The First Threat

Chapter 5:

The handcuffs were cold.

Jennifer sat in the back of the unmarked car, wrists bound, watching David argue with the officers through the partition. His voice was low, controlled, but she could see the vein in his neck pulsing.

“You have no probable cause,” he said. “She hasn’t been read her rights. Release her now.”

“Not until we get to the station, Mr. Loriss,” the officer replied. “Orders from above.”

David’s jaw tightened. He leaned down to the window.

“Jennifer. Don’t say a word until my lawyer gets there.”

Jennifer nodded, throat dry.

The car pulled away from the gala, leaving Harry standing on the curb, phone to his ear, smiling.

---

The station was bright, sterile, and loud.

They processed her like she was any other criminal. Photo. Fingerprints. Questions.

“Did you access Loriss Corp’s servers on March 12th?”

“Did you share confidential documents with Harry Argent?”

“Why were you in the east wing of David Loriss’s penthouse at 11 PM?”

Jennifer kept her mouth shut.

David’s lawyer, a sharp woman named Ms. Okoro, arrived forty minutes later.

“They have nothing,” Ms. Okoro said after the interrogation. “It’s a frame job. But they’ll hold you overnight. Bail hearing is tomorrow morning.”

Jennifer sat on the cold bench, head in her hands.

“Why?” she whispered. “Why me?”

“Because you’re the easiest target,” Ms. Okoro said. “You’re new. You have motive. And you were seen near the servers.”

Jennifer looked up. “I wasn’t near the servers.”

“Security footage says otherwise,” Ms. Okoro replied.

Jennifer’s stomach dropped.

---

David was waiting when she was released on bail at 9 AM.

He didn’t say anything when she got in the car. Just drove.

They didn’t go back to the penthouse. They went to Loriss Corp’s legal floor, empty on a Saturday morning.

David opened a conference room and slammed the folder from the east wing onto the table.

“Someone planted that footage,” he said. “And they used your access card.”

Jennifer stared at him. “I don’t have an access card.”

“You do now,” David said, sliding a card across the table. “Someone cloned it. Used it to enter the server room at 10:58 PM. Two minutes before the leak.”

Jennifer picked it up. Her name was printed on it. Her photo.

“This isn’t mine,” she said.

“No,” David agreed. “But it’s good enough for the police.”

Jennifer stood up, pacing. “So someone wants me in jail. Someone who knows about the contract, the partnership, the safe.”

David nodded. “Someone who knows you’re looking.”

Jennifer stopped pacing. “Harry.”

“Harry has motive,” David said. “But he doesn’t have access to my building’s security system. Not without help.”

Jennifer thought of the envelope under the east wing door. The photo of her parents’ crash.

“It wasn’t Harry,” she said quietly. “It was the person who sent me that photo.”

David’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“To push me toward you,” Jennifer said. “To make me trust you. Or to make me panic and run straight into a trap.”

David didn’t argue. He just opened his laptop and pulled up security logs.

“Someone accessed the east wing door logs at 2 AM last night,” he said. “Unlocked it remotely.”

Jennifer’s blood ran cold. “You locked it.”

“I did,” David said. “Someone unlocked it after I left.”

Jennifer sat down hard.

“So they want me to see the contract,” she said. “They want me to get arrested. They want me scared.”

David closed the laptop.

“Then we don’t give them what they want,” he said.

Jennifer looked at him. “What do we do?”

“We go public,” David said. “Tonight. We hold a press conference. We deny everything. And we announce that you’re moving into the penthouse full-time, under 24/7 security.”

Jennifer blinked. “That’s it?”

“That’s how you flush them out,” David said. “If they want you isolated and scared, we make you visible and protected. If they want you to break the contract, we make the contract stronger.”

Jennifer hesitated. “What about the arrest?”

“My legal team is filing a motion to dismiss,” David said. “The footage is doctored. We have timestamps proving you were with me at 10:58 PM.”

Jennifer frowned. “We were?”

David’s mouth twitched. “We were on the balcony. Security cameras don’t cover that angle.”

Jennifer exhaled.

David stood. “Get some rest. The press conference is at 7 PM.”

Jennifer didn’t sleep. She sat in the conference room, staring at the cloned access card.

Someone was playing a game. And she was the piece they were moving.

---

The press conference was held in the same hall as the engagement announcement.

This time, Jennifer walked in alone.

David followed thirty seconds later, letting the cameras capture the distance between them. It looked like damage control.

“Ms. Benz,” a reporter shouted. “Are you guilty of industrial espionage?”

Jennifer stopped at the podium. Her hands shook, but her voice didn’t.

“No,” she said. “I am not guilty. The footage shown to police was fabricated. My access card was cloned. And I intend to find out who did it.”

Murmurs rippled through the room.

“Mr. Loriss, are you standing by her?” another reporter asked.

David stepped up beside her.

“Jennifer Benz is my fiancée,” he said. “She lives with me. She is under my protection. Anyone who targets her targets me.”

The room went quiet.

David leaned into the microphone.

“Effective immediately, Jennifer Benz will have full access to all Loriss Corp facilities. Any attempt to restrict her will be considered an attack on the company.”

Jennifer glanced at him. That wasn’t in the plan.

He met her eyes for half a second.

_Trust me,_ his expression said.

The press conference ended in chaos.

As they left, Jennifer’s phone buzzed.

Unknown number again.

_You made a mistake, Jennifer. Now he can’t protect you from what’s coming._

She showed it to David in the car.

He read it, deleted it, and said, “We’re changing your number.”

“That’s it?” Jennifer asked.

“That’s how you win,” David said. “You don’t react. You control the narrative.”

Jennifer wasn’t sure she believed him.

When they got back to the penthouse, security was everywhere. Guards at the door, cameras in the hallway, a new keypad on the east wing door.

David handed her a new phone.

“Encrypted,” he said. “Only I have the number.”

Jennifer took it.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

David nodded. “Get some sleep. Tomorrow, we start digging.”

Jennifer went to her room.

But she didn’t sleep.

At 1 AM, her new phone buzzed.

A photo.

It was her, asleep in bed. Taken through her bedroom window.

The message below it read:

_I’m closer than you think._

Jennifer sat up, heart pounding.

Outside her window, thirty floors up, a red laser dot moved across the glass.