Chapter 5 5

The elevator doors slid shut, sealing Hart and Camisha in a steel box. They were descending from the 40th floor.

"You fixed the code," Hart said. It wasn't a question.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Camisha replied, staring at the numbers counting down. 35... 34...

"Don't play dumb. Isadora doesn't know a server from a shoe salon. It was you."

BOOM.

The elevator jolted violently. The lights flickered and died. The emergency brake screeched, throwing them both off balance.

Darkness swallowed them.

Silence. Then, the sound of ragged breathing.

Hhhuh... hhhuh...

Hart pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. The beam cut through the dark.

Camisha was pressed against the corner, sliding down to the floor. Her hands were clawing at her throat.

"Camisha?"

"I can't... air... no air..."

Claustrophobia. Hart remembered. She had panicked once in a closet when they were looking for files.

He knelt beside her. "Breathe. Look at me."

"Leo," she gasped. "I have to get back to Leo."

"Leo is fine. Alfred is with him."

"No... you don't understand... he needs..." She was hyperventilating.

Hart didn't think. He reached out and grabbed her hands. They were ice cold. "Camisha. Listen to my voice. You are safe."

"He's my everything," she whispered, tears streaming down her face. "If anything happens to him..."

"Nothing will happen." Hart felt a pang in his chest. A sharp twist of envy. She loved that boy so much. He wished someone loved him like that. He wished she had loved him like that.

"That ex-boyfriend," Hart said, his voice rough. "He was a lucky man."

Camisha looked at him, her eyes wide and vulnerable in the harsh light. "He was an idiot."

The lights buzzed back on. The elevator started moving.

The doors opened on the lobby level.

Isadora was standing there. She looked at Hart kneeling on the floor, holding Camisha's hands. Her eyes narrowed into slits.

"Felix England is buying up the scattered shares," Isadora announced loudly, ignoring the intimacy of the moment. "We have a crisis."

Hart stood up, pulling his mask of indifference back on. He dropped Camisha's hands. "I'm on it."

He strode toward the exit.

Camisha scrambled up. She checked her phone. Five missed calls from the estate.

She called the house phone.

"Miss Camisha!" The maid sounded hysterical. "I'm so sorry. Miss Isadora... she came back early. She said Mr. Whitney wanted the boy for a photo op. She took him."

"She took him where?" Camisha screamed.

"She said something about the cliffs. For the view."

Camisha dropped the phone. She ran.

She burst out of the building. Hart was getting into his limo.

"Hart!" She slammed her hands on his window. "She has him! Isadora took Leo!"

Hart rolled down the window. "Calm down. She probably just went for a drive."

"She took him to the cliffs! He's three years old! He doesn't know not to run!"

"I have a meeting, Camisha."

"Screw your meeting!" Camisha pulled out her phone. Her fingers trembled as she opened a hidden file. "Look at this!"

She shoved the screen in his face.

It was a photo of a ledger. The ledger. The one showing the illegal offshore transfers Hart's father had made ten years ago. The one that could send Hart to prison for twenty years.

Hart went pale. "Where did you get that?"

"I have the originals," Camisha hissed. "If you don't help me get my son back right now, I will email this to the IRS. I swear to God, Hart, I will burn your legacy to the ground to save him."

Hart looked at her. He saw the ferocity in her eyes. She wasn't bluffing. This wasn't the meek analyst. This was a mother bear.

"Get in," Hart ordered.

He drove. He didn't wait for the driver. He pushed the Maybach to 100 miles per hour on the highway.

They reached the scenic overlook at the cliffs.

Isadora's convertible was parked near the edge. Isadora was standing by the guardrail, holding her phone up. Leo was sitting on the railing. The wind was whipping his hair. The drop behind him was two hundred feet into the churning ocean.

"Smile, sweetie!" Isadora called out.

"Leo!" Camisha screamed. She didn't wait for the car to stop fully. She jumped out and sprinted.

Isadora turned. "Oh, relax. It's just a photo."

Camisha grabbed Leo, pulling him off the rail and crushing him to her chest. She fell to her knees, sobbing.

Hart walked up. He looked at the drop. He looked at the terrified boy.

Isadora smiled nervously. "Hart, I was just-"

Smack.

Camisha stood up and slapped Isadora across the face. It was a sound like a pistol crack.

Isadora stumbled back, clutching her cheek. "Hart! She hit me!"

Hart looked at Isadora. Then he looked at Camisha, who was shaking, holding her son like he was the only thing anchoring her to the earth.

"If you ever touch him again," Hart said, his voice deadly quiet, "I will destroy the Roth family. I will pull every loan. I will bankrupt your father by noon tomorrow."

Isadora gaped. "But... I saved you."

"Did you?" Hart asked.

He turned to Camisha. "Get in the car."

"The deal is over," Camisha spat. "I'm taking him and I'm leaving."

Hart stepped in her path. "No. The deal has changed. You have the evidence. I have the boy. Now, we negotiate."