Chapter 6 - The Trap at the Docks
At the Mercer estate, Nia was standing in the kitchen, preparing lunch with Dr. Chen, when her phone—a new, secured device provided by Adrian—began ringing.
It was an unlisted number.
Nia answered, placing it on speaker.
"Nia... Nia, help me!" a panicked, young voice screamed through the speaker. It was her twenty-year-old brother, Ethan.
"Ethan?!" Nia gasped, horror gripping her heart. "Ethan, where are you?!"
A rough, familiar voice took over the line. Victor Raines.
"Hello, Nurse Whitaker," Raines sneered softly. "Your brother is currently tied to a chair inside Warehouse 14 at the Port of Seattle. He's a very polite young man. It would be a terrible shame if he met the same fate as old Gerald Torres."
"Raines!" Nia cried out, tears streaming down her face. "Leave him out of this! He has nothing to do with this!"
"You ruined my life, Nia!" Raines screamed, his sanity clearly snapping under the weight of his empire's collapse. "You took my money, my reputation, my freedom! You bring me the original flash drive and every backup file you gave to Adrian Vale! Come alone to Warehouse 14 in one hour! If I see a single one of Vale’s SUVs, your brother gets a bullet through his head!"
The line went dead.
Nia dropped the phone, sinking onto her knees on the tile floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
Before she could hit the floor, two strong arms caught her. Adrian had walked into the kitchen, having heard every word of the call over the house monitoring system.
"Adrian... my brother..." Nia wept, clutching his shirt. "They have Ethan! Raines is going to kill him!"
Adrian lifted her up gently, looking into her frantic eyes with absolute, unyielding calm.
"Listen to me, Nia," Adrian said, his voice dropping into a deep, steady rhythm that instantly cut through her panic. "Your brother is not going to die today. Do you trust me?"
Nia looked into his eyes—the eyes of a man who ruled the darkness of the city, but who had held her hand with absolute tenderness when she was broken.
"I trust you," she whispered.
May you like
Adrian turned to Marcus, who was standing by the door with a tactical radio.
"Mobilize every unit we have at the docks," Adrian ordered coldly. "We're going to Warehouse 14."
