest. It made her look smaller, somehow more vulnerable despite its protection. Vehicle one just past the north entrance, Jake reported through the earpiece. Two occupants, both male. Vehicle two coming up on the south loading dock, another teammate added.
Female driver can’t see passengers through the tinted windows. Daniel watched the feeds his mind, calculating angles and probabilities. They were being careful professional. This wasn’t a smash and grab. It was a coordinated infiltration. There, Clare pointed to a monitor showing the parking garage. that janitor.
We don’t have anyone scheduled tonight. Daniel zoomed in on the figure pushing a cleaning cart. The uniform was right, but the gate was wrong. Too smooth, too purposeful. Military training disguised, but not entirely hidden. First operative inside, he reported to Jake. Parking level two. I have eyes on more movement on the monitors. The vehicles had discharged passengers who melted into shadows around the building.
Daniel counted at least eight operatives, possibly more. They’re not all going for the R&D facility, Clara observed. Look, two are heading for the executive level. Daniel’s blood chilled. They weren’t just after the quantum encryption project. They were after Clara herself. The theft was a distraction. Change of plans, he said into his mic.
This is a kidnapping attempt. Primary target is Clara Donovan. Copy that. adjusting positions. “We need to get you out,” Daniel told Clara. “No, if I run now, they’ll know we were ready. They’ll disappear and try again later.” She pulled up the building schematics. “Besides, the executive level is locked down. They’ll need time to breach.
Time we can use.” Daniel made a decision. Stay here. Lock the door behind me. Don’t open it for anyone but me. Where are you going? Hunting. He moved through the building like a ghost using service corridors and maintenance shafts Marcus had never bothered to map. The first operative was in the stairwell climbing toward the executive level.
