Chapter 5 - Blood on the SnowThe heavy oak front doors of Vance Manor groaned under the weight of the howling winter wind as Elias stepped out onto the wide stone porch.
I watched from the safety of the reinforced foyer window, holding my breath, my hands trembling as I clutched my twins against my chest.
Victor stood at the bottom of the grand stone steps, his grey suit dusted with snow, his breath pluming into white clouds in the freezing air. He didn't look like a terrified fugitive; he looked like a general commanding an invisible army.
“Elias Vance!” Victor called out, his voice cutting cleanly through the howling gale. “Save yourself the trouble! You can't protect her! Moretti owns half the federal government, and the other half is on my payroll!”
Elias walked slowly down the stone steps, his hands casually shoved into the pockets of his dark wool coat. He didn't look rushed. He looked like an apex predator strolling through his own personal domain.
“You talk too much, Victor,” Elias replied, his voice carrying effortlessly across the courtyard. “Men who talk about power usually die begging for it.”
Victor’s sneer twisted into a vicious snarl. He reached inside his jacket, his fingers wrapping around the activation switch for the EMP device strapped to his chest.
“You think you’re untouchable? Look around, Vance! Your guards are blind, your generators are compromised, and—!”
Before Victor could finish his sentence, Elias moved with supernatural speed.
In a single fluid motion, Elias whipped his hand out of his pocket, drawing a silenced pistol and firing a single, perfect round directly into Victor’s right shoulder.
Crack!
Victor shrieked in pain, stumbling backward into the snow as the activation switch slipped from his bloody fingers and landed deep in a snowdrift.
Elias closed the distance between them in three long strides, kicking Victor’s legs out from under him and pinning the traitor face-first into the freezing snow with the heel of his heavy boot.
“You threw a mother and two newborn babies into a snowbank to die,” Elias said softly, leaning down until his lips were inches from Victor’s ear. “You thought you were playing a high-stakes corporate game. But you forgot one fundamental rule of the underworld, Victor.”
“W-What... what rule?” Victor choked out, coughing up warm blood onto the pristine white snow.
“Family,” Elias whispered, his voice dripping with deadly venom. “You never touch another man’s family.”
May you like
With a swift, brutal motion, Elias raised his gun and fired a second shot into Victor’s leg, neutralizing any chance of escape.
“Marcus!” Elias shouted back toward the manor. “Clean up this trash. And prep the chopper. We’re paying a little visit to Mr. Dante Moretti.”
