Chapter 12 - The Black Widow
Through the thick observation glass, Julianna smiled a venomous, triumphant smile. Behind her on the floor, Briggs lay motionless, a dark stain spreading across his shoulder. Beside the console, Victor was trembling, clutching his shattered arm.
“Julianna!” Victor shouted from the floor. “Open the door! Let me in! What are you doing?!”
Julianna looked down at her own brother with utter coldness. “You’re a failure, Victor. You had one job: extract the board codes and eliminate the old man. Instead, you led him straight to our only remaining leverage.”
Alexander laid Marcus gently on the dry drainage grate, stepping up to the reinforced window. His face was completely devoid of panic, his posture cold, calculating, and lethal. “You were never in the estate holding rooms,” Alexander said, his voice coming through the intercom. “You used Richard as a distraction to slip away.”
“Your guards were arrogant, Alexander,” she sneered, pacing before the glass. “They thought a woman in diamonds was helpless. I broke the neck of the idiot watching my door while your strike team was busy raiding the docks. And now, you’re trapped in your own family’s tomb.”
Marcus struggled to sit up against the wall, clutching his bruised ribs. “Julianna... why? Lily is your stepdaughter... you swore to protect her...”
“Lily is a brat who stood between me and Marcus’s fifty-one percent controlling interest in Vance Maritime!” Julianna shrieked, her mask of sophistication shattering completely. “I spent five years playing the dutiful wife, listening to your pathetic speeches about integrity and heritage! I earned this empire! And now, the board will convene tomorrow morning to hear that the entire Vance bloodline died in a tragic maritime explosion during a storm rescue attempt!”
She raised the small remote detonator in her hand. A blinking red diode illuminated her face. “The charges on the structural pylons are set for three minutes. By the time the Coast Guard arrives, there won't be enough iron left of this platform to make a paperclip. Goodbye, Alexander. Enjoy drowning with your son.”
She turned to leave, aiming her sidearm at Victor’s head to eliminate the final loose end. “Nothing personal, brother. Business is business.”
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Before she could pull the trigger, a bloodied hand shot out from beneath the control console. Briggs, despite the bullet in his shoulder, lunged with his tactical boot knife, plunging the blade directly through Julianna’s right foot, pinning her to the wooden floorboards.
Julianna screamed in agony, dropping her handgun. The remote detonator slipped from her fingers, sliding across the slick concrete floor—stopping inches from the emergency vault override switch.
