Chapter 31 Venom and Velvet
Valenticias POV~
My heart stopped.
Stefan tugged my arm and pushed me behind a piece of splintered wood, his body shielding mine as the inferno threw pieces of wood. His eyes poked into the smoke, searching for the shooter, but mine lay on Clara as she was carelessly dragged across the floor by a dark figure that disappeared into the blur. I attempted to go grab her, but Stefan held me firmly by the arm, his voice close and insistent. “Valenticia, we retreat. Now.”
“No!” I screamed out of fear. “Clara’s alive. I won’t leave her.”
Stefan's jaw tightened, but in the distance, police sirens sounded, a piercing alarm that tore through the air. The red beam flickered out and disappeared, the sniper bolting as the blue lights cut through the fog. Stefan yanked me toward his car. My legs shook, but Clara’s name rang in my head.
The ride to the estate was quiet, but it was Stefan’s presence, that steadfast, unflinching resolve of his, that kept me from shattering.
There was no solace in the oak-panelled walls of the library at the estate. The latest development in Natasha’s sabotage was a leaked memo, forged under my name, accusing Rosanna of mismanagement that left the board in chaos. The paper was on display across all of Seryne’s newsfeeds, painting my grandmother as a tyrant. Both her legacy and mine were undermined. Natasha’s forged emails painted me as a criminal, and now this memo could bring Clawford to its knees. I paced, Clara was barely hanging on, and I was letting her down.
Elaine’s voice shattered my spiral, her tone frantic. “Valenticia, I’ve found something. Galden’s enforcer — the scarred one from the club was seen at a Seryne dock, Pier 17. He’s also working for Natasha. Clara might be there.”
I felt my hope spike, sharp and desperate. “I’m going,” I declared, reaching for my coat. “Send me the coordinates.”
“Be careful,” Elaine warned. “Natasha’s playing for keeps.”
I placed the phone down with my jaw set. Natasha’s obsession with Dmitri alone can be what led her to this. It had led her to take Clara, to set me up, to attack Rosanna. I had to get in her face and make her stop spewing venom. I was being foolish, but I went anyway, against Stefan’s warning to me, and came to Clawford Corporation, its glass windows rising beneath a storm grey sky. Whispers buzzed in the lobby, board members’ eyes shifting as I walked in. Natasha loomed by the elevators, her diamond earrings flashing, her smirk a blade.
“Valenticia,” she smirked, moving closer. “Clara is gone, just as your precious Dmitri has gone. His heart was always mine.”
Her words only fueled my anger, especially Clara's. She could have Dimitri for all I care. “Where is she?” What do you want?" I said, my voice cold as I moved toward her. “Tell me, or I’ll tear you apart.”
Natasha laughed, her eyes hard. “You’re nothing, heiress. Just keep fighting, and you’ll live to bury them all.”
I surged, my fingers clamping around her wrist, but security surged in, pushing us apart. It was her smirk that remained as she stepped into the lift, taunting, Dmitri’s heart is mine. I looked away, my blood pumping, Elaine’s clue was the only lead I had.
I was going to Pier 17 at the edge of the city. I was alone in the car, the city’s rain-streaked streets mirroring my fractured thoughts. Clara, bruised and pleading, invaded my thoughts, mingling with the thoughts about my parents. They didn’t get into the accident by chance; they were killed, and how Clara would live was up to me to change.
The gates of the estate receded in my rearview, and Stefan told me to wait for him unheeded. I couldn’t take a chance on him, not after the pier, not after the warehouse. I drove down and concentrated on the docks. Only Pier 17 stood, a place filled with rusted cranes and rotting wood, the roar of the ocean a terrible chorus. I parked, and my phone buzzed and a live feed loaded—it was a feed of Clara, bruised and trembling, bound in a shipping container, her wrists cuffed. Then the camera panned, and the screen was suddenly filled with Natasha’s face, her smile venomous. “One bad step and she’s out of there.”
My breath caught, anger and fear crashing together. The feed blinked off, and I was left alone in the darkness. I got out of the car, the salt air biting, my boots crunching on gravel. Containers towered on every side around the dock. The information from Elaine had been that the enforcer, the hound of Galden, had been at the Velvet Abyss. If he were here, so was Clara. I took a knife out of my boot, a gift from my grandmother. I would go and look for Clara, or die trying.
Then I heard footsteps, distant but assured as I ducked behind a box, my heart hammering. A guy passed, but he was too fast for identification, and the glint of a gun reflected in his side. Was it the enforcer, or another of Natasha’s traps? I shuffled ahead. I walked to a rusted container with the door open and looked inside. It was empty, except for a bloodstain on the floor, which was still fresh and black.
Another buzz came from my phone — a text from an anonymous number. Pier 17, Lot C. Hurry.
I ran, the arrangement of the dock a blur, Lot C, an assembly of containers near the water’s edge. I was shadowed by the waves of the ocean, though my heart felt metaphorically lit and exposed. I came across Lot C and saw a bin with a padlock on its chain snapped. I forced it open, I heard a loud groan. Clara? I got it opened, then inside, all I saw was darkness, and no Clara. I wanted to cry in despair, then, as on cue, I turned my shoulders and looked up and down the dock, forcing my eyes to stay open.
Then suddenly, I saw headlights flare up in a blinding flash and I froze, my knife up. A black SUV burst out of the darkness, cutting me off, its tinted window concealing the driver.