Chapter 916
Silas’s eye twitched. He smoothed his suit jacket with deliberate care. “This isn’t over. The Graves family always collects its debts.”
He turned and walked toward the emergency exit, his mercenaries falling into line behind him.
Beatrice was left standing alone on the stage, looking small and old.
“Alistair…” she began, her voice trembling.
“Don’t,” Alistair said. “Just go.”
Beatrice fled.
The room emptied until only the three of them remained, along with Liam’s team.
Alistair sank into a velvet booth and exhaled a breath that seemed to go on forever. “I thought we were dead.”
Skye looked at Liam. He was examining his fingernails, affecting perfect indifference, as though he hadn’t just saved their lives.
“Why?” she asked.
He didn’t look up. “Thorne Group stock was undervalued. It was a sound investment.”
𝖩𝗈𝗂𝗇 𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝖼𝗈𝗆𝗆𝗎𝗇𝗂𝗍𝗒 𝗈𝗇 𝗀𝖺𝗅𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅𝗌.𝖼𝗈𝗆
“Liar,” Skye said softly.
He finally met her eyes. There was a depth there — a swirl of emotions kept tightly under control. “If Silas takes over Thorne, he destabilizes the market. It’s bad for business, Skye. Don’t read into it.”
“You bought a nightclub just to kick him out,” Alistair pointed out.
“I needed a tax write-off,” Liam said, and turned to leave. “My lawyers will handle the shareholder alliance paperwork. Don’t make me regret this.”
“Liam,” Skye called out.
He stopped, his hand resting on the elevator button.
“Thank you.”
He didn’t turn around. He simply nodded, once, and the doors slid closed, swallowing him back into his lonely tower.
Skye’s phone buzzed. It was Julian.
I decoded the files Beatrice left behind. She’s not just embezzling. She’s meeting someone at the docks in an hour. She’s trying to run.
Skye looked at Alistair. He was already on his feet.
“Let’s go finish this,” he said.
The underground parking garage of the shipyard was a cavern of concrete and shadows. The air was damp, heavy with salt and gasoline.
Beatrice was struggling with a heavy suitcase, wrestling it into the trunk of a silver sedan. She looked frantic — hair disheveled, the pearls gone.
“Going somewhere, Grandma?” Alistair’s voice echoed off the walls.
Beatrice spun around, dropping her keys. “Alistair! I was just taking a vacation.”
“With the family silver?” Skye stepped out from behind a pillar, holding up her tablet. “We saw the transfers, Beatrice. You’re liquidating everything.”
“It’s my money!” she screeched. “I earned it — thirty years putting up with that old fool!”
“You killed him,” Alistair said. He walked toward her, slow and predatory. “You opened the door for Ethan. You disabled the security.”
“I didn’t pull the trigger!” Beatrice backed up until she hit the car. “I just… I just let nature take its course.”
“Grandpa trusted you.” Alistair’s voice broke on the words. He pinned her against the car, his forearm against her throat — not enough to choke, but enough to terrify. “Tell me why.”
“Because he was going to give it all to you!” Beatrice spat. “And Silas promised me half of the Graves empire if I helped him take over.”