Chapter 16 - The Hunter Cornered
Ruiz didn't hesitate. Drawing his service weapon from beneath his jacket, he bolted down the hallway toward the emergency exit stairs.
"Julian, stay here with Elaine!" Ruiz shouted over his shoulder.
"Not a chance," Julian growled, but he pulled me firmly behind him, shielding my body with his own as the emergency doors banged shut.
The hospital corridors were suddenly alive with guards and flashing yellow alert lights. Evelyn Vance remained remarkably calm, tucking the leather folder under her arm and stepping behind the security nurse’s desk. "He came here to finish the job," she said quietly. "He knows Bernice didn't die in the ambulance."
From the stairwell above, a loud metallic crash echoed through the concrete shaft, followed by the sharp crack of a gunshot.
Screams erupted from the lower floor. Patients and nurses scrambled into utility rooms, slamming the heavy doors. Julian shoved me into an alcove behind an industrial ice machine, his eyes locked on mine.
"Elaine, listen to me," he said, breathing hard. "Whatever happens, do not come out of this corner. Do you hear me?"
"Julian, no—"
"I swore to protect you when I slipped that ring on your finger," he said, pressing a fierce kiss to my forehead. "Your mother took your past, but nobody is taking your future."
He picked up a heavy chrome fire extinguisher mounted on the wall and stepped out into the corridor just as the stairwell door burst open.
It wasn't a stranger. It was Sterling.
My brother looked like a rabid animal. His designer suit was torn and splattered with muddy highway water. His slicked-back hair hung in filthy strands over wild, bloodshot eyes. In his right hand, he clutched a snub-nosed revolver, his finger twitching nervously against the trigger guard.
"Where is she?!" Sterling screamed, saliva flying from his lips. He spun around, his wild eyes sweeping across the vacant corridor until they landed on Julian. "Where is the old witch?! Did she talk?! Did she sign the declaration?!"
"Drop the gun, Sterling," Julian said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, low rumble. He held the fire extinguisher at waist level, his posture steady as an oak tree. "The police are already in the building. It’s over."
"It’s not over!" Sterling shrieked, taking an erratic step forward. "That fourteen million dollars was promised to me! I was the one she loved! I was the one who was supposed to inherit the Vance name! Elaine was nothing—a stray dog! A maid to pay my rent!"
I stepped out from the alcove.
"Elaine, get back!" Julian yelled, but I didn't stop.
I looked straight at the golden boy who had laughed when my wedding gown turned to ashes in the hearth. I saw through the designer veneer, through the years of arrogance, down into the hollow, terrified coward shivering beneath the rain-soaked wool.
"You tried to kill your own mother, Sterling," I said, my voice echoing down the empty hall with lethal clarity. "The woman who starved me of every shred of affection just to shovel it into your pockets. Is that what Arthur's legacy was worth to you? A syringe of rat poison in an ambulance?"
Sterling’s gun swung toward my chest. His hands shook violently. "You think you're better than me?! You think because Dad wrote your name on a piece of paper, you get to walk away into the sunlight while I rot in debt?!"
"Drop the weapon, Vance!"
Detective Ruiz appeared at the far end of the hallway, his Glock leveled directly at Sterling’s head.
Sterling panicked. His eyes darted between Ruiz, Julian, and me. In that split second of hesitation, Julian lunged forward, swinging the fire extinguisher with crushing force.
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The metal cylinder slammed against Sterling’s forearm. The gun went off with an ear-splitting roar, the slug burying harmlessly into the acoustic ceiling tile. Sterling dropped to his knees, howling in agony as Ruiz tackled him to the linoleum floor, driving his knee into the center of Sterling’s back and wrenching his arms behind him until the handcuffs clicked shut with finality.
***
