PART 13 — The Road to the Airfield
Garrick expected the police to follow the decoy vehicles.
He did not expect Sienna to remember the old freight tunnel beneath the industrial complex.
Ashford Industries had once used the site to transport equipment directly to the airfield.
Sienna had seen the tunnel marked on corporate renovation plans.
She was taken from the vehicle and placed inside a maintenance cart.
Garrick waited underground.
He wore ordinary jeans and a baseball cap, but nothing could disguise the rage in his face.
“You destroyed my family.”
Sienna looked at him.
“No. Your family destroyed itself.”
He grabbed the front of her coat.
“Your mother stole my company.”
“Your mother stole from it.”
Garrick released her.
A small private jet was being prepared at the airfield.
He planned to fly to a country where Marcus had hidden corporate funds.
But he still needed Sienna.
The final offshore accounts required biometric confirmation from both an Ashford heir and a Bennett trust beneficiary.
Their marriage had given him access to the first requirement.
Sienna’s fingerprint would provide the second.
“Put your hand on the scanner,” he ordered.
“No.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
“For the first time, I do.”
Above ground, Fletcher realized none of the decoy cars carried Sienna.
I remembered Henry once mentioning the old freight tunnel.
Police redirected toward the airfield.
Inside the hangar, Garrick forced Sienna toward the scanner.
She pretended to stumble.
As he reached for her, she pulled the emergency fire alarm.
Sirens exploded through the building.
Sprinklers activated.
Ground crews ran toward the exits.
Sienna struck the scanner with a metal tool and shattered its glass.
Garrick seized her.
Police vehicles surrounded the airfield.
Fletcher entered the hangar with officers.
Garrick held a broken piece of glass near Sienna’s throat.
“Stay back.”
Sienna remained perfectly still.
I stepped into the hangar behind Fletcher.
“Let her go.”
Garrick stared at me.
“You should have stayed out of my family.”
“She is my family.”
His hand trembled.
Then he laughed.
“You still don’t understand. Marcus built a deletion program into the accounts. In nine minutes, every financial record disappears.”
Evelyn’s forensic team connected remotely.
A countdown was already running.
If the files vanished, much of the corporate case could collapse.
Garrick smiled.
“Let me board the plane, and I’ll give you the password.”
Sienna looked at the terminal.
Then at Garrick.
Suddenly, she understood.
“The password isn’t yours.”
His smile disappeared.
She turned toward me.
“Marcus gave it to someone he trusted more than Garrick.”
At that moment, my phone rang.
May you like
The caller was Marcus Hale.
From inside the county detention center.
