Daniel’s face turned the color of ash.
He lunged at his head of security. “Arrest her! Shoot her! I’m still the acting CEO!”
No one moved.
I tapped the security scanner again. The massive lobby screens flashed a brilliant, unforgiving red.
**ALL ACCOUNTS FROZEN. DANIEL SOMOR TERMINATED.**
“You don’t pay their salaries anymore, Daniel,” I whispered, wiping a streak of blood from my chin. “I do.”
Vanessa dropped to her knees, sobbing, babbling about a plea deal.
But Daniel wasn’t finished. Cornered and desperate, he pulled a 9mm pistol from his tailored jacket, aiming it straight at my chest.
“You should have drowned with your mother,” he snarled, his hand shaking.
“She didn’t drown.”
The voice didn’t come from me. It came from behind him.
The private elevator doors had opened again.
A woman stepped into the lobby. She wore a flawless white power suit, flanked by three armed FBI agents. The chandelier light caught the silver bracelet gleaming on her wrist.
Daniel’s gun slipped from his fingers, clattering against the polished marble.
“Aunt Maria?” he gasped, all the blood leaving his face.
My mother smiled, but her eyes were pure ice.
She hadn’t died in that boating accident three years ago. We faked her funeral and hid her away, waiting for Daniel to get greedy enough to hire the same hitman twice. Last night’s cliff crash wasn’t an ambush. It was bait. I drove the decoy car so we could finally trace the wire transfers.
As federal agents slapped cuffs on a screaming Daniel and a weeping Vanessa, my mother walked over and gently touched my bruised cheek.
“You look terrible, darling,” she said softly. “Rough check-in?”
I smirked, stepping right over Vanessa.
“Just firing the manager. Let’s take our hotel back.”