Chapter 5 - The Safe Harbor
The door to the guest bedroom at the end of the second-floor hallway was closed.
I didn't knock. I pressed down on the brass handle and pushed it open.
Maya was sitting on the edge of the twin bed, her knees pulled up toward her chest, staring blankly out the window at the gray Virginia morning. When the door creaked, she flinched violently, throwing her hands up as if shielding herself from a blow.
“Maya,” I said, my voice cracking slightly as the armor I had worn downstairs melted away.
She lowered her arms, blinking rapidly as she looked at me. When she saw the open expression on my face—free of suspicion, cold fury directed entirely away from her—her lower lip began to tremble.
“Daniel...” she choked out, a sob tearing through her throat. “I tried... I tried so hard to stop them. Julian found out about some old business debts from my father’s estate before he passed, and he threatened to ruin our credit, to bankrupt Carter Lane, to drag us through public courts while I was pregnant... He had Mom convinced that signing over the holding company was the only way to save the business...”
She broke down completely, burying her face in her hands as her shoulders shook with long, agonizing sobs.
In two long strides, I crossed the small room, dropped to my knees in front of the bed, and pulled her into my arms.
This time, she didn't flinch.
This time, she threw her arms around my neck, burying her face against my shoulder, crying with the desperate relief of a drowning person finally pulled onto dry land. I wrapped both arms securely around her, one hand sliding protectively down to rest against the firm curve of her six-month pregnant belly, feeling the faint, reassuring kick of our baby against my palm.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered over and over, pressing my lips against her damp hair. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m here. They’re gone. I promise you, nobody is ever touching you or our family ever again.”
“They took the house, Daniel,” she sobbed against my collarbone. “They took the company filings...”
“They didn't take a damn thing,” I murmured, pulling back just enough to look into her swollen, beautiful gray eyes. “A forged signature signed under duress isn't worth the paper it’s printed on, especially once federal fraud investigators get a look at the IP logs and bank routing numbers. Julian just signed his own arrest warrant.”
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Maya stared at me, a mixture of terror and fierce hope lighting up her face. “What are you going to do?”
“Exactly what any good logistics officer does when hostile forces occupy his supply lines,” I said, a grim, cold smile touching the corners of my mouth. “We cut off their funding, revoke their access, and eradicate them from the perimeter.”
