“You know everything?”
“Yes.”
“Then, you’re right,” he spoke finally, his voice so cold it sent a shiver down her spine. “I do care about my reputation. I have worked too hard for too many years to let this get in the way.”
Morana frowned, trying to piece together everything her father said.
“You’ve known for a while now, haven’t you?”
She continued to bluff. “Yes, I have.”
“You should have died,” her father repeated the words from the other night. “At least I wouldn’t have had to deal with you all these years.”
Morana stayed quiet, letting him talk.
“You’ve spurned me, shamed me, and now you know the truth about us. You’ve not only signed your death warrant, Morana. You’ve signed his too.”
Her mind spun, not just because of the severity of the threats but because of what he’d said.
‘Truth about us?’
To whom was her father referring?
“Starting now, you’re dead to me.”
The line went dead.
Morana looked at the phone, another hard shiver wracking her body, goosebumps erupting all over her arms.
She looked around, seeing the secluded area for the first time as not the safe haven it was but the perfect spot to dispose of a dead body. Her senses went tingling with dread.
Urgency hit her suddenly.
She needed to get back to the penthouse, to safety. Now.
Pocketing her phone, she stood up quickly and started walking towards the gate of the graveyard a good distance away, beyond which her car stood waiting for her. Hastening her steps, she kept her senses vigilant, looking around and over her shoulders, seeing nothing but graves and grass and trees at the far edge on this side of the fence in the utter quiet.
The wrought iron gate came into view, and Morana could see her car a little beyond that.
Releasing a sigh of relief, she sped up to a jog and exited the graveyard.
It was perhaps because she was on alert for anything out of place combined with the absolute silence that she heard the little beep she would have otherwise missed as she neared her car.
The sound came again, like a whip cracking on the ground before meeting flesh, making her heart pound as blood rushed through her body in a tsunami.
Stopping exactly where she was, Morana dropped to her knees and leaned over to look under her car, her hands scraping in the dirt and her body ready to jump and run if what she suspected was true.
It was true.
A small black box was hooked under her car, a red dot of a light blinking on it with every alternate beep. Since there was no timer, it meant that it was controlled remotely. Which meant someone had been watching and waiting for her to come near enough.
Heart in her throat, adrenaline flushing her system, Morana pushed back and stood, turning and running back towards the graveyard without wasting a breath. Blood pounded in her ears and the muscles in her calf burned. Little pebbles got under the sole of her flats but she continued to run, feeling a stitch on her side, just as the ground beneath her feet started to rumble.
Oh god, not now.
With a burst of speed, not looking back even once, just as a plane roared into the sky, a hot gust of wind blew into her from behind, forcing her onto the ground. Heat seared her back as she fell on her front, the breath knocked out of her, the exposed skin at her neck and arms singed as the fabric tore at her back.
Panting, Morana rolled onto her back, wincing with pain as she put pressure on the sensitive skin, the wound in her arm bleeding again, dirt coating her skin, as she looked back at the gate.