Chapter 17 - The Lioness in the Dark
"Federal Marshals down!" Marcus’s voice crackled through Julian’s radio before being abruptly cut off by static.
Julian instantly pushed me behind a row of steel filing cabinets, his gun drawn, his eyes scanning the narrow entryway of the vault.
"Arthur’s private hit squad," Julian whispered, checking the magazine of his weapon. "They knew we got the warrant. They couldn't let this drive leave the building."
My heart pounded violently, but there was no panic—only laser-focused calculation. "There’s an old coal chute in the rear cellar," I whispered, remembering the layout from my early days managing the estate's historical renovations. "It leads out behind the carriage house into the wooded ravine."
"We won't make it if they have the hallway covered," Julian said.
He was right. Heavy tactical boots were already descending the stone stairs. Two men in unmarked combat gear moved methodically into the cellar, semi-automatic rifles raised, sweeping the shadows.
"Drop your weapons, Vance!" a voice barked in the darkness. "Leave the drive on the table, and you might walk out of here alive!"
Julian leaned around the steel corner and fired three rapid shots. The lead man took a hit to the shoulder, collapsing back against the wine racks with a crash of breaking bottles. The second man returned fire, the deafening roar of automatic rounds shredding the drywall and wood around us.
"Move! Now!" Julian shouted, grabbing my arm and pulling me through a low arched doorway that led toward the old coal storage room.
I scrambled through the dust, the micro-drive clenched tightly in my fist. Behind us, Julian fired two more suppressing shots before sliding the heavy iron furnace door shut, dropping the heavy locking latch into place.
"That will hold them for sixty seconds," Julian panted, his shoulder bleeding from a graze where a bullet had torn through his jacket.
"You're hit!" I gasped, reaching for him.
"It’s a scratch, Clara. Go up the chute!"
The iron hatch above us was rusted, but with our combined weight, we slammed against it until the latch snapped. Cold rain poured down through the opening as we hauled ourselves up into the muddy overgrowth of the estate's rear woods.
In the distance, the sirens of local law enforcement were already wailing, alerted by the emergency silent alarm Marcus had triggered before being ambushed.
We ran through the blinding rain, plunging into the dark treeline just as the mansion erupted into a firefight between the approaching police convoy and Arthur’s mercenary team.
Julian pulled me into the passenger seat of an unmarked SUV parked along the service road, where Marcus was slumped over the steering wheel, clutching a gunshot wound to his side but breathing.
"Drive!" Julian yelled, jumping into the driver’s seat.
Tires screeched as the SUV launched onto the highway, spraying gravel into the darkness.
I looked down at the tiny piece of plastic in my palm. The micro-drive was covered in rain and soot, but intact.
"We have him," I breathed, trembling from the sheer adrenaline coursing through my veins. "Arthur is finished."
"Not yet," Julian said, his eyes fixed on the rain-slicked highway as the speedometer climbed past eighty. "The drive is encrypted with a twenty-four-character bi-metric key. Dominic’s note said Leo holds the password."
I closed my eyes, tears mixing with the rain on my cheeks. Dominic had used our innocent, sweet boy as the living safe for his darkest sins.
"We are not putting Leo on the witness stand," I vowed fiercely. "I will never subject my baby to that courtroom horror again."
May you like
"You won't have to," Julian replied, looking over at me with absolute devotion. "We don't need Leo to testify. We just need him to remember the song."
***
