CHAPTER 3 — THE CAMERA THAT SHOULDN'T EXIST
CHAPTER 3 — THE CAMERA THAT SHOULDN'T EXIST
For the first time in fifteen years, I felt something I had trained myself never to feel.
Someone was inside my game.
I stared at the photograph on my phone.
Anna sat on the sofa with Sophia asleep against her shoulder. Samuel rested beside her clutching the worn elephant. The angle was wrong—it wasn't taken through a window or from the hallway.
It had been taken inside my suite.
Very recently.
Very quietly.
I looked around the room without moving my head.
The bedroom.
The living area.
The marble fireplace.
Every shadow suddenly felt occupied.
Richard was still on the phone.
"Sir?"
"Lock down the entire executive floor."
"Already done."
"No one enters. No one leaves."
"Yes, sir."
"And Richard..."
"Sir?"
"Bring me the complete access log for every master key used in the last twenty-four hours."
There was a pause.
"I already checked."
My grip tightened around the phone.
"Someone deleted those too."
I ended the call.
Anna noticed the change in my expression immediately.
"What happened?"
Instead of answering, I walked toward the bookshelf.
Hidden behind a leather-bound collection of antique novels was the security panel controlling the suite's private surveillance.
I entered my code.
Access denied.
I frowned.
Tried again.
Access denied.
Impossible.
Only one person besides me knew the administrator override.
My Chief Operating Officer.
Victor Hale.
A man who had been at my side for twelve years.
The same man scheduled to present tomorrow's merger proposal.
The same merger worth nearly four billion dollars.
Someone wasn't after a hotel room.
Someone was after me.
A soft voice interrupted my thoughts.
"Mister..."
Sophia was awake again.
She was looking at me with sleepy blue eyes.
"Are you mad?"
The question hit harder than any boardroom confrontation.
"No."
"You look mad."
"I've been told that before."
She slid off the sofa and walked toward me barefoot.
Anna started to stop her.
Instead, I lifted a hand.
Sophia reached me and tilted her head.
"My teacher says angry people need hugs."
Before anyone could react, she wrapped her tiny arms around my leg.
I froze.
I couldn't remember the last time anyone had touched me without wanting something.
Stockholders wanted profits.
Politicians wanted donations.
Executives wanted promotions.
Women wanted the billionaire.
Nobody had simply... hugged me.
Sophia looked up.
"Feel better?"
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
A violent pounding echoed through the suite.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Anna jumped.
Samuel burst into tears.
I crossed the room in three long strides.
"Who is it?"
"It's security, sir."
Richard's voice.
I opened the door.
He entered with four officers.
Their expressions were grim.
"We found something."
"What?"
Richard held up a tiny black object inside an evidence bag.
"A wireless camera."
Anna gasped.
"It was hidden inside the smoke detector."
I looked toward the ceiling.
Another officer spoke.
"There's more."
Within fifteen minutes they discovered three additional cameras.
One behind the television.
One inside the bedroom lamp.
One disguised as a phone charger beside the bed.
Someone had turned my private suite into a surveillance room.
Richard's face darkened.
"These aren't cheap."
"How expensive?"
"Military-grade encryption."
"Who uses equipment like this?"
He looked directly at me.
"People planning blackmail."
Anna suddenly stood.
"I should leave."
"No."
"I'm putting you in danger."
"You already were."
She looked confused.
I continued quietly.
"Whoever planted those cameras knew you would be here."
"I swear I didn't know—"
"I believe you."
The words surprised both of us.
"I've spent my life reading people," I said. "You're terrified. Guilty people don't protect children before themselves."
Tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them away.
"I don't cry much anymore."
"You don't have time."
She gave a faint, broken smile.
"No."
At six o'clock that morning, the board of directors began arriving for the quarterly meeting.
None of them knew that four floors above, federal-grade surveillance equipment had just been removed from the CEO's bedroom.
None of them knew two three-year-olds were eating pancakes in my private dining room.
Or that my entire company might already be under attack.
My assistant knocked.
"Mr. Martin?"
"Come in."
Claire stepped inside carrying today's newspapers.
Her face was pale.
"You need to see this."
Across the front page of the city's largest business newspaper was a headline.
MARTIN HOSPITALITY CEO HIDES SECRET FAMILY?
Beneath it—
A blurred photograph.
Anna.
The twins.
And me.
Walking through the hotel lobby less than an hour earlier.
May you like
Someone wasn't waiting to destroy my reputation.
They had already begun.
