The Pink Suitcase

PART 2 — THE MAN AT HIS TABLE

Damon reached Selena’s bedroom in less than a minute.

She lay beside the bed, one hand pressed against her bleeding shoulder. A shattered vase glittered across the floor, and the curtains moved in the breeze from an open window.

“Selena!”

Damon dropped to his knees beside her.

Her eyes fluttered open. “Ruby?”

“She’s safe.” He pressed a folded towel against her wound. “Stay with me. Tell me who did this.”

Selena gripped his wrist with surprising strength.

“Don’t trust Corbin.”

Damon froze.

Corbin had been his father’s most trusted adviser. He had helped raise Damon and Rafael after their parents died, and he had sat at Damon’s table for fifteen years.

“Why?” Damon demanded.

Selena swallowed painfully. “Because he knows about the key. He knows what’s inside the box.”

Before Damon could question her further, the estate doctor rushed into the room with two guards. Damon stood, his face dark with fury.

“Keep her alive,” he ordered. “Whatever it takes.”

Then he returned to the security room.

Ruby was sitting on a leather sofa, clutching her pink suitcase while a female guard offered her a glass of water. The moment she saw Damon, she reached both arms toward him.

He lifted her onto his lap.

“Where’s Mommy?” she whispered.

“The doctors are helping her.”

“Promise she won’t go away?”

Damon looked into those frightened brown eyes. He had spent years believing that fear was something to be conquered with money, weapons, and power. Yet he couldn’t bear the thought of this little girl losing the only parent she had.

“I promise I’ll do everything I can.”

Ruby rested her head against his chest.

Damon turned toward Marcus, who stood beside the surveillance monitors.

“Show me the footage.”

They watched the cameras from Selena’s corridor. At 2:17 p.m., a maintenance worker entered the hallway carrying a toolbox. His face was partially hidden beneath a cap.

Three minutes later, the lights went out.

When they returned, the man was gone.

Marcus enlarged the image from another camera.

The intruder had passed through a restricted entrance using an authorized security card.

“Someone gave him access,” Marcus said grimly.

“Find out whose card it was.”

Marcus hesitated before answering.

“Corbin’s.”

Damon’s jaw tightened.

He had known Corbin for most of his life. The man had attended Rafael’s funeral, stood beside Damon through the darkest months of his grief, and promised to protect the Reyes family.

If Corbin had betrayed him, Damon wanted to know why.

He ordered every member of his inner circle into the main conference room.

When Corbin arrived, he looked irritated rather than frightened.

“What is this about?” he asked. “We have enemies outside, Damon. We can’t afford to waste time.”

Damon placed the small silver key on the table.

Corbin’s expression changed.

It lasted less than a second, but Damon saw it.

“Where did you get that?” Corbin asked.

“That’s an interesting question.” Damon leaned forward. “Why don’t you tell me?”

Corbin forced a laugh. “Rafael’s old key? I thought it disappeared with him.”

“You thought wrong.”

Across the room, Marcus quietly locked the doors.

Damon continued, “Someone entered my estate today, shot a woman who works for me, and tried to recover this key. The only person whose access card appears on the footage is you.”

Corbin looked around the table.

“You’re accusing me of shooting a maid?”

“I’m giving you an opportunity to explain.”

For the first time, Corbin’s calm expression hardened.

“Rafael was reckless,” he said. “He trusted the wrong people. Perhaps you should stop digging up his mistakes.”

Damon rose slowly.

“Careful.”

Corbin fell silent.

Then the conference room door opened.

Ruby stood in the doorway, her pink suitcase beside her. The female guard hurried after her, apologizing.

The little girl stared at Corbin.

Then she pointed at him with a trembling finger.

“That’s him.”

Every man in the room turned.

Corbin’s face went pale.

Ruby clutched her stuffed rabbit.

“He talked to Mommy. He said Daddy was dead, and Mommy had to give him the key.”

Damon felt the entire room tilt around him.

He stepped between Ruby and Corbin.

“You went near my child?”

Corbin suddenly reached inside his jacket.

Three guards drew their guns.

But instead of a weapon, Corbin pulled out a phone.

He looked at Damon with a bitter smile.

“You still don’t understand, do you? Rafael didn’t die because of some outside enemy. He died because he discovered what this family was built on.”

Before Damon could grab him, Corbin slammed the phone against the table.

A voice filled the room.

It was Rafael’s voice.

“Damon, if you’re hearing this, Corbin has found the key. And there’s something you need to know about Ruby’s father…”

The recording stopped abruptly.

Damon stared at the broken phone.

Then he looked down at Ruby.

For the first time, the little girl seemed afraid of him, too.

And Damon realized the truth might be far more dangerous than betrayal.

It might destroy everything he believed about his dead brother.