Chapter 27 - The Breached Sanctuary
The ride back to Greenwich was suffocatingly silent. The armored Maybach tore through the empty parkways at ninety miles an hour, flanked by two black SUVs carrying heavy security details. Outside the tinted windows, a torrential coastal rain had begun to fall, drumming against the reinforced glass like a thousand lead bullets.
Julian sat in the rear leather seat, staring straight ahead into the darkness. His jaw was clenched so hard that the muscles in his temples ticked rhythmically. Clara sat beside him, still clutching the small evening bag in her lap.
"You didn't have to break her wrist," Clara said softly, breaking the twenty-minute silence.
Julian did not look at her immediately. When he finally turned his head, his slate-gray eyes were ablaze with a cold, terrifying fire.
"She raised her hand against you," Julian said, his voice flat and definitive. "In my world, Clara, mercy is not a virtue. It is an invitation to be slaughtered. If I had let her humiliate you tonight, every capo in this state would believe they could put a bullet through your forehead tomorrow."
Clara looked down at her hands. "I am not used to people killing for me, Julian."
"Get used to it," he responded instantly, reaching across the console and wrapping his large hand over hers. "Because as long as you breathe, Clara, there is no army on this continent that will harm a hair on your head without facing complete annihilation."
Suddenly, the encrypted satellite phone mounted on the dashboard let out a sharp, high-pitched warble.
Julian’s posture shifted in a fraction of a second. He snatched the receiver. "Speak."
*"Boss!"* Graves's frantic voice crackled through the static-laced line over the roar of the storm. *"Perimeter breach at the Greenwich East Gate! The motion sensors on the private conservatory were tripped thirty seconds ago! We have a cut landline and jamming on our primary radio frequencies!"*
Julian’s face went completely bloodless. "The children?"
*"Security Team Alpha was ambushed in the gatehouse with suppressed fire! Boss, they didn't come for the vaults! They went straight for the nursery!"*
"Graves!" Julian roared, a primal, animalistic sound tearing from his throat. *"Get to the children! Now!"*
*"I'm pinned down in the main foyer—they have flashbangs and heavy automatic—"* A deafening burst of gunfire drowned out Graves’s voice, followed by the sickening crunch of breaking glass, and the line went dead.
Clara felt the world tilt on its axis. "Maeve... Alexander... Oliver..." she gasped, tears instantly blinding her vision.
"Step on it!" Julian bellowed at his driver, slamming his fist against the reinforced partition. "Ram the gates if you have to! Move!"
May you like
The Maybach’s twin-turbo engine roared violently as the heavy limousine surged forward into the blinding rain, hurtling toward the estate where the three innocent voices Julian had spent four million dollars to hear were now trapped in a house crawling with assassins.
***
