Chapter 27 - A Brother's Secret Key
A low groan broke the heavy silence of the room.
Julian’s eyelids fluttered open. His vision took several seconds to focus, his gaze wandering across the bare concrete ceiling before locking onto me. When he felt my hand gripping his, a faint, exhausted breath left his cracked lips.
"Elena..."
"I'm here," I choked out, leaning forward so my forehead touched his temple. "You're safe. We're in the safehouse. Maya is safe."
Maya immediately dropped her cup and ran over, burying her face into the edge of the mattress. "Julian... you jumped in front of the gun... you idiot, you almost died!"
Julian attempted a weak, lopsided smile, his fingers barely having the strength to ruffle Maya’s wet hair. "Someone had to... make sure you finished high school, kid."
Tears spilled over Maya's cheeks, but for the first time in days, they were tears of relief.
Julian turned his head toward Marcus Vance. Recognition flickered in his dark eyes. "Marcus... so Ethan was right. You didn't drown in the Hudson."
"Ethan was smarter than all of us, Julian," Marcus said solemnly. "He knew Alexander would eventually turn feral. He sent me into the shadows to wait until the collapse came."
"It has collapsed," Julian said, his voice tightening as pain flared through his torso. He struggled to sit up, but I gently pressed a hand against his uninjured shoulder to keep him still.
"Don't move, you have twelve stitches in your shoulder and seven in your back," I warned him softly.
"There's no time to lie here," Julian muttered, his breathing shallow. "Sterling... Sterling isn't alone. When Alexander took over the estate two weeks ago, he was secretly coordinating with an offshore vessel anchored off the Maine coast. Alexander didn't have the codes, but he planted tracking beacons in all the family vehicles... including the cruiser Maya arrived in."
Marcus’s expression froze. "What did you say?"
"The cruiser," Julian repeated, his eyes burning with sudden alarm. "Where is the transponder that was in that car?"
Marcus stepped back, his hand dropping to the holster at his hip. "When we rammed Sterling’s vehicle, my boys retrieved Maya’s emergency radio and the dash navigation unit to clear any route data leading here."
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"The navigation unit has an embedded passive transponder," Julian whispered, terror cutting through his fatigue. "Alexander installed them in all state-contracted vehicles linked to his payroll. Sterling didn't need to chase us across the river. He let us take the wreckage."
As if to confirm Julian’s nightmare, the red emergency beacon above the bunker entrance began to flash silently. The perimeter motion sensors outside in the dark forest had just been tripped.