Chapter 8 - The Betrayal of a Brother
“Cover me!” Julian shouted over the deafening roar of rifle fire.
He vaulted over the concrete barricade, moving through the smoke-filled corridor like a wraith. Bullets chipped concrete inches from his head, but Julian was moving with an instinct honed by years of private military training before he ever took over his father’s corporate empire.
Thomas Sterling turned, terror flashing across his face as he realized his men were being systematically dismantled. He drew his sidearm, but Julian closed the distance in two strides, slamming Thomas’s arm against the concrete wall. The gun clattered to the floor.
Julian grabbed Thomas by the throat, driving his back into the steel blast door with bone-cracking force. “You were my best friend,” Julian growled, his fingers crushing Thomas’s windpipe. “You stood beside me at my father’s funeral.”
Thomas choked, blood trickling from his split lip, but a sickly smile formed on his mouth. “And you… you had everything, Julian. The Vance legacy, the money… and Elena. Victoria was supposed to be your wife from the beginning. It was the only way to save our family’s empire.”
“Where is she?” Julian demanded, tightening his grip until Thomas’s feet lifted off the floor. “The plane at the airstrip—is she on it?”
“You’re… you’re already too late,” Thomas wheezed, his face turning purple. “The flight took off twenty minutes ago. But she wasn't on it. She was never on it.”
Julian slammed him against the wall again. “Where is Elena?!”
May you like
“Victoria took her to the family estate… the old hunting lodge in the Blackwood Ridge,” Thomas gasped out, coughing violently. “Victoria wanted… wanted to watch her die herself. Once the wedding was official, she was going to burn the lodge down.”
Julian stared at the man who had traded an innocent woman’s life for corporate shares. Without a word, he drove his fist into Thomas’s jaw, knocking him unconscious, and turned to Marcus. “Tie him to the pipe. Alert the federal marshals. We’re going to Blackwood Ridge.”
