Chương 5 - Trapped on the Fiftieth Floor
Emergency lights turned the corridor red.
Ivan immediately moved Jessi away from the windows.
“Stay behind me.”
“I own the building.”
“Congratulations. Stay behind me.”
A sound came from the stairwell.
Ivan approached carefully.
Nothing.
Then smoke began entering beneath the conference-room door.
“Fire?”
“No,” Ivan said.
The smell was wrong.
A distraction.
Someone wanted them moving.
Ivan led Jessi toward the service corridor.
Her injuries slowed her.
She tried hiding it.
He noticed anyway.
Halfway down the hallway, her leg buckled.
Ivan caught her.
“I can walk.”
“Sure.”
“Ivan.”
“Argue later.”
He put her arm around his shoulder.
They reached the freight elevator.
Dead.
Ivan's phone had no signal.
Jessi whispered, “This wasn't Victor's style.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“Victor likes people knowing he's responsible.”
“Then we've got another player.”
They found an old maintenance stairwell.
Forty-nine floors.
Jessi stared downward.
“I can't.”
Ivan looked at her.
For the first time since they'd met, she openly admitted weakness.
“I know.”
He crouched.
“What are you doing?”
“Get on.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then we're living in this stairwell.”
She stared at him.
“Do you speak to all CEOs like this?”
“Only stubborn ones.”
Eventually she climbed onto his back.
Ivan carried her down.
One floor.
Then another.
By the thirty-eighth floor, sweat soaked his shirt.
By thirty-one, Jessi whispered, “Put me down.”
“No.”
“You'll hurt yourself.”
“Welcome to teamwork.”
She tightened her arms around him.
And for several floors, neither spoke.
When firefighters finally reached them, investigators discovered something disturbing.
There had been no fire.
The smoke had come from a device placed inside the ventilation system.
Someone had wanted Jessi frightened.
Or moved.
That night, security found footage of a masked person entering the executive floor.
The person used a Sterling family access card.
Jessi watched the footage twice.
Then froze the frame.
On the intruder's hand was a distinctive gold ring.
Jessi whispered one name.
May you like
“Marcus.”
And Ivan realized the betrayal went deeper than either of them imagined.
