UNWANTED SON-IN-LAW

CHAPTER 4

Nathan grabbed the computer and shoved it into a bag he found in the corner. The sirens grew louder, multiplying like a swarm. Two minutes, maybe less.

He rifled through the drawers looking for anything useful. Cash. Fake IDs. A pistol with two magazines. His hands closed around the weapon, feeling the cold and heavy metal that was familiar to him.

His body’s training came back automatically. He checked if it was loaded, put in a magazine, and tucked the gun into his waistband. Three years of pretending to be weak had not erased what his father taught him.

The sirens stopped outside the building.

Nathan turned off all the lights and moved to the window to look out. Three police cars blocked the entire street. Officers were getting out with their hands ready on their weapons.

“Nathan Porter!” A voice came booming through a megaphone. “We know you are in there right now. Come out with your hands up where we can see them.”

He glanced at his phone where the safe house location glowed on the screen. Twelve miles away. He would never make it on the motorcycle in time.

A fire escape was attached to the back of the building. Nathan put the bag over his shoulder and climbed out through the window. The metal groaned under his weight as he descended. Below him, an alley stretched into complete darkness.

“Movement on the east side!” An officer yelled loudly.

Flashlight beams swept toward his location.

Nathan went down two levels and then dropped the rest of the way. He hit the ground hard, and his ribs hurt badly from the impact. There was no time to rest, so he ran.

Footsteps thundered behind him as officers shouted. “Stop! Police!”

The alley opened to a loading dock where delivery trucks sat idle in the darkness. Nathan jumped over a chain-link fence and kept running forward. His lungs felt like they were on fire. His vision was getting blurry from exhaustion.

A bullet hit the brick wall right next to his head with a loud crack.

They were actually shooting at him. For allegedly attacking someone. This was not normal procedure. This was execution.

Nathan moved between buildings in zigzag patterns, using every trick his father had taught him years ago. Stay low. Stay unpredictable. Never run in a straight line.

He came out onto a main street where late-night traffic moved slowly past. He saw a taxi and flagged it down, forcing his breathing to return to normal.

The cab stopped for him. Nathan got inside quickly.

“Where to?” The driver asked without looking up from his phone.

Nathan read the address from his screen. “Industrial district. Near Redwell city.”

The driver finally looked at him in the rearview mirror. His eyes got wide when he saw Nathan’s bloody shirt and bruised face. “You okay, man?”

“Rough night. I will pay you double if you drive fast and do not ask any questions.”

The driver thought about it for a moment, then nodded his head. “Cash upfront though.”

Nathan pulled out five hundred dollars from his pocket. “Half now. Half when we get there.”

They started driving through the city streets.

Twenty minutes later, the taxi stopped outside a broken-down warehouse. The metal was rusted and the windows were all broken. The whole place looked completely abandoned.

“You sure this is where you need to be?” The driver asked nervously.

“Positive, this is the place.” Nathan handed him the rest of the money. “You never saw me here.”

“Never saw who?” The driver replied.

Nathan got out and the taxi drove away quickly.

The warehouse stood before him like a sleeping giant waiting to wake up. He walked to the side entrance and knocked three times on the door. He paused for a moment. Then he knocked twice more in a specific pattern.

The door opened slowly.

The woman in black from the Blackwell mansion was standing there with her scar visible in the dim light. “You are late getting here.”

“I was busy getting shot at by police officers.”

“I know, we listened to their radio. Come inside the building right now.”

The warehouse inside had been completely transformed from what it looked like. Computers were running along all the walls. Screens displayed security video feeds from all over the entire city. Six different people worked at different stations, and they were all wearing tactical gear.

This was not a safe house at all. This was a command center for operations.

Standing in the middle of everything was a man Nathan had not seen in three years.

David Porter looked much older now. His dark hair had gray streaks in it. He had new scars crossing his face. But his eyes still held the same sharp intelligence that had built his empire before everything fell apart.

“Dad.” The word came out stuck in Nathan’s throat.

David walked over in three quick strides and pulled Nathan into a tight hug. “I am so sorry, son. For everything that happened. For letting you suffer all this time. For watching you go through hell while I was building this operation.”

Nathan pulled back from the embrace. “Why did you do this? Why fake your death? Why did you leave me alone?”

“Because they were coming for both of us at the same time.” David pointed to a screen showing old newspaper headlines. “Porter Industries Falls Apart.” “CEO David Porter Dies in Fire.” “Only Son Left With Nothing.”

“The Vale family sabotaged all our factories. They paid off our business partners with money. They destroyed our good name and reputation. But they wanted more than just our company, Nathan. They wanted me dead. The fire was supposed to kill us both in it.”

“Then how did you manage to survive it?”

“I got a warning from someone on the inside of their organization. I faked my death and went into deep hiding. But I could not take you with me when I left. If you disappeared, they would know I was alive somewhere. So I had to let them think they had won.”

“You let them beat me for three years!” Nathan’s voice broke with emotion. “You let the Blackwell family hit me repeatedly. You let them shame me in front of everyone. You let Victoria…”

“I know exactly what Victoria did to you. And I know it hurt you deeply.” David’s jaw was clenched tight. “But you needed to see the truth about them. You needed to understand who our real enemies actually are. If I had told you all this three years ago, you would not have believed me anyway.”

“So you sacrificed me instead.”

“I made you into a weapon for this fight.” David pointed at all the screens around them. “For three years, you lived inside the enemy’s house. You heard everything they said to each other. You learned how they operated. You discovered all their secrets. Now we use all that information to burn their entire world down.”

Nathan wanted to argue with him, to yell and scream, to hit something. But part of him knew his father was actually right about this. The scared young boy who married Victoria Hayes was completely gone now. Someone else had taken his place, someone harder and colder.

Someone dangerous.

“What exactly do you want from me?” Nathan asked.

“I want you to help me destroy all of them. Every single one. The Vale family. The Blackwell family. Every family that gets rich from hurting people like us.”

“What about Victoria then?”

David’s face turned cold and hard. “Victoria made her choice three years ago. She is not your real wife, Nathan. She never was from the beginning. She is an enemy operative who was put in your life to watch and monitor you.”

“I do not believe that at all. She could not have faked three years of…”

“Look at this video right now.” The woman in black, whose name Nathan still did not know, pulled up video on the main screen.

It showed Victoria. Tonight. At the Blackwell mansion. After Nathan had escaped.

She stood in Edward’s office, her face perfectly calm. No tears. No fear at all.

“He is gone?” Edward asked her.

“Yes, I called the police just like you told me to. They will find him by tomorrow morning.”

“Good, Harrison will be very happy about this. The last problem is finally taken care of.”

“What about all the files though? If Nathan knows about his father”

“Then we kill both of them, simple as that.” Harrison Vale came into the room, and his face was completely cold. “I am tired of playing games with the Porter family anymore. David Porter should have died three years ago in that fire. His son should have died tonight. But since they keep surviving, we will finish this once and for all.”

Victoria nodded her head in agreement. “What do you need from me?”

“Keep acting the part. Play the sad, betrayed wife for everyone. When we find Nathan, you will be the bait that draws him out of hiding.”

“And then what happens?”

Harrison smiled an evil smile. “Then I kill him myself.”

The video ended.

Nathan could not move or speak. His whole world was falling apart right in front of him. Victoria knew everything. She had always known from the start. Their marriage, every moment they shared together, every single word she ever said was nothing but a lie.

“Now do you finally understand?” David asked in a quiet voice. “This is not about money or business, son. This is about survival. And the only way we can survive is if we attack them first.”

Nathan’s hands made fists so hard his nails dug in. The pain in his ribs went away completely. The exhaustion and tiredness disappeared too. All that was left was cold, hard anger.

“Tell me the full plan,” he said.

David smiled, but it was not a nice or pleasant smile. “First, we expose Edward Blackwell’s corruption and crimes. Redwell city Heights goes public tomorrow morning. The fake permits story breaks completely. Blackwell Industries falls apart.”

“And after that?”

“Then we go after Harrison Vale. We have clear proof that Vale Industries is involved in selling weapons to other countries. When that story comes out, the government takes everything they have.”

“That still leaves Victoria though.”

“Yes, that is true.” David looked at his son’s face carefully. “What do you want to do about her?”

Nathan thought about the woman who had shared his bed for three years. The woman who watched him suffer and said nothing at all. The woman who just sold him out to the people who wanted to kill him.

“She said she wanted a divorce,” Nathan said in a quiet voice. “Let us give her exactly what she wants. But first, we make her watch everything she helped build turn to ash and dust.”

“That is my boy right there.”

The woman in black spoke up then. “We have a serious problem though. The police are looking everywhere for you now. They are telling everyone you are armed and very dangerous. They have shoot to kill orders for you.”

“Then we do not give them any chance to shoot at us.” Nathan turned to look at his father. “What resources do we actually have?”

“We have money. We have weapons. We have information and intelligence. And we have six of the best trained fighters I have trained in the last three years. Whatever you need, it is yours.”

“Good, because tomorrow night, I am going to crash Victoria’s dinner meeting with Harrison Vale.”

David raised one eyebrow. “That is suicide.”

“No, it is not.” Nathan smiled like his father had smiled. “That is a declaration of war.”