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BLINDED BY SECRETS
BY E.M. SHUE
CHAPTER ONE
ILAN
A knock sounds on the door, and I look up from the surveillance footage I’m reviewing. I’m so close to getting one of the Hierarchy’s inner circle commanders. This assignment is not only important to my business but personal too. I want to take down the organization that had my father killed. I have to do this so I can move on with my revenge. Ultimately, it’s Sir’s head that I want, the leader of the Hierarchy. But the honor of taking him down belongs to Maya, a woman who is like a cousin to me. She wants his head for killing her father-in-law.
The Hierarchy started out as an anti-Semitic organization back in the ’60s. The group quickly spread like a disease and now plagues boardrooms around the world. The members are recruited from prestigious universities. They infiltrate and take over multibillion-dollar companies for one man. Sir. There have been two Sirs to date in the history of the organization. The original Sir was killed by Maya in order to protect her friends and family. Now his son has taken over, and he’s far more volatile. The original came after my family, but this one killed my father—my abba.
Oh, he didn’t personally kill my father. That deed was done by a sniper whose life I ended. But the current Sir put the hit on my abba because he wouldn’t stop trying to destroy the Hierarchy. It was an assignment Abba and his best friend were handed when they worked for Mossad. After my abba left and opened this security company, he continued to investigate the Hierarchy, determined to end them once and for all.
The knock sounds again. “Enter,” I bark.
I hate being in charge. I’ve been doing it for fourteen months now. My abba groomed me for this job, so I know I can do it. I just dislike being the boss. Looking at the clock on my monitor, I realize it’s been hours since I came in here, and my back aches. I stand up to my full six-foot-three height and crack my back. I want to go down to the gym and work out.
“Ilan, by any chance, do you know why Bastian would be making a personal trip to Alaska?” Elias, one of my computer technicians, asks as he walks through the door.
My body stills and my breathing slows. It’s not possible. I made sure to leave everything alone there. I made sure there was no trail that led there. I gave up my shares. I stopped watching her. I don’t look at the feeds on my computer.
As if my thoughts align with my computer, the screen saver pops up and there she is gazing back at me. Her beautiful emerald-green eyes stare at me as if she can see into my soul. Her mahogany brown hair shines in the sun. It’s a picture I took from surveillance footage before I stopped watching her. She’s got a thoughtful look on her face. Her full lips are pinched, and her eyes are wide open, seeing everything.
She’s the woman I love. The only woman I’ll ever love.
I walked away from her to ensure her safety. Revenge wasn’t a path she deserved to follow me down.
“Sir?” Elias breaks me from my thoughts.
“Don’t call me that.” I almost spit the words out. “What have you found?” I hold out my hand and watch as Elias trembles. I’m known for holding my temper when others would lose it, but right now all I want to do is clear my desk with the swipe of my arm. To throw my chair across the room.
He hands me a piece of paper, and I snatch it from his hand, ripping the bottom in the process.
“Fuck,” I growl as I look it over.
Hugo Bastian, a known Hierarchy French businessman, has ruthless men who follow his orders. They can be brutal in their questioning. Bastian is going to Alaska under the premise of potentially purchasing a bookstore. I lock my knees, knowing without looking further down the report what the name of the bookstore is or the fact that it’s her.
“Out,” I order and collapse in my chair.
I yank open the bottom drawer of my desk and retrieve the burner phone that I keep there. If she wants to sell, she’s supposed to give me first option to purchase it back. She doesn’t own all the stocks. She can’t sell it without one more person.
The line rings and rings, and I’m about to hang up and call the main number when it’s picked up.
“Hello,” she answers. She knows not to say my name. My father trained her well.
“Is she selling?” I don’t identify her either.
There is a leak in Securities International, and the main office has gone dark. However, this number isn’t on their normal channels. I’m always allowed to reach her, no matter what. For many years she pretended to be my mother, but I only met her right before my father died. He wouldn’t let me go to her. She’s my mother’s identical twin sister. She was also with my father when he was killed. My mother died when I was a toddler. Renee assumed my mother’s identity to save her own children.
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard. But I do recall her trying to get a hold of you about ten months ago.” Renee’s voice is quiet across the line.
I pause and take in her tone and what she’s not saying. “What do you know?” My head falls back against my chair, worried.
She huffs over the line, and my patience is wearing thin.
“I don’t know anything specific, but I do know it was urgent that you get back to her.”
“About selling?”
