"Axel?"
Axel was already walking towards the black box with a darkened expression. He pulled a small knife from his pocket. He cut the ribbon and lifted the lid with the tip of the blade, careful not to touch it directly.
Inside, resting on a bed of red tissue paper, was a frad photograph.
Axel froze and felt his body go completely stiff.
I leaned forward to look.
It was an old photo, a bit faded with ti. It showed a garden party. In the middle was a man with a charming smile, holding a glass of champagne. Next to him was a younger version of , about ten years old, wearing a white dress and looking up at him in admiration.
That was when I thought he was just my adoptive father, not the reason I was orphaned in the first place.
And tucked into the corner of the fra was a small note card.
Axel picked it up with his gloved hand. He read it, and the temperature in the room seed to drop ten degrees.
"What does it say?" I whispered, standing up.
Axel handed me the card without a word.
The handwriting was elegant and familiar. It was the same handwriting that used to sign my report cards, the sa handwriting that wrote "Love, Dad" on my birthday cards, and the sa handwriting of the man who had caused so much pain in my life.
Layla,
My condolences on the loss of the Duke. It seems you have a bad habit of losing fathers. Let’s hope you take better care of the one you have left.
I’m back in town. We should celebrate your new title.
Love, Dad? No, Charles
I dropped the card on the desk as if it were burning.
Axel stared at the photo of the man who had killed his family, the man he had been planning his revenge against for years. His eyes were dark, and empty of everything except cold rage.
"He thinks he’s taunting us," Axel said in a low voice. "He’s clever and thinks himself safe."
He pulled the knife from his pocket again, and with one motion, he stabbed it into the desk, right through the photo of Charles’s smiling face. The blade sank deep into the wood with a satisfying thunk.
"He just made the last mistake of his life," Axel said.
Axel took the knife out of the desk, leaving it stuck in Charles’s smiling face. He lifted the picture fra gently, looking at it from different sides. Then, he suddenly stopped.
He narrowed his eyes as he turned the fra toward the light. There, just barely seen along the edge of the fancy silver mould, was a tiny pinhole. On the back, hidden under the soft velvet covering, was a small bump.
Axel looked at and raised a finger to his lips in a shushing motion.
My heart hamred against my ribs, but I nodded, clamping my mouth shut.
Axel pulled out his phone. He didn’t speak; he typed a ssage and turned the screen toward .
IT’S BUGGED. AUDIO TRANSMITTER EMBEDDED IN THE FRA.
I stared at the phone, then at the innocent-looking picture of and Charles. He wasn’t just taunting . He was spying on . He was in my office right now, electronically. Listening and waiting for us to reveal our plans.
Axel typed again, his fingers moving quickly.
HE IS LISTENING RIGHT NOW. ACT NATURAL. WE ARE GOING TO FEED HIM A LIE.
I took a deep breath, channelling every ounce of the "Ice Queen" persona I had perfected in the boardroom. I looked away from the fra, pacing toward the window as if I were distressed.
"I can’t believe he’s here, Axel," I said aloud, forcing a tremor into my voice. "I’m terrified. If Charles is in town, then we aren’t safe here. Not aanymore."
Axel caught on instantly. He set the fra down carefully on my desk and walked over to as he typed out his next line for to read.
"We need to leave," Axel said frantically. "The penthouse isn’t safe either. He knows where I live. He’s been tracking us this whole ti."
He showed the phone again: SUGGEST THE SAFE HOUSE IN THE HAMPTONS.
"We should go to the Hamptons," I said, wringing my hands convincingly. "The beach house. No one knows about it except Tye. It has a panic room and security systems. We can hide there until we figure out what to do about him."
"Good idea," Axel said, nodding. "We leave tonight. I’ll inform Tye. Pack only what you need, just the essentials. We go dark. No phones, no digital trail."
"Okay," I whispered, my voice breaking just slightly. "Just get out of here. Please."
Axel grabbed the frad photo roughly. "And I’m getting rid of this disgusting thing."
He threw the fra into the tal trash can by the door with a loud, satisfying clang. The glass cracked audibly.
"Let’s go," he ordered, grabbing my arm.
We walked out of the office, slamming the door behind us.
The mont we were in the hallway, away from the bug, the frantic energy dropped from Axel’s shoulders like a heavy coat. He turned to look at .
"You’re a good actress," he murmured in his normal tone.
"Well, I’ve had a lot of practice lately," I said, my pulse still racing from the performance. "Do you think the old bastard bought it?"
"Charles is arrogant," Axel said, guiding toward the elevator with his hand on the small of my back. "He thinks you’re a scared little girl, and I’m a businessman who acts on facts. He heard exactly what he wanted to hear, that we’re scared and panicking."
The elevator doors opened, and we stepped inside.
"So we aren’t going to the Hamptons?" I asked as the doors closed.
"Oh, we are," Axel said, a dark smile curling his lip. "But we aren’t going there to hide."
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