Chapter 17 - The Lion's Den
Inside the lower chamber of the lighthouse, Reyes stood over the cellar hatch. The mercenary he had sent down to check on the children hadn't returned.
"Kovacs?" Reyes called down, his hand resting on the holster of his sidearm. "Bring the boy up. The storm is worsening."
Silence.
Reyes pulled his weapon and started down the stone steps. As his boots touched the bottom landing, his foot kicked something soft. He looked down. Kovacs was lying face down, unconscious, blood pooling from a deep gash on the back of his skull. Nearby lay a heavy cast-iron pipe covered in crimson.
Reyes’s eyes widened. "What the—"
From behind the wooden storage crates, a tiny figure burst out. Toby charged with all the force his ninety-pound frame could muster, wielding a splintered wooden beam straight into Reyes’s knee.
The Admiral grunted in pain, stumbling back, but his decades of combat training kicked in instantly. He swung his heavy arm, catching Toby across the chest and knocking the boy to the ground.
"Impressive," Reyes growled, wiping blood from a scratch on his cheek as he leveled his gun at Toby’s forehead. "Just like your father. Julian had that same pathetic, self-sacrificing streak. Look where it got him."
Toby, bruised and gasping for breath, stared right down the barrel of the gun without blinking. "My dad wasn't pathetic. He was ten times the man you are."
Behind the crates, Leo let out a piercing, frightened wail.
Reyes smiled coldly. "A lovely eulogy. Say hello to Julian for me."
*BANG!*
The gunshot was deafening in the enclosed stone cellar.
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Reyes stumbled forward, a blossom of red erupting from his right shoulder. He spun around in disbelief as Clara emerged from the shadows of the stairway, holding the smoking 9mm pistol in both hands, her face streaked with rain and blood.
"Get away from my son," Clara said, her voice dropping to a terrifying, deadly calm.
