Only the beeping monitors and rain sounds broke the silence in Manhattan General Hospital's private wing.Water dripped from Erick's hair as he walked down the corridor in his wet black suit. The nurses at the reception desk glanced at him but said nothing. He didn't look important. That was the point.Leroy and Evelyn waited outside Victor's room with two bodyguards. "What are you doing here?" Evelyn snapped.Erick ignored her and reached for the door.Leroy stepped forward, trying to sound reasonable. "Victor's condition is unstable. Maybe we should postpone this—""I'm not here to talk," Erick said.He opened the door and went inside. The bodyguards didn't try to stop him.The room smelled of disinfectant. Victor Hale lay limp in the hospital bed, tubes attached to his chest. When he saw Erick, his face was ashen.“Well,” Victor hissed, “either I’m dying… or Manhattan’s starting to see ghosts.”Erick closed the door behind him. “You look terrible.”Victor let out a chuckle that t

"Total electrical failure," the driver shouted over the storm, flashlight beam trembling across the steaming engine. Remi shoved her aside without hesitation, plunging her hands into the mess of wires. Her manicured nails tore through connections with practiced precision. Thirty seconds was all it took to confirm her worst fear - this wasn't an accident. The car had been remotely bricked via military-grade encryption. "Inside. Now," Remi snapped. The driver scurried to call for help, but they both knew no one would come in this storm. The car door slammed shut, sealing them in a dripping cave of tension thicker than the rain outside. Erick sat rigid beside her, rainwater tracing the sharp angles of his face. His knuckles whitened around the steering wheel. "Who are you?" Remi's voice cut through the dark, lower now. Dangerous. Erick wiped rain from his brow with deliberate calm. "You know who I am." Remi laughed - a sharp, broken sound. She grabbed his tie, twisting the silk ti

For the first time all night, Erick looked genuinely furious.The difference terrified Remi more."You should not have said that name," Erick said quietly.The squad leader laughed once. "You think you still matter enough to make threats?"Erick slowly stepped in front of Remi protectively. The movement was small, but Remi noticed it instantly."So this is the part where you kill us?" she asked tightly."No," the squad leader replied."That would waste ten years of investment."Remi frowned. Investment?The man lowered his rifle slightly. "We are taking Chairman Quade alive."Erick's expression hardened. "Clarke finally got desperate enough to send Blackwater contractors after me?""Former Blackwater," the man corrected smugly."That somehow sounds worse," Remi muttered.The squad began descending the muddy slope carefully.Erick glanced once toward the river beside them. The water was moving way too fast, sharp rocks everywhere, and the chances of making it? Basically zero.Remi saw

Erick’s knuckles whitened against the console. Dominique’s face filled the screen—perfectly composed, golden hair flawless, wearing a soft pink robe in what looked like a private hospital suite. One hand rested protectively over her stomach. She was crying delicate, camera-ready tears.“…devastated beyond words,” Dominique’s voice trembled. “Erick Gerard was the love of my life. To learn he had an affair with my own sister… and now, after tonight’s terrible attack…” She paused, letting a single tear fall. “I don’t know where he is. I don’t know if he’s even alive. All I know is that my child will grow up without a father, and my sister is missing too…”Remi’s fingers dug into Erick’s forearm. “Is she serious?”Erick stared at the screen, a cold fury settling in his chest. They hadn’t been intimate in over a year. This was pure fabrication.The camera caught Dominique dabbing her eyes with a monogrammed handkerchief, still cradling her stomach. “Our baby deserves to know his father…”R

The SUV roared through the narrow backstreets of Lower Manhattan, tires screaming on wet asphalt. Erick twisted in the passenger seat, pistol steady. “Ivan, hard right at the next intersection!”One of the black vans clipped their rear bumper. Metal crunched. Remi gripped the door handle, heart hammering as the second van tried to box them in from the left.“Helix, deploy countermeasures!” Erick barked into the comms.A sharp pop sounded from the SUV’s undercarriage. Spike strips and thick smoke erupted behind them. The lead pursuit van swerved wildly, tires shredding as it fishtailed into a parked delivery truck. The second van plowed through the smoke but lost precious seconds.Ivan floored it, weaving through traffic like a man who’d done this too many times. “We’re clear for now. Atlas Vault access in four minutes.”They ditched the damaged SUV in an underground parking garage and switched to a nondescript gray sedan waiting in a reserved spot. Ten minutes later, they slipped thro