Chapter 1 - The First Door Closed
Damian Cross stared at me as though the woman standing in front of him had suddenly become a stranger.
For the first time that evening, he stopped pretending he was amused.
His eyes moved from my face to the steel barriers covering the ballroom doors.
Then to the security cameras above us.
Then back to me.
“You’re insane.”
His voice was quieter now.
I smiled.
“No, Damian.”
I wiped the last trace of blood from my lip.
“I’m prepared.”
A murmur rolled through the ballroom.
Hundreds of guests were whispering.
Some were already pulling out their phones.
Others were shouting at the security guards stationed along the walls.
A senator near the staircase demanded that someone open the doors.
A television executive threatened to have everyone arrested.
A billionaire hammered his fist against one of the steel barriers.
Nothing happened.
The barriers did not move.
Damian suddenly stepped toward me.
“You have no idea what you just did.”
I remained still.
“I know exactly what I did.”
“You locked three hundred people inside a private estate.”
“Four hundred and twelve.”
His expression tightened.
I continued.
“And nineteen of them are the reason these doors were installed.”
That sentence changed the room.
Whispers stopped.
Several people looked around.
Not at me.
At one another.
Damian noticed.
That frightened him more than the barriers.
“What are you talking about?”
Before I could answer, every television screen in the ballroom went black.
The charity presentation disappeared.
The sponsor logos vanished.
A second later, a white countdown appeared.
00:59.
00:58.
00:57.
Someone screamed.
Damian looked toward the screens.
“What is that?”
I did not answer.
I watched his father instead.
Arthur Cross stood near the center of the ballroom with a champagne glass in his hand.
He was sixty-two.
Silver-haired.
Perfectly tailored.
One of the wealthiest real-estate developers on the East Coast.
For thirty years, newspapers had described him as untouchable.
Tonight he no longer looked untouchable.
He looked terrified.
His champagne glass slowly lowered.
His eyes found mine.
He knew.
Not everything.
But enough.
Arthur pushed through the guests.
“Damian.”
His voice cracked like a whip.
His son turned.
“What?”
Arthur grabbed Damian by the arm.
“What did you do?”
Damian jerked away.
“She threatened me.”
Arthur went pale.
“You touched her?”
“She’s nobody.”
Arthur slapped him.
Hard.
The sound echoed through the ballroom.
Damian stumbled sideways.
The crowd gasped.
I said nothing.
Damian stared at his father.
“What the hell?”
Arthur leaned close.
“You stupid bastard.”
His voice was barely audible.
“You have no idea who she is.”
That finally silenced Damian.
He turned toward me.
I saw confusion replacing anger.
Then the countdown reached ten.
10.
11.
12.
Security guards moved simultaneously.
Their hands went to their earpieces.
Damian looked around.
“What happens at zero?”
I met his eyes.
“You find out why I came tonight.”
3.
4.
5.
The screens flashed.
A photograph appeared.
Arthur Cross standing beside three men inside a warehouse.
Beneath the photograph were bank transfers.
Shell companies.
Property records.
And a single heading.
THE CROSS FOUNDATION INTERNAL ARCHIVE.
Damian stopped breathing.
Arthur’s glass slipped from his fingers.
It shattered.
And somewhere behind me, a woman whispered something that made my blood turn cold.
“She found the warehouse.”
I turned toward the voice.
The woman disappeared into the crowd.
And suddenly I realized something terrifying.
The nineteen names on my list might not be the only people trapped inside.
Someone else knew about the warehouse.
May you like
Someone I had never identified.
Someone who had been waiting for this night too.
