Chapter 37 - The Glass House on the Summit
The headlights of the charging three-ton armored SUV bore down on Gabriel like the eyes of an enraged beast. Sixty miles per hour. Fifty yards. Forty yards.
Inside the cabin, Arthur Ashford’s face was contorted into a monstrous grimace of insanity, his foot stomping the accelerator flat against the floorboards.
Gabriel exhaled slowly, slowing his heart rate to an icy standstill. His finger tightened against the match-grade trigger of the Barrett.
*CRACK.*
The massive armor-piercing incendiary round smashed directly through the center of the SUV’s heavy engine block. The four-cylinder diesel engine detonated internally in an explosive spray of motor oil, fractured pistons, and superheated steam.
The SUV’s front suspension collapsed instantly, digging its radiator straight into the frozen asphalt. The vehicle vaulted forward, flipping end over end through the air in a terrifying cartwheel of twisted metal, glass, and fire, before slamming upside down into the reinforced concrete barrier guarding the entrance to the Eagle Pass summit pass.
Silence reclaimed the mountain, broken only by the hiss of steam pouring from the ruined chassis.
Gabriel lowered the empty rifle, his breath ragged, his body trembling with sheer physical exhaustion. He walked forward through the drifting snow, his heavy boots crunching against broken safety glass.
The driver’s door of the ruined SUV groaned open. Arthur Ashford crawled out onto his belly, his face smeared with grease, soot, and crimson blood. His tailored coat was shredded, his ivory hair matted to his scalp. He clawed at the frozen gravel, dragging himself inch by inch toward the border fence fifty yards away, where the floodlights of the Canadian border station illuminated the high snowbanks.
"Nora..." Arthur wheezed, his fingers digging into the ice. "The money... the Ashford name... you cannot take it from me..."
Gabriel stepped directly in front of him. His shadow fell over the dying patriarch like an executioner’s shroud.
Arthur slowly raised his head, blinking through swollen, bloodshot eyes. When he saw Gabriel standing over him—bloodied, battered, yet utterly unbroken—a pathetic, trembling whimper escaped the old billionaire’s lips.
"Gabriel..." Arthur pleaded, tears of terror washing clean lines through the soot on his cheeks. "I made you head of security... I gave you everything... You were a nobody from the streets... I gave you a purpose!"
"You didn't give me a purpose, Arthur," Gabriel said, his voice quiet, cold, and final. "Julianna did. Nora did."
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From the security gates of the Eagle Pass Border Station, the heavy hydraulic blast doors swung open. Armed Canadian federal tactical units flooded the tarmac, weapons raised, securing the perimeter alongside Commander Sarah Vance.
And walking out from behind the armored shield of the border officers was Nora.
