The heavy mahogany doors of the St. Aurelia ballroom seemed to swell with the sudden, suffocating silence.

The iron gates of the Voss Manor—the place where I was born, raised, and discarded—were blown off their hinges by two black tactical SUVs.

Rain was pouring down, heavy and relentless, exactly like the night I was kicked out twenty-one years ago.

I stepped out of the lead vehicle, wrapped in a dark naval trench coat, surrounded by eight fully armed naval special warfare operators.

The estate was dark, save for the bright floodlights of three unregistered black SUVs parked in the driveway. Standing on the grand marble porch was Bennett Vale.

He hadn't aged well. The sharp, handsome boy my father had tried to force on me was now a thick-necked, arrogant man in his late forties, wearing a tailored suit covered by a expensive leather coat. Behind him stood four heavily built men with concealed firearms bulging beneath their jackets.

Inside the open front doors, I could see Conrad and Damian tied to heavy wooden dining chairs, bruised, bloody, and terrified.

"Elise!" Bennett called out over the sound of the rain, a sickening smile stretching across his face. "Look at you! Playing dress-up in a uniform! I heard you made Admiral. Quite a step up from the rain, isn't it?"

I walked slowly up the stone steps, my combat boots clicking against the wet slate. My operators moved in a tactical flank around the perimeter, taking up positions behind the stone pillars.

"Step away from the door, Bennett," I said, stopping ten feet from him.

"I don't think so, Admiral," Bennett sneered, pulling a silenced pistol from his coat and pressing it lightly against Conrad’s temple. Conrad whimpered, tears mixing with the blood on his cheek.

"Your father owes my family two hundred million dollars," Bennett said. "And now that his company is crashing, his assets are frozen, and his sweet defense contract is gone, I’ve come to collect. I take the deeds to his foreign ports, or I put a bullet through his brain and your worthless brother’s head."

"Elise! Help us!" Damian screamed from inside, his voice cracking with pathetic desperation. "Please! You’re the Navy! Shoot him!"

"Shut up, Damian!" Bennett barked, thrusting the gun harder into Conrad’s skin.

Conrad looked up at me through swollen eyes. The arrogance was completely gone. The grand patriarch of the Voss empire was nothing more than an old, broken man waiting for permission to die.

"Elise..." Conrad choked out, his voice barely audible over the rain. "I... I was wrong. I was wrong about everything... please..."

I looked at Bennett Vale.

"You really haven't changed, Bennett," I said softly. "Still relying on guns and daddy’s money to get what you want."

"I have the gun, Elise!" Bennett yelled, his eyes widening with unhinged rage. "I hold all the cards! You have five seconds to order your men to stand down, or I blow his brains across this grand entryway!"

"Five seconds?" I echoed.

I lifted my left wrist, looking at my watch.

"You're right about one thing, Bennett," I said. "Timing is everything."

Before Bennett could pull the trigger, a blinding red laser beam appeared directly on the center of his forehead.

Then another on his chest.

And another on his throat.