Chapter 2 - The Fifth Avenue Siege
“DON’T TOUCH HER!” Adrian bellowed.
He stepped in front of the bed, throwing a devastating right hook that caught the first guard clean across the jaw. The man stumbled backward, crashing into the IV stand, sending glass tubes shattering across the floor.
The second guard drew a taser, but Adrian grabbed his wrist, twisting it upward with brutal efficiency, slamming the guard into the doorframe until he dropped the weapon.
Preston recoiled in shock, taking two steps backward into the hallway. “Adrian! Have you lost your mind?! She’s a thief!”
“She’s the rightful owner of this company, Preston!” Adrian yelled, his chest heaving, his face dark with a terrifying fury Preston had never seen before.
Adrian turned to Rosa, grabbing her arm gently but firmly. “Take the suitcase. We’re leaving now.”
Rosa didn't panic. She hugged the small black suitcase to her chest, her face pale but her eyes steady. She followed Adrian out of the room, stepping over the fallen guards.
Preston scrambled backward down the hallway, pulling his smartphone from his pocket. “Security! Lock down the main entrance! Do not let my brother or the maid leave the building!”
Nurses and doctors were rushing down the corridor toward Eleanor’s room, reacting to the heart alarm. The hallway was a chaos of shouts, running feet, and blaring alarms.
Adrian grabbed Rosa’s hand, pulling her into the service stairwell just as two more of Preston’s private guards rounded the corner.
They plunged down the concrete stairs, eight flights down, their footsteps echoing loudly against the cinderblock walls.
“Where are we going?” Rosa panted, holding her coat closed around the suitcase.
“My car is in the subterranean garage,” Adrian said, his mind racing through tactical options. “If Preston locks down the main gates, he’ll call his lawyers to file an emergency injunction claiming my mother was mentally unfit when she signed anything.”
“He already has the board in his pocket, Adrian,” Rosa warned as they reached the basement level. “Preston has spent six months buying out the minority shareholders. The board of directors meeting is scheduled for tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. If he presents the sale to the private equity firm, Whitmore Global will be dissolved, its assets moved offshore, and my father’s documents will become useless paper.”
They burst through the heavy steel door into the dimly lit underground parking garage.
Fifty yards away sat Adrian’s dark gray armored Audi sedan.
Before they could reach it, two sleek black SUVs pulled across the concrete driving lane, blocking the exit ramp. Four men in tactical gear stepped out, holding radio headsets.
Preston walked out from the elevator bay behind them, breathless, a vicious smirk on his face as he adjusted his cuffs.
“You can’t outrun me in my own city, brother,” Preston said, stepping forward while his men formed a semicircle around Adrian and Rosa. “You were always the noble fool, Adrian. Spending your time running the operational side, playing the good corporate prince. While you were sitting at Mom’s bedside, I bought fifty-two percent of the proxy votes.”
Preston held out his hand toward Rosa. “Give me the suitcase, Rosa. I’ll pay you five million dollars right now. You walk away, buy a house in Florida, and never set foot in New York again. Or I have you arrested for murder and grand larceny.”
Rosa stepped out from behind Adrian’s shoulder. She looked Preston straight in the eyes—the boy she had cleaned up after for twelve years, the man who had treated her like garbage on the floor.
She raised her chin, her voice echoing clearly off the concrete walls of the garage.
“My father died in a cold cell, Mr. Whitmore,” Rosa said softly. “Five million dollars cannot buy his name back. And it cannot buy my soul.”
Preston’s face darkened to a ugly crimson. “Kill the deal, boys. Take it by force.”
The four tactical guards stepped forward.
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At that exact moment, the heavy tires of a massive silver Range Rover screeched around the concrete corner of the garage.
The vehicle didn't slow down. It slammed directly into the side of Preston’s lead black SUV, crushing the engine block with a deafening metal CRUNCH!
