Chapter 1 - The Rope Above My Sister

The first thing I heard was the rope creaking above my sister’s head.

The second was her husband laughing.

Isabella hung beneath a cracked ceiling beam in an abandoned warehouse in Long Island City, her wrists tied above her, bare feet hovering inches over a floor covered in damp invoices and broken plaster. Bruises darkened one side of her face and both legs. Silver tape covered her mouth.

Jasper Blackwood leaned against a splintered desk in a black cashmere coat.

“She belongs to me.”

I removed my gloves.

Behind me stood Marcus Reed, Luis Ortega, and Ben Farrow, three licensed security contractors from the corporate-risk firm I had spent twelve years building overseas.

Jasper knew me as Caleb Montgomery, Isabella’s boring older brother who supposedly moved to Rotterdam to work in shipping.

That description had always been useful.

“No,” I said. “She’s my blood.”

Jasper smiled.

“Then act like family. Sign the Montgomery Foundation over to me and tell her to give me the password.”

Isabella’s eyes locked on mine.

Not just frightened.

Urgent.

She looked toward the cracked wall clock.

11:41 p.m.

Then back at me.

Jasper mistook it for panic.

“She found documents she shouldn’t have,” he said. “Your saintly sister has been snooping through my companies.”

“And that required tying her to a beam?”

“It required teaching her what marriage means.”

My coat button contained a small camera transmitting to an encrypted server. New York law allowed me to record a conversation I was participating in. More importantly, Marcus had already alerted NYPD that Isabella was being held against her will and that armed men might be inside.

Jasper snapped his fingers.

Two men appeared from the adjoining room carrying handguns.

My team didn’t reach for theirs.

“Tell them to leave,” Jasper said. “Then we can solve this privately.”

I looked at Isabella.

“Close your eyes, little star.”

It was what I used to tell her during thunderstorms when she was six.

Her eyes closed immediately.

The lights went out.

Somebody cursed.

One of Jasper’s guards fired into the ceiling.

Then sirens rose outside.

When emergency lights from the street flashed through the broken windows, Jasper’s smile was gone.

He looked at Isabella.

“What did you do?”

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My sister opened her eyes.

And for the first time that night, she smiled at him.