Chapter 10 - A Trap Made of Ice
Adrian wanted to shut down the ball, lock the estate, and place Elena under armed protection.
Elena argued against all three.
“If we cancel, they disappear.”
“I am not using you as bait.”
“You are not using me. I am choosing to help.”
“They already tried to run you off the road.”
“And now we know they are afraid.”
Adrian paced the penthouse study.
“We do not know who they are.”
“We know Cassandra is involved. We know Beaumont Bank holds the transfer accounts. We know someone expects the file at the ball.”
Adrian stopped.
“You received instructions?”
Elena finally told him about the photograph and the message.
His face hardened.
“You kept this too.”
“I know.”
“No more secrets.”
“No more.”
He held her gaze.
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
It was the first promise she would soon be forced to break.
Marcus designed a security plan around the ball. Every temporary employee would be screened. Hidden cameras would monitor the service corridors. Elena would wear a silent alarm beneath her uniform.
Adrian wanted her beside him as his wife.
Elena refused.
“The person behind the message expects me to arrive as staff. If I appear on your arm, they will change the plan.”
“You should not be working at all.”
“I will stay in the public ballroom.”
“You will stay within ten feet of Marcus.”
“Twenty.”
“Ten.”
“Twelve.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“Twelve.”
The night before the ball, Elena returned to the estate with Marcus to place a false copy of Adrian’s file inside the lower archive.
They hoped the intruder would expose himself while attempting to steal it.
The cabinet was already open.
The original file was gone.
On the floor lay a single white orchid.
Elena recognized the flower immediately.
White orchids had been chosen for the ball at Cassandra’s request.
Marcus photographed the scene.
“Cassandra wants us to suspect her,” he said.
“Or someone wants us focused on Cassandra.”
They checked the hidden camera.
Its memory card had been removed.
As they climbed back toward the library, Elena heard a faint sound behind the wall.
Three knocks.
A pause.
Three more.
She stopped.
“Marcus.”
He turned.
The knocks came again.
Marcus drew his weapon and searched the corridor. They found no one.
Near the blue door, Elena noticed a tiny piece of paper pushed through the frame.
She unfolded it.
The message was written in hurried block letters.
DO NOT TRUST THE MAN WHO CONFESSED TOO EASILY.
Elena looked toward Marcus.
“Victor.”
“Or someone wants us to doubt him.”
The paper contained a second line.
AT MIDNIGHT, CHECK THE ICE.
The ball’s central decoration was a twelve-foot sculpture of the Vale crest carved from clear ice.
Elena understood immediately.
The file had not been stolen to leave the estate.
It had been hidden inside the centerpiece.
Someone intended to deliver it in front of the entire board.
The following afternoon, workers assembled the sculpture in the ballroom.
Elena watched from the staircase.
Deep inside the frozen crest, something dark rested beneath layers of ice.
A folder.
The real file.
Across the room, Cassandra Beaumont watched Elena notice it.
May you like
Their eyes met.
Cassandra smiled.
