Chapter 7 - The House of Cards Collapses
Viktor slowly lifted his hands off the desk, his gray eyes narrowing into slits of pure venom. “You’re bluffing, Gabriel. You love this house. Your grandfather built these walls.”
“My grandfather built a smuggling den,” Gabriel said coldly. “I built a fortress. And fortresses can be purged.”
He stepped out into the hallway, pulling Lucy with him, and slammed the heavy mahogany doors shut. Instantly, the smart-lock engaged with a loud, mechanical clack, bolting the doors from the outside using reinforced steel deadbolts designed to withstand a battering ram.
“Mr. Rowan!” a voice echoed from the end of the corridor.
Hannah, Gabriel’s head housekeeper and Lucy’s mother, came running up the main staircase, her face pale with terror, clutching a silver tray like a weapon.
“Lucy! Oh, thank God,” Hannah sobbed, dropping the tray and sweeping her eight-year-old daughter into her arms, crushing her against her apron. “What is happening? The front gates won’t open, the phones are dead, and I heard gunshots from the basement!”
“Pack a bag, Hannah,” Gabriel said, his tone absolute, leaving no room for argument. “Take the service elevator down to the underground parking garage. My armored Lincoln is idling in bay three. The keys are in the ignition.”
“Mr. Rowan, what about you?” Hannah asked, her eyes darting toward the study doors as muffled shouts and the sound of Viktor kicking against the mahogany echoed down the hall.
“I have a board meeting to attend,” Gabriel replied, reaching into his overcoat and pulling out the black leather envelope containing the eighteen pages of restructuring plans. “And some legacy to clean up.”
Lucy pulled away from her mother for a second, looking up at Gabriel with her sharp, observant eyes.
“Will you be okay, Mr. Rowan?”
Gabriel knelt down, looking the little girl in the eye—the girl whose sharp ears and keen observation had saved his life before a single bullet was fired.
“Because of you, Lucy, I’m going to be just fine,” Gabriel said, placing the brass key with the chipped blue enamel dot into her small palm. “Keep that. It opens things you’ll need when you grow up.”
May you like
He stood up, turned his back on the study, and walked toward the grand staircase.
Behind him, the heavy mahogany doors began to splinter under the sheer force of Viktor’s enforcers swinging an iron-headed fire axe from the inside. But Gabriel didn’t look back. Fourteen years of trust had turned to ash, and from those ashes, something far more lethal was about to rise.
