Chapter 6 - The Streets of Charlotte
At twelve o'clock noon, Ethan Walker sat on a concrete bench in Freedom Park, three miles from his former Myers Park home.
He was wearing the same rumpled linen shirt and trousers he had worn the night before. His neck was purple with deep, bruised thumbprints from Julian Vance's iron grip. His phone was dead, his pockets contained forty-three dollars in cash, and his leather wallet held only deactivated credit cards that had been declined when he tried to buy a cup of coffee three hours ago.
Everything was gone.
His thirty-million-dollar company, his luxury SUV, his bank accounts, his reputation, his home—all vanished in less than twelve hours.
He looked up as a black sedan pulled up to the curb near his bench.
The rear window rolled down slowly. Julian Vance sat in the back, wearing a dark suit and dark sunglasses, looking at Ethan as if he were roadkill.
Ethan stumbled to his feet, running toward the car with pathetic desperation. "Julian! Julian, please! I have nowhere to go! My cards are declined! I haven't eaten since yesterday!"
Julian didn't move. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a cheap, plastic-wrapped sandwich and a bottle of water, and tossed them through the window onto the grass at Ethan's feet.
"Consider that a charitable donation from the Vance Foundation," Julian said, his voice cold and steady.
"Please, Julian..." Ethan wept, clutching the side of the car window. "Let me talk to Grace! Just five minutes! I need to apologize to her! I need to explain—"
"If you ever go within five hundred feet of my sister, Ethan," Julian said, leaning closer so Ethan could see the terrifying, murderous intensity behind his sunglasses, "I won't call the police. I will personally drag you into the woods, and no one will ever find out what happened to you. Do you understand me?"
Ethan swallowed hard, his whole body shaking as he backed away from the car, nodding frantically. "I understand... I understand..."
"Good," Julian said. "Oh, by the way... Lauren Pierce was arrested two hours ago for federal bank fraud. Her father signed over all his real estate holdings to Vance Capital to save himself from prison. You're completely alone, Walker."
May you like
The window rolled up smoothly, and the black sedan pulled away into afternoon traffic, leaving Ethan standing alone in the rain that had just begun to fall over the park.
Ethan dropped to his knees in the wet grass, clutching the plastic-wrapped sandwich, and sobbed uncontrollably as the cold rain soaked through his expensive linen shirt.
