Chapter 3: The Witness
Three days later, the hospital room was a sanctuary of beeping monitors and soft, filtered light. Maya Vance opened her eyes.
Silas was there, his hand resting on the bed rail.
"Dad," she whispered, her voice weak but lucid.
"I'm here, baby. I'm here."
"The drive," she wheezed. "He... he knew I had the drive."
Silas felt the cold iron of rage harden in his chest. Maya wasn't just a victim of a spoiled brat’s temper. She had been interning for a firm that was investigating Thorne Shipping’s involvement in the illegal export of high-grade surveillance tech. Julian hadn't attacked her in a fit of rage; he had attacked her to recover the encrypted hard drive she had hidden in the villa.
"I have it," Silas promised, stroking her hair. "And he's not going to touch you again."
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But the threat was still looming. Julian’s father, Richard Thorne, was a man who didn't play by the rules. He was currently mobilizing his own private security team to "recover" his son and the missing data.
Silas knew the police couldn't stop Thorne. He needed to be preemptive. He left Maya in the care of his most trusted protection detail and walked out of the hospital into the rain-slicked city streets. He had one more command to give.
