Chapter 16 - The Gathering at the Gate
The afternoon dragged by with agonizing slowness.
Every hour, Marco checked in via satellite radio: the plan had worked flawlessly. The Swiss accounts had been frozen. Julian Vance’s mercenary guard had fractured, with half of them fleeing the city and the rest being rounded up by Luca’s forces along the Calumet River.
The war was effectively over. Luca was on his way back to Lake Geneva to bring us home.
Teresa and I sat by the hearth, playing a quiet game of gin rummy. The sun had begun its descent behind the dense pine trees, casting long, bleeding shadows across the snow that had begun to fall softly over the Wisconsin hills.
"He loves you, you know," Teresa murmured, laying down three queens.
"I love him too," I admitted softly, looking at the glowing embers. "It terrified me at first. The violence, the world he commands... but beneath it all, he has a heart of pure gold."
"A king needs a queen who knows how to heal his wounds, Emily. You gave him his humanity back. And for that, I will love you until my last breath."
Suddenly, the house phone rang—a sharp, piercing shrill that shattered the quiet.
I picked it up from the side table. "Hello?"
"Emily!" It was Luca’s voice, but it was frantic, distorted by static and wind. "Get my mother into the basement panic room now!"
My blood turned to ice. "Luca? What's happening? You said Julian was captured!"
"Julian was a distraction!" Luca shouted over the roar of an engine. "Gia... she took two million dollars from her personal trust before the freeze! She hired a rogue cartel cell from Detroit! They aren't going after the docks, Emily—they tracked our convoy to the lake house! They’re already at your gates!"
Before I could reply, the deafening explosion of an RPG tore through the estate's outer security gate.
The entire lodge shook violently. The crystal chandelier above the dining table swung wildly, and the sound of heavy automatic gunfire erupted from the perimeter woods.
"Emily?!" Teresa cried out, rising to her feet as the lights in the house went dead.
Outside, the alarms wailed into the freezing night air. Through the window, the glow of the burning security gate illuminated several dark figures in tactical gear advancing rapidly across the snowy lawn, firing relentlessly at Luca's remaining guards.
"Teresa, with me!" I yelled, dropping the phone, grabbing her arm, and pulling her toward the heavy steel door of the reinforced basement shelter.
Just as my hand touched the vault handle, the front double doors of the lodge were blown off their hinges in a hail of splintered oak and smoke.
Through the haze stepped Gia Vance, wearing a combat coat, her face twisted into a mask of pure, unhinged madness, holding a customized chrome pistol in her gloved hand.
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Behind her, two heavily armed masked men leveled their assault rifles directly at us.
"Going somewhere, nurse?" Gia hissed, her finger tightening around the trigger. "Let’s see if Luca can stitch a bullet through your heart."