Chapter 31
No.1
Elisa pushed through the heavy, gold-plated revolving doors of the Pierre Hotel.
The sharp, biting wind of the New York night immediately hit her face. It whipped the heavy black velvet of her gown around her legs. She didn't shiver.The cold felt clean compared to the suffocating,perfumed air of the ballroom she had just left.
She walked down the wide marble steps toward the valet stand. She reached into her clutch and pulled out a crisp twenty-dollar bill, holding it out to the attendant in the red uniform.
Before the valet could take the money, a heavy,aggressive sound echoed behind her.
It was the sound of leather dress shoes slamming against the marble steps. The footsteps were fast and furious.
"Elisa!"
August's voice was a low, vibrating roar. It carried
over the hum of the idling engines on Fifth Avenue.
Elisa didn't stop. She didn't turn her head.She saw the sleek, black Aethel corporate SUV pulling up to the curb, its headlights cutting through the dark. She walked straight toward it.
She reached for the chrome door handle.
A massive hand clamped down on her left wrist.
The grip was brutal. August's thick fingers dug past the velvet fabric of her sleeve, pressing hard into her bone. The sheer kinetic force of his pull jerked her backward. Her shoulder popped in its socket. She was forced to spin around, her stiletto heels scraping harshly against the pavement.
August stood towering over her. His chest was heaving under his tailored tuxedo. His jaw was locked so tight the muscles twitched beneath his skin. His dark eyes were bloodshot, practically burning holes into her face.
"What the hell was that?" August snarled, his breath hot against the cold air. "What did you just say to Allena?"
No.2
Elisa looked down at his hand gripping her wrist.
She didn't try to pull away. She just stared at his knuckles, which were turning white from the pressure.
"Let go of me," Elisa said. Her voice was completely flat. It held no anger, no fear. Just a hollow,mechanical command.
August's grip tightened. He stepped closer, using his massive frame to block her against the side of the SUV.
"You think you can just humiliate me in front of the entire foundation board and walk away?" August hissed, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper."You are acting like a lunatic. Cyprian was right.You have someone backing you. You have some other man filling your head with this garbage, don't you?"
Elisa looked up into his eyes. She felt a profound,exhausting boredom.
"Your imagination is pathetic, August," she said smoothly.
Right at that exact second, a sharp, clear chime rang
out.
It came from Elisa's right hand. She was holding her secondary, encrypted smartphone. The screen suddenly lit up, casting a bright, bluish glow against the dark fabric of her dress.
August's eyes instantly darted down to the light.
His paranoid brain, already primed by Cyprian's warnings about her duplicity, connected the dots in a fraction of a second. A secret phone. A late-night message.
Before Elisa could.even react, August's left hand shot out.
He didn't ask. He didn't hesitate. He violently ripped the phone right out of her grasp. The hard plastic edge of the device scraped painfully against her palm.
No.3
Elisa's heart stopped.
It didn't just beat faster. It physically seized in her chest. The blood drained completely from her face,leaving her skin the color of old ash. Her lungs locked up.
She knew exactly what time it was. It was nine o'clock. It was the exact time Jewel always sent the evening update photo of Kayden before putting her to bed.
"Give that back," Elisa gasped.
It was the first time in months that her voice actually shook. The cold, impenetrable armor of 'Faye'shattered instantly. Pure, unadulterated terror leaked into her tone.
August heard the panic. He saw her eyes widen.
A cruel, triumphant smile spread across his face.He took a step back, holding the phone high out of her reach.
"Hit a nerve, did l?" August mocked, his eyes gleaming with the thrill of the catch. "Let's see who you're really working for."
He looked at the screen.
The phone was locked, but the notification banner was visible on the lock screen. It showed a small,compressed preview image. It was a blurry photo of a little girl with dark hair, running across a green
lawn.
August frowned. He didn't recognize the image immediately. He shifted his grip on the phone,moving his heavy thumb toward the center of the screen. He was going to press the notification. He was going to force the phone to prompt for a passcode, or worse, he might accidentally trigger the facial recognition if he pointed it at her.
If he saw that picture clearly. If he saw those eyes.
Elisa's brain bypassed all logic. The maternal survival instinct, raw and violent, took complete control of her nervous system.
No.4
She didn't try to jump up and grab the phone. He was too tall. He was too strong.
She spun around. Her eyes locked onto the heavy,waist-high brass valet podium standing two feet away. Resting on top of it was a massive, solid brass ashtray, thick and heavy, meant to withstand the wind.
Elisa lunged forward. Her hand clamped around the cold,heavy metal of the ashtray.
She spun back toward August.
She didn't aim for his head. She didn't aim for his chest.
She swung the heavy brass block in a brutal,downward arc, putting the entire weight of her body and the momentum of her turn into the strike.
She aimed directly for the glowing screen of the phone in his hand.
CRACK.
The sound was deafening. It sounded like a gunshot echoing off the stone walls of the hotel.
The heavy brass edge of the ashtray slammed directly into the center of the smartphone screen.The impact was so violent that the kinetic shockwave traveled straight down August's arm.
The reinforced glass screen didn't just crack. lt exploded.
Tiny shards of sharp glass sprayed outward,catching the streetlights like deadly glitter.
August let out a sharp yell of shock. The sudden,
intense vibration numbed his fingers. His hand sprang open involuntarily.
No.5
The shattered phone dropped from his grasp. It hit the hard quartz stone of the pavement with a sickening crunch.
Elisa didn't stop. The violence was already in motion.
She dropped the heavy brass ashtray. It clanged loudly against the ground.
She lifted her right leg. She was wearing a pair of Christian Louboutin stilettos. The heel was a four-inch spike of solid steel wrapped in black leather.
She brought her foot down with a desperate, frantic force.
She drove the steel spike of her heel somewhere into the center of the ruined device. She wasn't aiming for a specific component; she was just trying to kill it.
Crunch.
She twisted her ankle blindly, grinding her heel deep into the internal components, feeling the plastic casing snap and the microchips splinter under the pressure. The screen, or what was left of it, went
completely,permanently black.
She lifted her foot and stomped down again. And again. Her movements were chaotic, driven by pure terror, not precision. She didn't stop until the sleek piece of technology was reduced to a twisted,unrecognizable pile of plastic, glass, and bent metal.
She stood over the wreckage, her chest heaving violently. Her breath came in ragged,shallow gasps.
The street was dead silent.
The valet attendant was staring at her, his mouth hanging wide open. Several wealthy guests who had been waiting for their cars were frozen on the steps,staring in absolute shock.
August stood completely paralyzed.
No.6
He looked at the destroyed phone on the ground,and then he slowly looked up at Elisa. His eyes were wide with a mixture of disbelief and genuine,creeping horror.
He had expected her to cry. He had expected her to beg.
He never expected her to turn into a violent,
destructive force of nature right on Fifth Avenue.
Slowly, the shock on August's face morphed into a dark,twisted sneer.
He let out a harsh, barking laugh.
"You are completely insane," August breathed,pointing a shaking finger at the pile of trash on the ground. "You just destroyed a two-thousand-dollar phone like a psychotic animal. Whoever this guy is,you must be terrified I'll find him. You're pathetic."
Elisa looked down at her hands.
A sharp piece of flying glass had grazed her right index finger. A small, bright red bead of blood was welling up on her pale skin.
She stared at the blood.
The suffocating panic in her chest slowly began to recede. The cold, clinical logic of her mind booted back up.
The phone was dead. The data was encrypted and now physically inaccessible. The photo was gone.
Kayden was safe.
Elisa let out a long, slow exhale. Her shoulders dropped. The tension drained out of her muscles.
No.7
She calmly opened her black leather clutch. She pulled out a small, white tissue.
She wrapped the tissue around her bleeding finger,pressing down firmly to stop the blood. She didn't look at August while she did it. She treated the wound wvith the detached efficiency of a nurse.
Then, she slowly raised her head.
Her eyes met his. The panic was entirely gone. They were back to being pools of black ice.
"Like | said, August," Elisa said, her voice perfectly smooth and quiet. "Your imagination is pathetic. You should write cheap paperback novels. It suits your intellect."
She turned away from him.
She reached out with her uninjured hand and pulled open the heavy door of the Aethel SUV.
She climbed into the back seat. She didn't look back.
"Drive," Elisa told the driver.
The heavy door slammed shut, sealing her inside the quiet, leather-scented cabin. The SUV pulled away from the curb, its tires rolling smoothly over the asphalt.
Augúst stood alone on the sidewalk.
The cold wind blew past him. He looked down at the shattered remains of the phone lying near his expensive shoes.
He had thought he caught her. He thought he had the ultimate leverage. But instead, he was left standing in the cold, staring at a pile of garbage,feeling a dark, twisting knot of confusion and rage tightening in his gut.
He didn't know what she was hiding. But he knew with absolute certainty, that she was willing to destroy everything to keep it from him.