Chapter 10 - Adrian Cross Breaks His Own Rule
Adrian Cross had one rule that everyone around him understood.
Never trade yourself for leverage.
People could threaten money.
Property.
Reputation.
Even business.
But the moment an enemy learned they could force him to appear by taking someone he cared about, every person close to him became vulnerable.
His father had taught him that lesson when Adrian was nineteen.
“Love privately,” Victor Cross had said. “Enemies collect public attachments.”
Adrian hated most of his father’s advice.
But he had obeyed that rule for fifteen years.
Until Claire.
At 2:48 a.m., Adrian received a video showing Claire bound to a chair inside an abandoned warehouse.
He noticed three things.
Her face was turned away.
The footage was grainy.
And she wore the same champagne-colored dress from the night they met.
He should have questioned it.
Instead, fear overruled discipline.
He left.
Alone.
Thirty minutes later, he understood the mistake.
Thomas waited inside an empty freight warehouse.
“You came.”
Adrian stopped twenty feet away.
“Where is she?”
Thomas smiled.
“Safe.”
“If you touched her—”
“Still emotional.”
“Where?”
Thomas stepped aside.
A monitor displayed the same video.
Adrian stared.
Then realized.
The luggage.
The footage had been taken days earlier outside the hotel entrance.
Claire was never in the warehouse.
Adrian’s expression changed.
Thomas laughed.
“You actually came.”
Adrian said nothing.
“That’s what she did to you?”
“Where is Rourke?”
“Always business eventually.”
Thomas poured himself a drink from a portable bar.
“You know, your father never would have come.”
“My father is dead.”
“Yes. And somehow you still spend your life arguing with him.”
Adrian’s eyes remained on exits.
Two men behind him.
One near the loading bay.
No obvious weapons raised.
Thomas wanted conversation.
That meant time existed.
“You stole two hundred million dollars.”
Thomas shrugged.
“Moved.”
“You partnered with Bennett.”
“Useful man.”
“He’ll betray you.”
“Eventually.”
“And Rourke?”
“Also eventually.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“You built a conspiracy out of men you expect to betray you.”
Thomas sipped his drink.
“That is business.”
“No. That is stupidity.”
Thomas’s smile disappeared.
There.
The old wound.
Adrian had always known his uncle hated being underestimated.
“You think legitimacy made you superior,” Thomas said.
“No.”
“You gutted what your father built.”
“I made it profitable.”
“You made it weak.”
“I made it survive.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“And then one blonde woman with wet hair walked into your lobby, and suddenly you’re exactly as weak as I said.”
Adrian’s face became still.
Thomas continued.
“She came with two suitcases and a sad story. Now you risk everything.”
“You misunderstand.”
“Do I?”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked at him.
“She didn’t make me weak.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To keep you talking.”
Thomas frowned.
Outside, distant sirens began.
Adrian smiled.
Thomas’s face changed.
“You—”
“Mara followed me.”
“You came alone.”
“I left alone.”
Adrian glanced at his watch.
“I never said nobody followed.”
Meanwhile, Claire sat inside the Lincoln Park townhouse with three laptops open.
Mara had called her furious.
“He violated protocol.”
Claire almost laughed.
“He thought I’d been kidnapped.”
“That does not improve the situation.”
“Can you locate him?”
“We’re trying.”
Claire stared at the fake video.
Something bothered her.
The background.
She enlarged one frame.
Behind the chair was a faded industrial logo.
GREAT LAKES FREIGHT.
Claire searched property records.
Dozens of buildings.
Then she remembered Rachel.
“Call Rachel.”
Minutes later Rachel answered.
Claire showed her the image.
Rachel went pale.
“I know that place.”
“Where?”
“Daniel met Calder there.”
Address.
Archer Avenue.
Mara redirected teams.
That was why sirens were approaching while Thomas still believed Adrian had walked in alone.
Thomas heard them.
“You chose her over family.”
Adrian’s expression turned cold.
“You stopped being family when you put a target on her.”
Thomas reached inside his jacket.
Adrian moved first.
The confrontation was fast.
Controlled.
No theatrics.
Security teams entered seconds later.
Thomas was taken alive.
So were two of Rourke’s men.
Rourke himself was nowhere to be found.
At 4:21 a.m., Adrian returned to the townhouse.
Claire stood waiting inside the entrance.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then she walked toward him.
And slapped him.
Leo looked away.
Mara pretended to inspect her phone.
Adrian touched his cheek.
“I deserved that.”
“What were you thinking?”
“That they had you.”
“You went alone.”
“Yes.”
“You told me not to do reckless things.”
“Yes.”
“You told me survival mattered.”
“Yes.”
“You hypocrite.”
“Yes.”
Claire stared at him, furious.
Then she grabbed the front of his coat and kissed him.
Adrian froze.
So did everyone else.
Claire pulled back immediately.
“That was also anger.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Of course.”
“Don’t smile.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Barely.”
Claire’s eyes filled unexpectedly.
“You could have died.”
His humor vanished.
“I know.”
“Don’t do that again.”
“I’ll try.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“Promise.”
Adrian looked at her for a long moment.
“I promise I will never willingly trade my life for a lie again.”
“That is suspiciously specific.”
“It’s the best you’re getting.”
Claire exhaled.
Mara cleared her throat.
“As touching as this catastrophe is, Thomas gave us something.”
They turned.
“What?” Adrian asked.
“A location.”
“Rourke?”
“No.”
Mara looked at Claire.
“Daniel.”
Daniel Bennett had vanished after the airport questioning.
Thomas revealed he was hiding in a private suite inside one of Bennett Capital’s unused commercial properties.
But there was more.
Daniel had not been waiting to escape.
He was waiting for Claire.
Because he had one final thing she did not know.
May you like
The reason he had married her in the first place.
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