“Get back!” Liam warned, his military training showing in his posture.

The progress bar reached ninety percent.

My heart hammered against my ribs.

I clicked the final confirmation button on the screen.

The screen went black for a second, then a red warning box appeared.

*Corporate Assets Locked. Audit Pending.*

I grabbed my USB key and pulled it out of the port.

“It’s done,” I whispered.

“Claire, look,” Liam said.

The light on my phone screen flashed.

An email notification popped up from the Apex corporate board.

An emergency meeting had been called.

But there was something else.

A text message from an unknown number appeared on my screen.

It contained a single image.

I looked at the image, and my blood ran cold.

It was a photograph of the nursing home where our mother lived.

Standing in the background, near the garden window of her room, was a man in a gray suit.

The phone in my hand rang again.

I answered it, my fingers shaking so hard I almost dropped the device.

“Did you get the picture, Claire?” Ethan’s voice asked.