Chapter 10 - INTO THE STORM
"What about you?" Eleanor asked, her eyes wide with fear as she looked at her ex-husband. "Where are you going?"
Alexander stepped toward the front hall, picking up a heavy leather duffel bag he had left near the coat rack when he first entered. He unzipped the bag halfway, revealing tactical gear and specialized equipment stored inside.
"I have a ten-year-old debt to settle," Alexander said softly.
He walked back to Sofia, leaning down and kissing her forehead gently, right above her swollen eye. "Stay with your mother. Trust the men I send. You are safe now, baby girl."
Sofia looked up at him, her heart pounding against her ribs. "Dad... please be careful. Carmen... she has armed guards at the suite."
Alexander offered his daughter a faint, cold smile—the smile of a predator stepping out into the dark.
"They brought a knife to a war they don't understand," Alexander said quietly.
Outside, the faint blue and red lights of unmarked tactical vehicles appeared at the end of the suburban street, moving silently without sirens toward the house.
Alexander zipped up his duffel bag, pulling the collar of his old military field jacket up against the cold wind. He turned the deadbolt, pulled open the heavy oak front door, and stepped out onto the dark porch.
The rain had begun to fall, a steady, cold drizzle slicking the dark asphalt of the street. Alexander walked down the driveway toward the lead black SUV, his tall frame cutting through the mist like a phantom returning from the past.
Behind him, inside the warm living room, Eleanor locked the heavy door once more, wrapping her arms tightly around Sofia as the tactical team moved into position around the house.
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As the unmarked vehicles secured the perimeter, Alexander Brooks stepped into the rear seat of his command vehicle. The heavy door closed with a solid, airtight thud, cutting off the sound of the rain.
The vehicle shifted into drive, its halogen headlights slicing through the dark suburban night as it accelerated toward the city center, heading straight toward the St. Regis hotel—where a decades-old war was about to reach its final, terrifying conclusion in the high-altitude shadows of the penthouse suite.
