MY HUSBAND'S SECRET SIDE CHICK

THE AMBUSH

The pitch-black darkness of the elevator was suffocating, the blaring emergency alarms outside shook the metal walls. In the enclosed space, the only thing I could hear was the frantic pounding of my heart and the steady, heavy breathing of my husband.

"Laura, stay behind me," Ethan's voice cut through the dark. It wasn't panicked, it was cold, focused and completely authoritative.

Before I could answer, his hands found my waist in the dark. His grip was firm, lifting me gently and shifting me into the far corner of the elevator cab. He blocked me completely with his large, muscular frame.

"Ethan, my father did this," I whispered, my fingers clutching his shirt. "He's trying to trap us in this building, he's trying to stop me from reaching Natalie."

"He can try," Ethan hissed.

Suddenly, a massive clang echoed through the shaft. Ethan had slammed his fist against the elevator's steel doors. I heard the fabric of his expensive suit jacket rip as he flexed his shoulders, throwing his entire weight against the metal seam. His breathing turned into a harsh growl.

"Ethan, you can't open it with your bare hands, we're stuck between floors..."

With a sickening screech of grinding metal, the doors shuddered. Ethan dug his fingers into the tiny center crack. The muscles in his back strained, he let out a roar of pure exertion and through sheer force, he forced the heavy mechanical doors open an inch, then two inches.

A silver of dim emergency lighting from the hallway broke into our dark cage, we were stuck halfway between the fourth and fifth floors. The concrete floor of the fifth level was right at our chest height.

"Climb, Laura," Ethan ordered, his arms shaking as he held the heavy doors apart by force. His veins stood out against his neck. "Give me your hand. Now!"

I didn't hesitate, the submissive, sheltered girl who spent months crying over an unread text message was dead. I stepped into the safety railing, grabbed Ethan's shoulder and hoisted myself up. Ethan used one hand to lift my hips, shoving me upward onto the concrete floor of the fifth level. I rolled onto the dusty floor, gasping for air. A second later, Ethan effortlessly hooked his elbows onto the ledge and swung his massive body out of the shaft, landing right beside me. The elevator doors slammed shut behind him with a heavy crash. He didn't waste a second before he pulled me to my feet, his eyes sweeping over my body. "Are you hurt?"

"No," I breathed. "We need to go now."

We avoided the main lobby, sprinting down the concrete emergency exit stairs, my father's security team was completely distracted by the blackout on the executive floors. We broke through the back exit of the building and dove into Ethan's SUV. The tires screeched against the asphalt as Ethan floored the accelerator, tearing away from the the Sterling Corporate tower.

Twenty minutes later, the SUV came to a halt outside a run-down, industrial apartment complex at the edge of the city. This was the address Ethan had given me, Natalie's hiding place.

"Something is wrong," Ethan muttered, his hand immediately moved to the glove compartment. He pulled out a sleek, black handgun, checking the magazine with a practiced click. My heart skipped a beat. I have lived with this man for years and I never knew he kept a weapon in his car.

"Ethan..."

"Your father's men are clean-up crews Laura, they don't leave witnesses," Ethan said, his voice dropped into that terrifyingly protective tone. "Stay close to my back."

We hurried up the cracked concrete steps to the third floor. The hallway smelled of rain and copper, when we reached apartment 3B, my breath caught in my throat. The front door was already opened, it was slightly ajar.

I pushed past Ethan's arm, my maternal instincts...no, my sisterly instincts... screaming. "Natalie!"

"Laura, wait!" Ethan shouted, lunging to grab my jacket, but I was already through the doorway. The living room was completely ransacked, pillows torn open, drawers were dumped onto the floor and a shattered glass lamp lay scattered across the rug. But what made my blood completely run cold was the sight in the center of the room.

Natalie was on her knees, her hands were tied securely behind her back with thick zip-ties. Her lip was bleeding and her eyes were wide with terror. Standing right behind her were three large men dressed in identical black tactical jackets. One of them held a thick silencer directly against the crown of her head.

"Well, look who finally showed up," the man with the gun sneered. He looked directly at me, completely ignoring the weapon in Ethan's hand. "The boss said you might come here, Miss Sterling. Or should I say...Miss nobody?"

"Let her go," I said with my voice shockingly steady. The absolute horror of the situation should have paralyzed me, but looking at my bleeding sister, gave me a kind of courage. A cold fury took over my mind. "You work for Thomas Sterling. I am his daughter, if you touch her, I'll personally see to it that you spend the rest of your life rotting in a cage."

The man let out a cruel mocking laugh. "Daughter? Lady, you're just an expensive piece of property he bought fifteen years ago and right now, you're a liability. The boss only wants the wooden box and documents Natalie stole and once we have them, you two girls are going to have a little "accident" in this apartment."

Behind me, Ethan shifted his weight, his eyes were fixed on the leader's gun hand. "You'll leave this room alive only if you drop that weapon in the next three seconds," Ethan warned, his voice vibrating with absolute intent.

"Bold words, Mr. Blackwood," the leader smiled, his finger tightening on the trigger against Natalie's head. "But I think I'll shoot the sister first, just to show you I'm serious."

"No!" I screamed.

In a split of a second, everything happened at once. Natalie suddenly threw her weight backward, slamming her head into the leader's groin. The man grunted, his arm shifting. The gun fired into the ceiling, raining plaster down us. Ethan lunged forward like a striking predator, a deafening roar filled the small apartment as Ethan fired his weapon, hitting the second henchman cleanly in the shoulder. The third man charged at Ethan, tackling him into the kitchen counter with a massive crash of breaking dishes.

I didn't think, I didn't plan. I grabbed the heavy iron base of the shattered lamp from the floor, stepped forward and swung it with every ounce of strength I possessed.

The heavy rain smashed directly into the side of the leader's face. A sickening crack echoed through the room, the man staggered backward, his gun flying out of his hand and sliding across the hardwood floor. He crumpled to the ground unconscious.

Across the room, Ethan slammed the third henchman's head against the refrigerator, knocking him out cold. The apartment suddenly fell into a deadly silence, broken only by our heavy breathing. I dropped the iron lamp base, my hands shaking violently, I dropped to my knees beside Natalie, desperately pulling out a small pocket knife from Ethan's dropped coat to slice the zip-ties on her wrists.

"Laura," Natalie sobbed, throwing her arms around my neck the moment I freed her. "You came, you actually came."

"I'm here," I whispered, holding her tightly, feeling the familiar warmth of a girl I had missed for fifteen years. "I'm never letting them hurt you again."

Ethan stepped over the groaning, injured henchman, his face covered in a light sweat. He knelt down beside us, his large hands immediately wrapping around both of our shoulders, pulling us into his protective chest. "We have to move, the sound of the gunshots will bring more of them. I'm taking you both to my family's private estate."

Natalie pulled back, wiping the blood from her lips. Her eyes were wide with a sudden, frantic realization.

"No, Ethan, we can't go to the Blackwood estate," Natalie gasped out, her voice trembling with fear, a completely new kind of terror.

Ethan frowned, his grip tightening. "What are you talking about? My estate has maximum security, my mother's security detail controls the entire perimeter. You'll be safe there."

Natalie shook her head frantically, looking from Ethan to me, her voice dropped into a terrified whisper that made my stomach drop. "You don't understand, Laura," Natalie choked out. "Your adoptive father didn't send these men alone, he couldn't have tracked me here all by himself."

I stared at her. "Then who helped him?

Natalie looked directly into Ethan's eyes, her next words shattered the temporary peace we had just fought for. "It was Ethan's mother. The Blackwood Matriarch, she was the one who ran the black-market adoption ring fifteen years ago. She didn't just help your parents buy you, Laura...she was the one who ordered our biological parent's house to be set on fire."

My breath caught. I slowly turned my head to look at my husband. Ethan's face went completely bloodless, the phone in his pocket suddenly began to ring, the screen lit up the dark room when he brought it out. A single name flashed across it.

Mother.