Chapter 8 - Blood in the Library
Elena didn’t hesitate. She brought the heavy brass fire poker down with all her weight across the intruder’s wrist. A sharp crack sounded, accompanied by an agonizing scream as the operative let go. Elena slammed the blast door shut and engaged the manual deadbolt.
Through the reinforced one-way viewing glass of the service door, she saw the injured soldier stagger back into the library, clutching a broken forearm. But behind him, walking calmly through the settling plaster dust like a specter of death, stepped Julian Vance.
Julian looked frighteningly like Dominic, sharing the same sharp jawline and piercing grey eyes, but his frame was leaner, tailored in an immaculate charcoal suit untouched by the debris around him. He wore no tactical gear, only a silver signet ring on his pinky finger and an arrogant sneer that curdled Elena's stomach. In his right hand, he carried an ivory-handled revolver.
"Dominic!" Julian's voice resonated through the grand library, smooth and dripping with mock affection. "Come out, brother! There’s no shame in admitting that you've grown soft. A man who lets diapers and pacifiers dictate his empire is already a corpse waiting for a shovel."
Dominic stepped out from behind the heavy velvet curtains at the far end of the room. His Kimber pistol was lowered at his side. He stood tall, the babies resting peacefully against his chest beneath his tactical vest, shielded by his own flesh and bone.
"You always were jealous, Julian," Dominic said, his tone devoid of rage, chillingly casual. "Even when father handed you the shipping routes in Marseille, you spent your days looking over my shoulder, coveting what you lacked the discipline to build."
Julian’s sneer faded, replaced by a venomous twitch at the corner of his mouth. "Discipline? You left the Syndicate for two screaming bastards born to a woman whose name you barely remember! You disgraced our family name for domestic weakness!"
Julian raised his revolver, aiming directly at Dominic’s chest—where the twins lay cradled.
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"I won't let them inherit what belongs to me," Julian snarled, his finger tightening on the trigger.
Inside the hidden control booth, Elena slammed her hand onto the red fire suppression override button.
