Chapter 7 - The Interrogation in Silence
The air in the private study seemed to vanish instantly.
Daniel Mercer froze. His eyes locked onto the handwritten words on the page. His breath stopped in his throat, his face draining of every drop of color until he looked like a dead man sitting in a leather chair.
"A-Adrian..." Daniel stammered, his voice trembling violently. "What... what is this? I don't understand—"
Adrian didn't write another word.
He stood up from behind the heavy mahogany desk. All six feet three inches of his broad, imposing frame loomed over the smaller man.
The door to the study clicked open behind Daniel.
Marcus Vance stepped inside, accompanied by two massive, dark-suited security operatives. Marcus closed the double heavy oak doors, engaging the deadbolt locks with a loud, metallic clack.
Daniel spun around, his hands shaking as he gripped the arms of his chair. "Marcus! What is the meaning of this?! Adrian is having some kind of episode—"
"Sit down, Daniel," Marcus said grimly.
Adrian walked around the desk, stopping right beside Daniel’s chair.
He reached down, picked up Dr. Chen’s micro-forceps from the side table, and dropped the tiny, titanium micro-plug—the one extracted from his left ear sixteen hours earlier—directly onto the tablet screen in front of Daniel.
Beside it, Adrian dropped the glass vial containing Dr. Warren’s oil solution.
Daniel stared at the tiny metal rice-grain resting on the lit glass of his tablet. His knees began to knock together beneath the desk.
"You thought I was deaf, Daniel," a deep, terrifying baritone voice suddenly echoed from above him.
Daniel gasped, flinching so hard he nearly fell out of his chair. He looked up at Adrian in absolute, paralyzing horror.
"Y-You..." Daniel rasped, his eyes bulging out of his head. "You can... you can hear me?"
"I have heard every word you and Claire have said in this room since seven o'clock this morning," Adrian said, his voice slow, measured, and dripping with lethal power.
Daniel began to weep silently, sliding out of the chair onto his knees on the Persian rug. "Adrian... please! Please hear me out! It wasn't my idea! It was Victor Sutton! Victor planned the explosion three years ago! He said... he said Julian was going to kill us all with his expansion plans!"
Adrian crouched down, bringing his face inches away from Daniel’s pale, sweat-streaked forehead.
"My brother died in that car, Daniel," Adrian whispered, the cold fury in his voice vibrating through the quiet room. "His body was burned beyond recognition. And for three years, you let me sit in silence, thinking I had failed to protect him."
"Victor threatened my family!" Daniel sobbed, grabbing at Adrian’s trousers. "He forced Dr. Warren to install the dampeners while you were unconscious in the ICU after the blast! Warren developed the petroleum gel to keep the eardrum paralyzed! They were going to remove them after the wedding once the assets were transferred to Sutton’s trust!"
Adrian stood up smoothly, stepping away from the weeping man.
"Where is the master ledger for the Sutton offshore accounts?" Adrian asked softly.
"In... in Warren’s private safe at his clinic in Greenwich," Daniel choked out, desperate to trade information for his life. "Warren keeps all the medical logs and payment receipts there! Victor paid him two million dollars a year to maintain the chemical application!"
Adrian looked at Marcus.
"Take him to the basement," Adrian commanded quietly. "Strip his phones, lock him down, and make sure no one outside this house knows he’s here."
"Understood, boss," Marcus said, grabbing Daniel by the collar and dragging him out through the hidden service door.
Adrian stood alone in the center of his study.
He turned his head toward the window, listening to the soft, gentle patter of rain beginning to fall against the glass pane.
May you like
It was a magnificent sound.
And it was the sound of a storm about to break over New York.
