Chapter 31 - A Desperate Alliance
The silence in the ruined chapel was suffocating, broken only by the drip of rainwater from the rafters onto the stone floor.
Julian didn't look like a dying man anymore. As Sterling spoke those words, Julian's posture changed. The tremors in his hands vanished. His spine straightened against the altar stone, and an aura of lethal, terrifying calm descended over him.
"You're wrong, Sterling," Julian said, his voice dropping into a register so dark it made the hair on my arms stand up.
Sterling chuckled. "Am I? Your heart rate monitor in that safehouse peaked whenever she was near you. Ethan’s biometric lock is attuned to your limbic system, Julian. You can deny it to her, but you cannot lie to biology."
"I don't deny loving her," Julian replied coldly, slowly rising to his feet without using his hands for support, defying every medical reality of his injuries. "What you're wrong about... is thinking I would ever let you leave this chapel alive to use that against us."
"Julian, he has Maya!" I cried out, my heart hammering in panic.
Sterling’s finger tightened slightly on the trigger. "One step closer, Blackwood, and I repaint these altar stones with her brains."
"You won't shoot her," Julian said, taking a slow, steady step forward onto the aisle. "Because you know that if Maya dies, Elena will kill herself before she ever lets you touch her. And the moment Elena Vance dies... my limbic system shuts down into irreversible catatonic trauma. Ethan designed a fail-deadly switch, Victor. You kill that girl, and your six hundred billion dollars disappears into the digital void forever."
Sterling's smirk wavered. A flicker of doubt passed through his calculating eyes. For the first time, the syndicate's ice-cold operative hesitated.
In that fraction of a second, Maya did not freeze. She remembered the revolver I had given her, still tucked into the deep interior pocket of her oversized coat.
Without pulling the weapon out, Maya shoved her hand inside her coat and pulled the trigger through the fabric.
*BANG!*
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The shot tore through Maya's raincoat and struck Sterling square in the thigh. He gasped in shock, his balance faltering, and his revolver slipped an inch away from her head.
"Now, Elena!" Maya screamed as she dropped to the floor.