Chapter 12 - Glass and Gunpowder
The deafening concussion of the flashbang threw Clara to the floor. Her ears rang with a piercing whistle as dense white smoke filled the library.
Through the haze, boots trampled over broken glass. Victor was already on his feet, firing his sidearm through the smoke toward the shattered bay windows. A man’s grunt followed, and a body crashed onto the hardwood floor.
""Holloway, get down!"" Victor yelled, but the old attorney was already huddled behind the mahogany desk, clutching the steel case to his chest.
Clara scrambled forward across the floor, glass cutting into her palms, but she ignored the pain. She reached the desk just as Marcus Reed stepped through the blown-out window frame, holding a high-end target pistol, his silk suit impeccably tailored, his eyes cold and wild.
""You’re remarkably hard to kill, Clara,"" Marcus said, raising the weapon directly at her face.
Behind him, two of his hired mercenaries moved to flank Victor, pinning the old soldier behind a stone pillar with sustained automatic fire.
Julianna suddenly stepped out of the smoke, standing directly between Marcus’s gun and Clara.
""Shoot me first, Marcus,"" Julianna said, her voice shaking but her posture completely upright.
Marcus let out a cruel, barking laugh. ""You think I won't? You’re nothing, Julianna! An orphan picked up from a county agency so Richard could keep his tax write-offs. You don’t have a penny to your name!""
""Maybe not,"" Julianna said, holding up Holloway’s heavy brass desk lamp behind her back. ""But I have better aim than you do.""
With a desperate cry, Julianna hurled the heavy solid-brass lamp directly into Marcus’s face.
May you like
The heavy base struck Marcus across the bridge of his nose with a sickening crunch. His gun discharged into the plaster ceiling as he stumbled backward, blood gushing from his broken nose.
Clara seized the opening. She launched herself forward, driving her shoulder into Marcus’s midsection, tackling him onto the glass-strewn floor.
