Chapter 5 - CLAIRE'S DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
Claire woke with blood in her mouth.
Her wrists were tied to a metal chair.
A single yellow light hung above her.
The room smelled like oil, rust, and river water.
She lifted her head slowly.
Vincent Rourke sat ten feet away drinking coffee.
“Good morning.”
Claire looked around.
“No windows.”
“You’re observant.”
“You failed.”
Rourke smiled.
“Did I?”
“Lily got out.”
“Yes.”
“So whatever you wanted—”
“I wanted leverage.”
His eyes settled on her.
“I have it.”
Claire forced herself not to react.
“Adrian doesn’t care about me that way.”
Rourke laughed.
“Please.”
“I work for him.”
“He ran into a warehouse full of armed men because you screamed his name.”
“For Ethan.”
“No. For you.”
Claire looked away.
Rourke stood.
“Do you know why men like Adrian Mercer are difficult to destroy?”
“I assume you’re going to tell me.”
“They prepare for betrayal.”
He walked behind her.
“They expect greed. Ambition. Violence.”
He leaned closer.
“What they never prepare for is love.”
Claire’s voice hardened.
“You don’t know anything about him.”
“Neither did you two days ago.”
That stung because it was true.
Rourke returned to his chair.
“Call him.”
“No.”
“You’re going to tell him you escaped.”
“No.”
“You’ll tell him to come alone.”
“No.”
“And when he arrives—”
“I said no.”
Rourke sighed.
Then placed a photograph on the table.
Ethan leaving a pediatric clinic three months earlier.
Claire stopped breathing.
Rourke saw it.
“There.”
“Stay away from him.”
“Make the call.”
“He’s five.”
“So protect him.”
Claire stared at the photograph.
Rourke slid a phone across the table.
“Adrian’s number is already entered.”
Claire’s hands trembled.
She looked at Rourke.
Then at the phone.
Then back at the picture of Ethan.
“Untie one hand.”
Rourke nodded to a guard.
Her right wrist was freed.
She picked up the phone.
Adrian answered before the first ring finished.
“Claire?”
His voice almost broke on her name.
She closed her eyes.
“I’m okay.”
“Where are you?”
“I got away.”
Rourke watched carefully.
Claire swallowed.
“Do you remember the bedtime story Ethan hates?”
Silence.
Rourke frowned.
“What?” Adrian asked.
“The one about the rabbit.”
Claire’s heart pounded.
“You know. The rabbit who keeps running east because he thinks the moon is following him.”
Adrian understood immediately.
There was no rabbit story.
But Ethan had a game.
When Claire hid snacks during treasure hunts, east meant false.
Moon meant watched.
“Yeah,” Adrian said calmly. “I remember.”
“I’m near Callowhill.”
False.
“I need you to come alone.”
Watched.
“Send me the location.”
“I will.”
Claire heard no fear in his voice now.
Only control.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Rourke took the phone.
“That was touching.”
Claire looked at him.
He studied her for several seconds.
“What did you tell him?”
“Exactly what you asked.”
Rourke’s expression changed.
Then he slapped her.
Claire tasted blood again.
“You think I’m stupid?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He crouched in front of her.
“Because if Mercer brings anyone else, I start with the boy.”
Claire’s fear turned to rage.
“If you touch Ethan, Adrian will destroy you.”
Rourke smiled.
“That is exactly what I’m counting on.”
Forty minutes later, Claire was moved.
A hood covered her head.
She counted turns.
Left.
Right.
Long straight stretch.
Metal ramp.
Echo.
A shipyard.
When the hood came off, she was inside a warehouse overlooking the Delaware River.
Rourke’s men positioned themselves above the floor.
A chair sat beneath a hanging light.
Hers.
Claire noticed two exits.
A stairway.
A crane track.
And a security camera blinking red.
At 4:18 a.m., a black sedan entered the warehouse.
One man stepped out.
Adrian.
Alone.
Claire’s chest tightened.
Rourke emerged from an office.
“Where’s the access drive?”
Adrian held up a silver device.
“Here.”
“Slide it.”
Adrian did.
Rourke picked it up.
One of his men plugged it into a laptop.
Claire watched Adrian.
He did not look at Rourke.
He looked at her.
Her split lip.
The bruise forming across her face.
The rope around her wrists.
Something lethal entered his expression.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
Rourke laughed.
“She lies beautifully.”
Adrian’s gaze remained on Claire.
“Did they touch you?”
“Adrian.”
“Answer me.”
She knew that tone.
“I’m alive.”
That was not an answer.
But he accepted it.
The man at the laptop nodded.
“The drive is real.”
Rourke smiled.
“Excellent.”
“Release her.”
“Soon.”
Adrian finally looked at him.
“We had a deal.”
“We did.”
Rourke pulled a gun.
“Unfortunately, I don’t need you alive after tonight.”
Claire’s heart stopped.
“Vincent—”
The warehouse lights went out.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Someone shouted.
Gunfire erupted.
Claire dropped to the floor, chair and all.
A body crashed nearby.
She heard Mason yell from above.
“Mercer team! Down!”
Rourke screamed, “He brought men!”
Claire smiled despite the blood on her mouth.
Of course Adrian had brought men.
He had simply made sure Rourke could not see them.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Adrian reached Claire.
He cut the ropes.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Stay behind me.”
They moved toward the side exit.
Mason’s team swept through the building.
Rourke ran toward the river doors.
Adrian saw him.
“Get Claire out!”
He turned to pursue.
Claire grabbed his jacket.
“No.”
“He comes after us again.”
“Then let the police take him.”
Adrian hesitated.
That hesitation saved his life.
A man appeared on the upper catwalk.
Gun raised.
Claire saw him first.
“Adrian!”
She shoved him.
The shot exploded.
Adrian jerked.
For one terrible second, he remained standing.
Then blood spread across his white shirt beneath the jacket.
“Adrian?”
He looked down.
Claire screamed.
Mason fired upward.
The shooter fell behind the railing.
Claire caught Adrian as his knees gave way.
“No. No, no, no.”
He collapsed against her.
His blood covered her hands.
Adrian looked almost confused.
“Claire.”
“Stay with me.”
His breathing became shallow.
“Ethan.”
“He needs you.”
“Don’t let him—”
“Stop.”
“If I—”
“You are not finishing that sentence!”
Mason dropped beside them.
“Ambulance is coming.”
Claire pressed both hands over the wound.
“Adrian, look at me.”
His eyes struggled to focus.
“You’re bossy.”
She laughed and sobbed at the same time.
“Yes.”
“Never noticed.”
“Liar.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
Then his eyes closed.
“Adrian?”
No response.
“Adrian!”
The ambulance arrived four minutes later.
Claire rode beside him.
At Riverview—the same hospital where Adrian had found her less than forty-eight hours earlier—a trauma team rushed him through double doors.
Claire stood beneath the same fluorescent lights.
Only now Adrian’s blood stained her clothes.
Mason arrived with two security men.
“Rourke escaped through the river access.”
Claire barely heard him.
“What about the shooter?”
“Dead.”
“Who was he?”
Mason’s expression changed.
“What?”
“You recognized him.”
Mason looked toward the operating-room doors.
“His name was Grant Cole.”
Claire knew the name.
Grant ran the estate’s internal security rotation.
He knew the safe-room codes.
He knew Ethan’s schedule.
He knew when Claire went to the hospital.
The betrayal had been inside Adrian’s house all along.
A surgeon appeared two hours later.
Claire shot to her feet.
“Mr. Mercer has lost a significant amount of blood. The bullet damaged his lung and nicked a major vessel.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
Her knees nearly gave out.
“But he is not stable.”
Claire covered her mouth.
The surgeon continued.
“The next several hours are critical.”
At that moment, Sarah—the nurse who had cared for Lily—came running down the corridor.
“Claire!”
Claire turned.
Sarah’s face was pale.
“What happened?”
“It’s Lily.”
Claire felt the entire world tilt again.
“No.”
“She crashed after dialysis.”
Claire grabbed the wall.
Sarah took her arm.
“Her doctors stabilized her, but they’ve changed her transplant status.”
“What does that mean?”
“She needs a kidney sooner than they thought.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Claire—”
“I’m a match.”
“You haven’t eaten properly in months. Your iron is dangerously low. Your weight is below the donor threshold.”
“I don’t care.”
“The surgeons do.”
Claire stared through the glass toward the operating wing where Adrian was fighting for his life.
Then toward the elevators leading to Lily.
Two people she loved.
Two people she could not save by sheer force.
Sarah squeezed her hand.
“Claire.”
Claire looked at her.
“A kidney became available tonight.”
Hope hit so hard it hurt.
“For Lily?”
“Potentially.”
“What do you mean potentially?”
“There’s a transport team bringing it from Baltimore.”
Claire almost cried from relief.
Then Sarah’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression slowly changed.
“What?”
Claire’s hope disappeared.
“What is it?”
Sarah lowered the phone.
“The transport vehicle never arrived at the state line checkpoint.”
Claire stared at her.
“Where is the kidney?”
May you like
Sarah swallowed.
“No one knows.”
