Chapter 17 - The Lion in the Conservatory
“Julian…” The name tore from my throat before I could stop it.
Victoria grabbed my sleeve, her nails digging through my jacket. “You can’t go back! Did you hear them? He’s surrounded! If you go back, Maya is lost!”
I looked down at the little girl looking up at me in the gloom. Maya’s hazel eyes were wide, filled with an ancient, solemn understanding that no child should ever possess. She reached up and touched the pendant hanging around her neck.
“Julian is hurting, Elena,” Maya said softly. “He stayed for us.”
The radio crackled again. *“Vanguard to Alexander. He’s barricaded inside the conservatory. We have him pinned against the cliffside glass. Awaiting orders to finish him.”*
*“Hold your fire,”* Alexander’s voice purred over the open channel, sickeningly intimate. *“I want to look into my dear brother’s eyes when he realizes he lost everything for a gutter orphan and a common girl. Keep him alive until I get up there.”*
That was all I needed to hear. The fear that had paralyzed me for the last twenty-four hours evaporated, replaced by a cold, white-hot fury.
“Victoria,” I said, my voice steady and deadly calm. “Take Maya through the eastern culvert. Go to the highway. If you flag down a vehicle, do not trust anyone who isn’t state police. Do you understand me?”
“Elena, you’re throwing your life away!” Victoria pleaded, tears cutting through the grime on her cheeks. “Alexander will slaughter you both!”
“He might try,” I said, racking the slide of the nine-millimeter just like Julian had shown me. “Maya, give me the transmitter.”
Maya unclipped the tiny blinking red diode from her collar and placed it into my palm. “Give this to Julian. Tell him I’m brave.”
“You are the bravest girl in the world,” I whispered, kissing her forehead. “Now go with Victoria. I will bring Julian back to you.”
May you like
I didn't wait for Victoria’s protest. I turned back into the darkness of the subterranean tunnel, sprinting toward the mansion. I wasn’t running away anymore. The girl who had trembled at the altar, the woman who had fled from shadow to shadow, was gone.
As I climbed out of the wine cellar chute back into the smoke-filled ruins of the estate, the scent of burning wood and ozone hit me. Gunfire crackled overhead. Blackwood Ridge was falling, but as long as Julian drew breath, the battle wasn’t over.