## CHAPTER 3: THE WOMAN IN ROOM 1708
The hospital emergency lights painted everything red.
Kiora’s hands were covered in Silas’s blood.
Doctors rushed into the room, followed by nurses pushing an emergency cart.
Someone pulled Kiora away from the edge of the bed.
Someone else pressed gauze against Silas’s chest.
Dr. Shaw appeared beside Kiora.
“The baby’s heart rate is dropping. Lie back.”
“My grandfather was shot.”
“The trauma team is helping him.”
“I need to stay with him.”
“You need to protect your daughter.”
The word grandfather struck Kiora with almost as much force as the gunshot.
She had learned the truth less than an hour earlier.
Now she might lose him before she had the chance to ask why he had remained in the shadows for most of her life.
The nurses rolled Silas onto another bed.
His face looked gray beneath the emergency lights.
As they pushed him into the corridor, his hand slipped from the sheet.
The brass key was still clenched between his fingers.
Kiora remembered his warning.
Do not let Victor get the key.
She reached out and took it before the trauma team carried Silas away.
No one noticed her close her fist around it.
Dr. Shaw adjusted Kiora’s monitors.
“Your daughter’s heart rate is recovering.”
Kiora forced herself to breathe.
In.
Out.
Again.
The rate slowly climbed.
“Was that because of the stress?”
“Possibly. You’re also experiencing contractions.”
“I’m only thirty-one weeks.”
“We’ll do everything possible to stop labor.”
The lights returned several minutes later.
District Attorney Holloway entered with her weapon drawn.
“We cleared this floor. The shooter escaped through a maintenance stairwell.”
“What about Silas?”
“He’s in surgery.”
“Was the bullet near his heart?”
“I don’t know.”
Kiora turned her face away.
Lena lowered her voice.
“The attacker used an employee access card belonging to a respiratory therapist.”
“Was the therapist involved?”
“We found him unconscious in a supply closet.”
Kiora opened her hand beneath the blanket and looked at the brass key.
“Silas gave me this.”
Lena studied it.
“Do you know what it opens?”
“A deposit box my mother created.”
“Which bank?”
“I don’t know.”
“We need to move you.”
“To where?”
“A secure location.”
“No.”
“Kiora—”
“I’m not leaving while Silas is in surgery.”
“The shooter came here for you.”
“The shooter aimed at me. Silas stepped in front of the bullet.”
“That is exactly why you need to leave.”
Kiora looked toward the hospital window.
Reporters still surrounded the entrance.
Somewhere beyond them, Cassandra was free.
Victor Voss was watching.
And Adrian might be imprisoned in a place they controlled.
“I’ll leave,” Kiora said. “But not with the police.”
Lena frowned.
“Why?”
“Cassandra said her people were inside the police department. Judge Reeve released her within an hour. Someone shut down the hospital power and used a stolen employee badge.”
“You think my officers are compromised.”
“I think I don’t know who to trust.”
Lena did not argue.
“Who do you trust?”
Kiora looked toward the doorway.
“Silas’s housekeeper.”
Lena seemed surprised.
“Mrs. Dalca?”
“Find her.”
Twenty minutes later, Mara Dalca arrived wearing a charcoal coat over a blue hospital gown.
She had been undergoing tests on the fifth floor when the shooting occurred.
Mara had worked for Silas for thirty years.
She was small, silver-haired, and usually gentle.
That night, she carried a concealed pistol beneath her coat and looked ready to use it.
“I heard what happened,” Mara said.
“Silas was protecting me.”
“That sounds like him.”
“Did you know he was my grandfather?”
Mara’s eyes filled with sadness.
“Yes.”
Kiora looked away.
“Everyone knew except me.”
“Not everyone. Only those who had sworn to protect Elena’s child.”
“Protect me by lying?”
“Your mother believed the Mercer name would put a target on your back.”
“She was right.”
Mara sat beside her.
“Your grandfather wanted to bring you home after Elena died. Your grandmother stopped him.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor threatened to kill you.”
Kiora tightened her fingers around the key.
“Where is the deposit box?”
Mara noticed the movement.
“He gave you the key.”
“Yes.”
“Then he believed the time had come.”
“Where?”
“Not in a bank.”
Mara looked toward Lena.
“I need to speak with Kiora alone.”
“I’m not leaving an unprotected patient.”
“I am her protection.”
Lena considered her for a moment, then moved toward the door.
“I’ll be directly outside.”
When they were alone, Mara closed the blinds.
“The key opens a room at the Halcyon Hotel.”
Kiora knew the hotel.
It was one of Mercer Dominion’s oldest properties, built in 1928 and closed for renovations after Adrian disappeared.
“What room?”
“Seventeen-oh-eight.”
“What is inside?”
“I have never entered.”
“But you know it exists.”
“Your mother stayed there during the final weeks before her death. She trusted the hotel’s original manager, Samuel Wren.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes. He lives in the building.”
“A closed hotel has a permanent resident?”
“The Halcyon is not truly closed.”
Mara removed a thin black phone from her coat.
“Silas has used the upper floors as a private operations center since Cassandra gained influence over the board.”
“You’re telling me he has been running a secret command center inside one of his own hotels?”
“I am telling you your grandfather never surrendered control.”
Kiora looked at the phone.
“What is that?”
“A secure line. Silas instructed me to give it to you if he became incapacitated.”
“Why me?”
“Because you are Elena’s heir.”
The phone vibrated.
A single message appeared.
ROOM 1708 HAS BEEN COMPROMISED.
Kiora looked at Mara.
“Who sent this?”
“No name appears on that network.”
Another message arrived.
DO NOT TRUST LENA HOLLOWAY.
Kiora’s heart sank.
Mara read the words over her shoulder.
“Could be a trap.”
“Or a warning.”
The door opened.
Lena stepped inside.
“We need to leave now. Someone just called the nursing station pretending to be your husband.”
Kiora froze.
“What did he say?”
“He asked whether the baby survived.”
Mara rose slowly.
“Did the caller identify himself as Adrian?”
“Yes.”
Kiora’s pulse raced.
“Was the call traced?”
“It came from a pay phone three blocks away.”
“Adrian could be alive.”
“Or someone wants you to believe he is.”
Lena looked at the secure phone in Kiora’s hand.
“Where did that come from?”
Mara moved between them.
“It belongs to Mr. Mercer.”
“I need to examine it.”
“No.”
Lena’s expression hardened.
“This is now an attempted murder investigation.”
“And you are not touching the only device Victor Voss cannot monitor,” Mara replied.
For several seconds, neither woman moved.
Kiora studied Lena carefully.
She had trusted the district attorney for years.
Lena had supported the legal clinic where Kiora worked.
She had helped reopen the investigation into Adrian’s disappearance.
But the anonymous message repeated in Kiora’s thoughts.
Do not trust Lena Holloway.
“I’m going to the Halcyon,” Kiora said.
“You are not medically cleared to leave,” Lena replied.
“Then I’ll leave against medical advice.”
“You nearly went into premature labor.”
“And somebody nearly killed me in this room.”
Lena lowered her voice.
“Kiora, listen to me. The attacker knew the exact location of your room. Only hospital administration, my office, and Silas’s security team had that information.”
Mara’s face tightened.
“What are you suggesting?”
“That the leak may have come from someone close to Silas.”
The accusation hung between them.
Mara took a step toward Lena.
“I have protected that family since before you finished law school.”
“That does not make you innocent.”
“And your badge does not make you trustworthy.”
Kiora closed her eyes.
They were wasting time.
Silas was in surgery.
Daniel’s family had been taken.
Adrian was missing.
And the room containing her mother’s secret had supposedly been compromised.
“I’m leaving with both of you,” Kiora said.
Lena frowned.
“What?”
“Mara drives. You follow. Neither of you contacts anyone else.”
“Kiora—”
“That is the only arrangement I will accept.”
Dr. Shaw returned ten minutes later and objected strongly.
Kiora signed the discharge papers anyway.
The contractions had stopped.
The baby’s heart rate was stable.
It was not safe.
But nowhere in the hospital felt safe either.
Mara disguised Kiora in a nurse’s coat and wheeled her through a service corridor.
Lena followed in plain clothes.
They left through an underground loading entrance and entered an unmarked car.
As Mara drove toward the Halcyon, Kiora watched the dark city pass beyond the rain-streaked windows.
The secure phone remained silent until they were four blocks from the hotel.
Then it rang.
Kiora answered.
No one spoke at first.
She heard uneven breathing.
Metal scraping against concrete.
Then a familiar voice.
“Kiora?”
Her entire body went still.
“Adrian?”
A strained breath came through the line.
“You shouldn’t have gone to the courthouse.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Listen to me. The room at the Halcyon is a trap.”
Kiora looked through the windshield.
The hotel’s dark tower had appeared at the end of the street.
“Adrian, who has you?”
“I escaped.”
“Where are you?”
“They’re still following me.”
A loud impact sounded on his end of the call.
Adrian groaned.
“Tell Silas the ledger is incomplete.”
“What ledger?”
“The Orion Ledger.”
Kiora looked at Mara.
Mara’s face had gone pale.
“Adrian,” Kiora said. “Who is behind this?”
“You know about Victor.”
“Yes.”
“He isn’t the one giving the orders.”
The call crackled.
“Who is?”
Adrian tried to answer.
A gunshot sounded.
Then silence.
“Adrian!”
The line disconnected.
Kiora called back.
No answer.
Mara stopped the car across the street from the Halcyon.
Lena parked behind them.
The hotel appeared abandoned.
Every window was dark except one.
Room 1708.
A light glowed behind the curtains.
As Kiora watched, the curtains opened.
A man stood in the window.
He looked directly down at their car.
Even from seventeen floors below, Kiora recognized him.
Victor Voss.
He raised one hand.
May you like
Then he held up a photograph against the glass.
It showed Adrian chained to a chair.
