Chapter 5 - The Ultimate Sacrifice
It was Daniel Mercer.
The loyal security director had thrown himself in front of the bullet, taking the round directly to his shoulder. He grunted, stumbling back, but managed to fire a return shot that struck Julian’s hand, sending the boy's gun skittering across the floor.
“Go! Into the room!” Daniel yelled, blood soaking through his tactical vest as he slammed his good arm against the emergency wall panel.
Nathaniel shoved Claire and the triplets inside the massive, steel-reinforced panic room. He turned to grab Daniel, dragging the wounded security director inside just as a hail of automatic gunfire chipped away at the concrete doorframe.
Nathaniel slammed his palm onto the internal locking mechanism. The massive, six-inch-thick titanium door slid shut with a heavy, pressurized thud, locking out the world, the gunfire, and the danger.
Silence fell over the room.
Claire instantly dropped to her knees, tearing her sweater to create a makeshift tourniquet for Daniel. “Press down here! Nate, hold this!”
Nathaniel knelt beside his old friend, his hands covered in blood. “Hold on, Daniel. There’s a medical kit in the cabinet. The air vents are independent, and the comms line is secure. Emergency services are already inbound via coast guard.”
Daniel managed a weak smile, his face pale. “I’m fine, sir... Just... protect the legacy. Protect those beautiful kids.”
Nathaniel looked over his shoulder. Owen, Caleb, and Lily were huddled on a leather sofa in the corner of the bunker. They weren't crying anymore. They were staring at him with wide, intelligent, gray-blue eyes. They looked like true Crosses—strong, resilient, and unbreakable.
Claire finished bandaging Daniel and walked over to Nathaniel. Her hands were covered in his friend's blood, her face smudged with dirt, but to Nathaniel, she had never looked more breathtakingly beautiful.
“Nate,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “What do we do now? Monday morning is the board vote. Even if we survive tonight, your mother will use the court order to take them. We can’t hide in this bunker forever.”
Nathaniel stood up, wiping the blood from his hands onto a towel. A cold, calculating calm washed over him. The corporate predator had awakened, but this time, he wasn't fighting for profit. He was fighting for his soul.
“We don’t hide, Claire,” Nathaniel said, his voice dropping into a chillingly quiet octave. “We fight. My mother thinks she has outsmarted me because she holds Judge Vance’s court order. She thinks the board will oust me on Monday because of the scandal.”
He walked over to the bunker’s main communications terminal and typed in a high-level encryption key. A live video feed appeared, showing the main boardroom of Cross Enterprises in downtown Seattle, empty but waiting for Monday morning.
“We aren’t going to wait for Monday,” Nathaniel said, turning to look at Claire. “And we aren’t going to file a counter-lawsuit. We are going to strike her where it hurts the most. Claire... do you still remember the password to our old joint trust fund account? The one my father left us before he died?”
Claire’s eyes widened. “The Helios Trust? The one Victoria spent ten years trying to dissolve?”
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“Exactly,” Nathaniel smiled, a dark, dangerous expression. “That trust doesn’t hold money, Claire. It holds fifty-one percent of the voting shares of Cross Enterprises, locked away until we had children who reached five years of age. Victoria never knew about that clause. My father hid it in the bylaws to protect the company from her greed.”
Claire gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “So that means...”
