Chapter 12 - THE ABDUCTION AT DAWN
The scream ripped through the air like a siren, cutting off Julian Cross’s words mid-sentence.
Marcus didn't hesitate. He vaulted over the corner of the desk, nearly knocking over a stack of administrative binders, and tore out of the study. He sprinted down the grand staircase, his heavy footsteps thundering against the marble floor, bursting through the double glass doors that led out to the terrace and the sprawling front lawn.
"Evelyn!" Marcus roared, scanning the courtyard.
The scene unfolding before him was a nightmare in broad daylight.
Two masked men in black tactical gear were dragging a kicking, screaming Evelyn toward a sleek black SUV idling with its engine roaring near the estate gates. A few yards away, five-year-old Liam was crying hysterically, clutching his knees on the grass, while Leo—brave and desperate—was frantically beating his small fists against the side of the SUV, screaming for his mother.
"Let her go!" Marcus yelled, charging across the lawn at full sprint.
One of the masked operatives turned, leveling a heavy, matte-black taser directly at Marcus’s chest. A sharp crack pierced the air, and a pair of barbed metal darts slammed into Marcus's shoulder, discharging fifty thousand volts of electricity into his nervous system.
Marcus collapsed violently onto the dew-soaked grass, his muscles seizing, his vision flashing blinding white and black. He could hear Evelyn screaming his name over the roar of the engine as the SUV doors slammed shut and the vehicle tires spun gravel, rocketing down the private driveway toward the highway.
As Marcus struggled against the agonizing paralysis flooding his veins, Viktor came sprinting out of the security lodge, sliding across the grass to kneel beside him.
"Boss! Boss, stay down!" Viktor shouted, pressing a remote alarm button on his wrist. "I've already dispatched our intercept teams to seal off the North and South highway exits."
Marcus gripped Viktor’s jacket with trembling fingers, forcing his jaw to move. "They... they took Evelyn. Julian Cross... was in the study. He told me... my biological mother was Eleanor’s sister..."
Viktor’s face drained of color. He looked down at Marcus with grim realization. "Julian Cross is smarter and more dangerous than Harrison and Eleanor combined. If he's back, this isn't just a kidnapping. It's a hostile takeover of everything you've built."
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Marcus forced himself up onto his hands and knees, ignoring the searing pain in his shoulder where the taser darts had dug into his flesh. He stood up, his breathing heavy, his eyes locked on the distant gates where the black SUV had vanished.
"Get the encrypted comms," Marcus said, his voice cold, devoid of any human warmth, replaced entirely by a terrifying, predatory resolve. "We're going to hunt them down."
