All Chapters of Trapped by the CEO: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The heavy steel doors of the service elevator groaned as they slid apart, revealing a pitch-black carriage.Henry turned his head, a desperate man looking for his escape route.Julian did not hesitate. He did not aim to kill. He shifted his aim two inches to the right and squeezed the trigger.The suppressed gunshot was a sharp crack in the silent hallway.The bullet shattered Henry's right shoulder. The concierge screamed, his grip failing instantly. The silver pistol clattered onto the marble floor.Julian crossed the distance before Henry's knees hit the ground. He shoved the wounded man backward against the wall, pinning him, and with his free hand, he scooped Mia up. He pulled her small, trembling body flush against his chest."I have you," Julian breathed into his daughter's hair, burying his face in her neck. "I have you, Mia. You are safe."Mia buried her face in his shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably, her tiny fingers digging into his tactical vest.Julian dragged Henry by his u

The explosion of the monitors sent a rain of glass across the mahogany desk, but Julian didn't flinch. He stood in the sudden darkness of his office, the acrid smell of ozone filling his lungs. His heart hammered a steady, lethal rhythm against his ribs."Ask Maya what happened in Chicago."The words were burned into his retinas. He pulled his mobile from his pocket, the screen illuminating his face with a cold, pale light. He didn't call security. He didn't call the police. He opened the private, encrypted database he had used to track Maya five years ago.He typed in her name. Maya Lin.The file appeared instantly. Born: September 12, 2002. Education: Software Engineering. Hometown: Ithaca, New York. There was no mention of Chicago. Not in her school records, not in her medical history, not even in the digital breadcrumbs Leo had scrubbed for her.Julian felt a cold sweat prickle his spine. If the person inside his system knew something his own billion-dollar intelligence network di

The smell of melting marble and burning steel was toxic.Julian Thorne did not blink as the bright orange circle on the floor completed its deadly arc. The massive, heavy slab of the medical suite floor suddenly gave way, plummeting into the dark elevator shaft below with a resonant, echoing crash.A rush of cold, damp air surged upward through the jagged hole, carrying the distinct, metallic scent of the subterranean tunnels.Julian tightened his grip on the surgical scalpel. He stood perfectly still at the edge of the breach, his breathing slow and controlled.A metal grappling hook shot up from the darkness, the heavy prongs biting viciously into the remaining marble floor. A thick tactical rope pulled taut.Someone was climbing up. Fast.Stay down, Julian commanded without looking back at his family. Do not make a sound.A black-gloved hand clamped onto the edge of the hole. A man in full tactical armor hauled himself over the lip, a suppressed submachine gun slung across his ches

Julian Thorne stood in the subterranean holding room, his silhouette cast in sharp, jagged lines against the polished concrete floor. The silence following the audio file was absolute, save for the rhythmic, mechanical hum of the tower’s secondary cooling system. The air in the sublevel was chilled to a precise temperature, but the cold Julian felt was internal—a freezing realization that settled into his marrow, turning his blood to ice."Tell the old man his daughter is exactly where he said she would be. I am bringing the princess home."Julian stared at the dead mercenary on the stainless-steel table. Elias Vance. A man who had just tried to kill Julian's wife while she was at her most vulnerable, yet in his final moments, he hadn't spoken of a target or an asset. He had spoken of a princess."Erase that file," Julian commanded, his voice a low, lethal vibration that seemed to make the very air in the room tremble. "Scrub every trace of Elias Vance's communication logs from the se

The line went dead.Julian lowered Maya's phone, the silence in the master suite pressing against his eardrums like physical weight. He looked at the screen, then at Maya. She was trembling, her arms wrapped protectively around baby Alex, shielding the microscopic metal dot on his heel from the world.He is in the lobby, Julian said, his voice stripped of all humanity. It was the voice of a man who was about to orchestrate a massacre. Your father.Maya let out a choked breath, her hands tightening on the blankets. No. Julian, you cannot go down there. He is a monster. He does not negotiate. If he is in the tower, he brought an army.I have an army too, Julian said, turning toward the hidden armory closet built into the mahogany paneled wall. He punched in a code, and the panel slid open to reveal an arsenal that would rival a small military base. But I am not going to negotiate, Maya. I am going to cut the head off the snake.Julian pulled a heavy tactical vest over his black shirt an