Chapter 6 - The Price of BloodKai rose to his feet, stepping toward the main console screen. His face transformed into a mask of pure, murderous rage, though his voice remained chillingly calm.
“Julian,” Kai said softly into the console microphone. “You have three minutes to pull your men off my estate before I execute every single person who carries your last name on the East Coast.”
Julian laughed—a dry, raspy sound that sent shivers straight down my spine.
“Oh, Kai. Still playing the big, scary mob boss?” Julian mocked, leaning closer to his camera. “Look around you. My men have breached your main floor. We’ve set thermite charges along the support pillars of your mansion. In ten minutes, your pretty house will be nothing but a burning pile of rubble over your head.”
“You can’t breach the vault, Julian,” Kai replied coldly. “That steel is three inches thick. It can survive a bunker-buster missile.”
“I don't need to breach the vault to kill you, Kai,” Julian smirked, holding up a small detonator switch to the camera. “I just need to seal the air vents and blow the load-bearing beams. You’ll choke to death in that underground coffin while I take the Vance woman’s old house on Hawthorne Road apart piece by piece.”
Julian’s eyes shifted on the screen, looking directly toward where I was holding Lily.
“Did you really think I didn't know about the girl, Maya?” Julian said, his sneer widening. “My father spent seven years searching for Clara’s baby after you stole her from that basement. I knew the moment you picked up that girl from the hospital in Vermont. I let you raise her. I let you feed her, love her, fix her clothes… because I knew one day, she would lead me to Kai Harrington.”
My blood turned to liquid ice. I clutched Lily closer, my fingers digging into her sweater. He had known. All these years… my entire life of hiding, moving from town to town, living in impoverished conditions on Hawthorne Road… it had all been a play orchestrated by Julian Moretti.
“You used her as bait,” Kai realized, his voice dropping into a dangerous register.
“She was the perfect lure,” Julian admitted freely. “And now, the Harrington bloodline ends tonight. Give me the girl, Kai. Hand over Clara’s bastard, and I’ll let you and the Vance girl walk out of Connecticut alive. Keep her… and everyone in that room burns.”
The screens cut to black.
Silence descended upon the bunker once again, heavy and toxic.
Lev looked at Kai, his hand resting on his sidearm. “Boss… the thermite sensors on the floor above us just activated. He’s telling the truth. The ceiling will collapse in eight minutes.”
I stood up, holding Lily tightly behind my back, staring at Kai with wide, terrified eyes.
“Kai…” I whispered. “What do we do?”
Kai didn't answer right away. He walked over to a weapons locker at the back of the bunker, punching in a eight-digit code. The heavy steel doors popped open, revealing an arsenal of high-caliber tactical rifles, body armor, and smoke grenades.
He pulled out a light Kevlar vest and tossed it to me.
“Put this on,” Kai ordered coldly.
“Kai, he has the whole house surrounded!” I yelled, pulling the vest over my head while keeping one eye on Lily. “If we go up there, we’re walking into a kill zone!”
Kai strapped a heavy tactical belt around his waist, sliding two extra magazines into his chest rig. He picked up an automatic shotgun, checking the chamber with a brutal, methodical speed.
He looked at me, his icy blue eyes burning with an unholy light.
“Julian Moretti thinks he trapped me in a corner,” Kai whispered, stepping toward the vault door control panel. “He forgot that this isn't just my house. It’s my slaughterhouse.”
He slammed his hand onto the manual override lever.
The heavy steel vault door began to slide open with a deep, metallic groan, revealing the dark, smoke-filled hallway beyond.
“Lev,” Kai barked without looking back. “Take Maya and Lily through the underground utility tunnel. It exits near the frozen creek half a mile north.”
“No!” I screamed. “What about you?!”
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Kai turned to me, his shadow stretching across the cold concrete floor.
“I spent fifteen years mourning a sister who was being tortured in a cellar,” Kai said, his voice trembling with a terrifying mixture of grief and hatred. “Tonight, I settle the bill.”
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