KATHLEEN
The private elevator to Carl's penthouse moved too fast.
Kathleen gripped the railing, her mind spinning. The loan documents burned in her bag. The principal's panicked call still echoed in her ears. And now she was following Carl Harris—*the* Carl Harris—into his private life.
*What the hell am I doing?*
The doors slid open.
Chaos.
A woman in a blazer—the principal—stood near the floor-to-ceiling windows, her arms crossed. A security guard hovered by the door. And curled on the couch, wrapped in a blanket too big for her small frame, was the girl from the school.
*Alina.*
Carl crossed the room in three strides, kneeling in front of her. "Hey, bug. You okay?"
Alina nodded, but her lower lip trembled. "The man said he was a friend of yours."
Carl's entire body went rigid. "What man?"
"The one who tried to take me from school."
Kathleen's blood turned to ice.
The principal stepped forward. "A man showed up with *your* driver's license, Mr. Harris. Said you'd sent him to pick Alina up for a 'family emergency.' Luckily, our new facial-recognition system flagged him as unauthorized."
Carl's voice was lethally calm. "Description."
"Mid-forties. Blond. Wore a Sandeke Capital pin."
*Hansen.*
Kathleen's gaze snapped to Carl. His knuckles were white where they gripped the couch.
The principal handed him a tablet. "We caught him on security footage."
The screen showed Hansen Leroy, smiling at the front desk like a wolf in a tailored suit.
Carl stood abruptly. "I need five minutes."
He pulled Kathleen into the hallway, his breath ragged. "He went after my *niece*."
Kathleen had seen Carl furious before. But this—this was something darker. Primal.
She touched his arm without thinking. "We'll fix this."
*We.*
The word hung between them.
Carl's phone buzzed. He glanced at it—then went still.
Kathleen followed his gaze.
**Breaking: SafeHaven Servers Under Attack. IPO Delayed.**
Her stomach dropped.
Hansen's game was just beginning.
---
CARL
Carl's penthouse office was a war room.
Kathleen paced behind him as he pulled up SafeHaven's server logs on his desktop. Lines of corrupted code flooded the screen.
"It's a targeted attack," she muttered. "They're locking us out of our own systems."
Carl typed furiously. "Hansen's using Sandeke's backdoor access. He's known about your IPO for weeks."
Kathleen's nails dug into her palms. "Because *you* told him."
A muscle jumped in Carl's jaw. "Yes."
The admission cost him. But he owed her this truth.
Kathleen exhaled sharply—then grabbed a chair. "How do we stop it?"
Carl blinked. "We?"
She booted up a second monitor, fingers flying across the keyboard. "Unless you'd rather let him sink us both?"
For the first time in years, Carl felt something dangerously close to hope.
They worked in tandem, their silence punctuated by the clack of keys. An hour passed. Then two.
Alina peeked in, her stuffed dragon clutched to her chest. "Uncle Carl? I'm scared."
Carl's heart cracked. He scooped her up, balancing her on his knee without breaking focus on the screen. "It's okay, bug. We're almost done."
Kathleen watched them—the billionaire and the orphaned girl. Something in her expression shifted.
Then—
"Got it." Carl isolated the malware. "I can reverse the damage, but we need to move fast."
Kathleen nodded. "Do it."
Their eyes met. A silent pact.
Hansen had made his move.
Now it was their turn.
---
AVA
Ava Lopez was *this close* to committing arson.
SafeHaven's offices were in chaos—engineers shouting, monitors flashing red. The IPO countdown clock was frozen at 12 hours.
Her phone rang. Kathleen.
"Where the *hell* are you?" Ava snapped. "We're getting crucified online!"
"Listen." Kathleen's voice was steel. "Hansen Leroy attacked our servers. He also tried to kidnap Carl's niece."
Ava's rage stuttered. "*What?*"
"He's playing both sides. I need you to dig up everything on Sandeke Capital's recent deals. Look for shell companies tied to Hansen personally."
Ava pulled up her laptop. "Why would he—"
Then she saw it.
Buried in SEC filings: Hansen had quietly acquired shares in *SafeHaven's competitors*. If the IPO failed, he stood to make millions.
"Mother*fucker*," Ava breathed.
Kathleen's voice dropped. "Tell me you can prove it."
Ava was already typing. "Give me two hours."
She hung up—just as her screen flickered.
A new email popped up.
**From:** Hansen Leroy
**Subject:** You should've taken the deal, Ava.
**Attachment:** [SafeHaven_Internal_Emails.zip]
Her blood ran cold.
Hansen wasn't just attacking their servers.
He was leaking their secrets.