Her husband whipped her twenty times while his pregnant mistress stood beside him smiling...

“Get down!” Marcus yelled, pulling me to the ground behind an iron container.

Automatic gunfire shattered the quiet night. The armored vehicle stopped, and several masked operatives wearing unmarked tactical gear began firing at both my father’s men and Adrian.

These weren't my father's men. And they certainly weren't working for Adrian.

“Who are they?!” I shouted over the deafening noise of gunfire.

“The Apex Syndicate,” my father said grimly, taking cover beside us, his suit stained with rainwater. “The people Arthur Vale borrowed money from twenty years ago. They didn't care about Arthur's death... they cared about the master key to his algorithm.”

“The master key?” I looked at the flash drive Adrian was clutching tightly in his hands as he cowered behind a pile of wooden pallets.

“Arthur hid the key inside his son's corporate network,” Richard explained quickly as bullets ricocheted off the shipping container. “That’s why Vale Corp’s stock soared. The algorithm was running automatically in the background of Adrian’s platform. Apex wants that drive. If they get it, they control thirty percent of automated global trade.”

I looked at Adrian, who was crying, utterly broken, completely out of his depth. He had thought he was playing a game of corporate revenge, unaware he was standing in the middle of a warzone.

“Marcus!” I called out to my security chief. “Cover me!”