Chapter 32 - The Broken Vow
The nursery was bathed in the pale amber glow of a nightlight, utterly oblivious to the violence echoing through the lower levels. Little Aurelia lay in her mahogany crib, her tiny chest rising and falling beneath a knitted cashmere blanket.
Elena didn't waste a heartbeat. She holstered her pistol, strapped Aurelia into the tactical chest harness hidden beneath her heavy parka, and grabbed the pre-packed go-bag stashed beneath the floorboards.
"Madame," Hans wheezed, clutching his bruised ribs at the threshold of the nursery. "The underground garage is compromised. Their vehicles are blocking the main driveway."
"They want us to take the cars," Elena said coldly, securing the baby against her heartbeat. Aurelia stirred, letting out a soft whimper before nuzzling into Elena’s neck. "Adrien built this house on the foundations of an 18th-century wine vault. The storm drainage line empties three miles down the ridge into the frozen river."
She pulled Adrien's bloody wedding ring from her pocket. Under the nursery lamp, she inspected the band closely. She knew Adrien. Even captured, even bleeding, he never gave an enemy anything without planting a dagger in the dark.
Her fingers traced the inner rim of the platinum. There, etched beneath their wedding date, was a microscopic groove. Elena pulled a tactical pin from her lapel and pressed it into the indentation. The metal popped open with a faint click, revealing a micro-transponder no larger than a grain of sand.
"He left me a scent," Elena breathed, a ferocious wave of relief and fury crashing through her veins. "Hans, take the panic bunker in the lower sub-level. Lock it from the inside. Do not open it for anyone except me or Adrien."
"Mrs. Hudson, you cannot go alone," the old butler pleaded, tears staining his weathered face. "Lucian is a demon. He commands the Syndicate’s ghost unit."
"I am not going alone," Elena replied, racking the slide of an automatic submachine gun she pulled from the ceiling compartment. "I am going to get my husband. And if Lucian wants my daughter, he will have to pry her from my cold, dead hands."
Ten minutes later, Elena emerged from the concrete drainage conduit into the biting blackness of the pine forest. The mountain air cut into her lungs like shards of glass, but she did not slow down. She held Aurelia tight against her chest, shielding her from the driving blizzard.
At the bottom of the ridge, parked beneath an overgrown canopy of hemlock trees, was an unmarked black SUV—Adrien's contingency vehicle, untouched and hidden. Elena climbed into the driver's seat, engaged the encrypted satellite terminal on the dashboard, and fed the coordinates from Adrien’s micro-transponder into the system.
The screen flickered, tracking a red pulsing dot heading south toward the Mediterranean, moving at extreme velocity.
*Palermo.*
Lucian was bringing him back to the ancient seat of the Moretti bloodline. The winter solstice was seventy-two hours away. Elena put the SUV into gear, tore onto the deserted mountain road, and dialed an untraceable number burned into her memory.
The line clicked. A gravelly voice answered from across the continent.
"Elena. I told you never to call this number unless the world was ending."
May you like
"The world just did, Mateo," Elena spoke into the receiver, her voice dead and steady. "Adrien has been taken. Lucian is alive. Ready the aircraft and mobilize the vanguard. We are going hunting in Sicily."
***
