Chapter 4 - The Blackwood Convoy
The rain lashed against the windshield of the armored SUV as it hurtled north along the slick mountain highway. Elena sat in the passenger seat, staring through the sweep of the wipers into the pitch-black void of the pine forests. Julian drove with one hand on the steering wheel, his knuckles white against the dark leather, while his other hand continually adjusted the comms earpiece in his right ear.
Mikhail was two miles ahead in a scout sedan, feeding real-time updates through encrypted frequencies.
“Roadblock two miles south of the ridge turnoff,” Mikhail’s voice crackled through the static. “Local cruisers, but the uniforms don’t fit right. Tactical boots, posture too rigid. It’s Vance’s mercenaries posing as county sheriffs.”
“Ramming speed or flanking?” Julian asked calmly, his speedometer needle climbing past ninety.
“No room to flank. Guardrail on the right, cliff face on the left.”
“Then break their line,” Julian ordered. “Elena, seatbelt.”
Elena clicked the harness into place, her heart pounding against her ribs like a trapped bird. “Julian, if Leo is in that cabin, if they’ve hurt him—”
“He’s alive,” Julian interrupted, his voice devoid of doubt. “Vance is a sadist, but he’s a professional sadist. He knows I will burn this entire hemisphere to the ground if the boy suffers a scratch before the exchange. He wants the theater. He wants me on my knees.”
“Will you give it to him?” Elena asked, turning to look at his sharp, shadowed profile. “The ledger?”
Julian glanced at her, the dashboard's green glow reflecting in his cold, uncompromising eyes. “I would burn the world to keep you and the boy breathing, Elena. But Vance doesn’t know that the moment I hand him that ledger, the file triggers a dead-man beacon that sends the exact same data to the Attorney General’s desk. If I lose my empire tonight, everyone burns with me.”
Elena stared at him, a knot of sickening dread twisting in her gut. He hadn’t changed. He was still the calculating monster who traded human lives like chess pawns. And yet, he was the only monster powerful enough to tear their child from the devil’s jaws.
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Suddenly, two pairs of blinding high beams appeared around the sharp curve ahead. Gunfire erupted in the darkness, the sharp pops of automatic rounds pinging off the reinforced glass of the windshield like catastrophic hail.
“Hold on!” Julian roared, spinning the wheel as the SUV slammed headfirst into an iron barricade.
