Chapter 130: Target

The flight took a grueling 17 hours, but with the company of the beautiful flight attendants, time flew by and it was far from wasted.But now, as the plane touched down, I needed to find out what had happened that made Sam so urgently want me here.

As soon as I could, I pulled out my phone and messaged Alex. "I'm in Gainesville," I typed quickly.

The reply came almost immediately: "Sam's not at the hospital anymore. He's at his house."

I grabbed my bag, got inside my Subaru Impreza, and drove straight to Sam's place.

I stopped my car not too far from Sam's villa.

The guards on duty recognized me, but they were more alert than I have ever seen them. They insisted on checking my clothes.

After a quick but thorough inspection, they finally nodded and let me through.

I walked up the path, and before I could even knock, the door swung open.

Sam stood there, looking into the void. "Jack, you're here. Come in, come in. Quickly," he said urgently.

I followed him inside, and we made our way to a big, warm living room. The fire in the fireplace crackled, making the room feel cozy.

"Sit down; I'll be right back. I need to get something." Sam said.

I watched as he walked out of the room, touching the walls with his hand to get a grip of where he was.

Moments later, he returned, holding a letter package in his hands.

I looked at him as he put his hand inside the envelope. "What is that, Sam?"

Sam looked at me seriously. "Someone is targeting us," he said as he carefully took out several photos from the envelope and laid them side by side on the table.

I leaned forward to get a better look, and then my breath caught in my throat.

I immediately stood up from the chair, my eyes widening, my heart pounding in my chest.

The photos showed people I knew—people I cared about.

Mia, coming out of a store.

My sister Sydney, laughing and dancing at a discotheque in Orlando. The picture had to be from just a few days ago.

Another photo depicted me at the airport.

My mother, calmly tending to someone's garden.

Alex, at a campus party.

Lucas, busy at his part-time job at a skateboarding shop.

And there were more—all images of our friends.

"This is..." I was frozen, my mind reeling as I stared at the photos.

"The only message in the envelope was this." He pulled out a small card and handed it to me with shaking hands.

'Give up your inheritance, or the people close to you will get in danger. Your little lover is just the start.'

I looked up from the card. "Who was the one to read the message for you and tell you what was on the pictures?"

"Ricky," Sam replied. seaʀᴄh thё Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Did you go to the police with this?"

"I did today," Sam replied, his voice clearly strained. "After I made sure that everyone involved with me to some extent has the required security, I made a report. The police told me they will give additional protection to the people involved and that they will start an investigation."

He hesitated for a moment before adding, "I also told them that my siblings are the ones with the most motive to do something like this."

I sank back into the armchair, burying my face in my palms. "Ymm..." I groaned, trying to make sense of it all. "Fuck. Do you really think it's your siblings? A crime of this caliber? If they get caught, and it's proven that they hired some criminal organization or whatever, then money will be the least of their problems..."

"But they are the only ones, who else would want me to give up my inheritance?" Sam insisted, desperation in his voice.

"But it just doesn't make sense!" I shot back, standing up and starting to pace around the living room. "Gabriel is crazy, but he's still in the best position to get the inheritance. There's no reason for him to pull something like this. And Evelyn..." I trailed off, staring at Sam for a long moment.

I sat back down. "Will the police tell everyone involved about the reason for the protection?" I asked.

"Everyone's already more or less aware that something is off because of the extra security around them. But yeah, the police said they'll inform them about what's going on officially."

"Let me think about this for a second..." I said and then I leaned back in the armchair, trying to piece everything together.

I looked back at Sam, my mind connecting dots I hadn't considered before. "Do you remember that article about me a few months back? The one that talked about how I made a fortune from nothing?"

Sam furrowed his brow, thinking for a moment before nodding. "Umm, yeah, of course I do. We suspected Evelyn and Emily of publishing it back then."

"Then you must remember that my brokerage accounts were hacked around the same time. I reported it, but the case went nowhere. They couldn't even track the hackers. But the police did talk to the publisher, and they found out that my trades were leaked on a public trading forum by some anonymous person.

The account was deleted right after, and the IP used to log in was different every time, making the person behind it untraceable."

"So what are you thinking? That Evelyn hired someone to leak those trades? But what purpose does that even serve? How does that get me to drop my inheritance?"

"I don't know, Sam. I have no idea..." I rubbed my chin. "But I think we should provide that clue to the police. Maybe Evelyn or Emily has a way to hide their connection with this criminal organisation so well that they would be willing to take the risk."

Sam nodded slowly. "Well... for now, I think we should focus on keeping everyone safe until the situation gets clearer—"

"Wait!" I cut him off, "I'm still thinking..." I went quiet for a while before speaking again. "This taxi driver... what nationality was he?"

Sam looked puzzled. "Brazilian."

Hmm... Russia had been in talks with Brazil recently so there could be a connection there, but it would need to be an unbelievably large organization... why would they target us?

I started thinking back to all the strange things that had been happening around me over the last few months.

Like that man who tried to steal my wallet... on a fricking plane!

Why?

Am I paranoid or does it seem more and more like I'm the one being targeted...