Chapter 4 - SHE CARRIED ME TOWARD THE FIRE
The kitchen was burning.
Not accidentally.
Someone had thrown an incendiary device through the rear window.
Security moved immediately.
Tessa reached me first.
“We need to go.”
“Get downstairs.”
“Vincent.”
“Go!”
“No.”
She locked my wheelchair brakes, helped me transfer into the evacuation chair, and started moving.
“Tessa!”
“You weigh too much to argue.”
Smoke filled the hallway.
My lungs burned.
Then we heard someone downstairs shout:
“East exit compromised!”
Tessa changed direction.
The service elevator was disabled.
We reached the staircase.
I looked down.
Twenty-two steps.
For a man without working legs, it might as well have been a mountain.
“Tessa.”
She was already attaching the evacuation straps.
“We're doing this.”
“You'll hurt yourself.”
“Probably.”
“Tessa.”
She looked directly at me.
“I am not leaving you upstairs.”
Something inside me cracked.
Not because she was rescuing me.
Because she had not hesitated.
We descended one step at a time.
Security reached us halfway.
They took over.
Outside, I counted every employee.
Tessa.
Hector.
Kitchen staff.
Housekeepers.
Everyone.
Then an SUV exploded in the driveway.
Tessa flinched.
I grabbed her hand.
It happened automatically.
Neither of us let go.
Investigators later confirmed the fire was deliberate.
Dominic disappeared that night.
So did Arya.
That scared me.
I called her.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Tessa found me staring at the phone.
“You think he took her.”
“I don't know.”
“You still care.”
“She betrayed me.”
“That wasn't my question.”
I looked at her.
“Yes.”
She nodded.
No jealousy.
No judgment.
That made whatever I felt for Tessa more dangerous.
Hector eventually located Arya’s abandoned car.
Blood on the passenger seat.
Not enough to indicate death.
Enough to indicate violence.
Then my phone rang.
Dominic.
“Cousin.”
I gripped the phone.
“Where is she?”
He laughed.
“Still protective.”
“Where?”
“She finally became useful.”
My jaw tightened.
“What do you want?”
“Your signature.”
“On what?”
“Everything.”
He wanted control of the organization.
The legitimate businesses.
The harbor.
My voting shares.
In exchange, Arya lived.
Tessa stood across the room.
She could hear enough.
I said:
“Send proof she's alive.”
Dominic did.
Video arrived.
Arya sat tied to a chair.
Bruised.
Terrified.
“Vincent,” she cried. “I'm sorry.”
Dominic appeared behind her.
Then he smiled.
“Twenty-four hours.”
The video ended.
Tessa looked at me.
“What are you going to do?”
Six months earlier, I would have sent armed men.
Started a war.
Killed anyone between me and Dominic.
Instead, I called federal investigators.
Tessa raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You expected violence?”
“I expected more violence.”
“I've evolved.”
“Marginally.”
I almost smiled.
Then she walked closer.
“You're going to get her back.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
I looked at the engagement ring still sitting inside my desk.
“Then she gets to decide what she does with the life we save.”
May you like
Tessa nodded.
For some reason, that felt like another kind of therapy.
