Chapter 8 - The Rehabilitation Center
Victor refused to send Rosie.
He also refused to stay home.
Dana drove him to Quincy in an armored van while police tactical teams waited two blocks away without lights.
“You said alone,” Dana reminded him.
“I lie when necessary.”
“Comforting.”
The abandoned rehabilitation center smelled like bleach and wet drywall.
Victor entered through the front in his chair, a hidden microphone taped beneath his collar.
Grant waited in the old therapy gym.
Eli sat tied to a wooden chair beside him.
Simon Cross stood near a treatment table.
Victor’s anger became strangely calm.
“You poisoned me.”
Grant shrugged. “Managed you.”
“For eleven months?”
“You were impossible to replace while you could still run the company.”
Eli shouted, “He killed my mom!”
Simon slapped tape over the boy’s mouth.
Victor’s chair jerked forward.
Grant raised a gun.
“Easy.”
Victor stopped.
“Why didn’t you just kill me?”
“Because a dead billionaire triggers audits. A disabled one signs proxies.”
Victor felt sick.
Grant smiled.
“And you signed beautifully.”
Simon stepped closer with a syringe.
Victor looked at it.
“What’s that?”
“The ending,” Simon said.
Grant glanced toward the empty doorway.
“Where’s the baby?”
“Safe.”
Grant’s face hardened.
Then Eli kicked the chair backward.
It struck Simon’s knees.
Simon fell.
Victor drove his wheelchair forward and slammed into Grant.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Dana and the tactical team came through two doors at once.
Chaos exploded.
Eli hit the floor.
Simon ran.
Grant grabbed Victor from behind and dragged him half out of the chair.
Victor landed hard.
Pain shot through his hip.
Then something happened.
His left leg kicked.
Not a twitch.
A kick.
Grant stared.
Victor stared too.
That second of shock was enough for Dana to tackle Grant.
Simon escaped through a service corridor.
Eli crawled to Victor.
“You moved.”
Victor could barely speak.
“So did you.”
Eli laughed once, then started crying.
Dana returned from the corridor.
“Simon’s gone.”
Victor looked toward the open door.
Dana’s phone rang.
Her face changed.
“Townhouse alarm.”
May you like
Victor went cold.
Rosie was still there.
