Chapter 9 - Blood on the Marble
The artificial downpour blinded Harrison for a critical second.
From the shadows above, Arthur threw the heavy iron wrench with terrifying precision. The metal struck Harrison’s right shoulder with a sickening crunch, sending his Glock flying into the deep, muddy bedding of the tropical ferns below.
Pain flared through Harrison’s arm, but pure, unadulterated adrenaline drowned it out.
Arthur leaped down from the lower tier of the catwalk, landing heavily on the stone pavilion floor five feet away. In his hand, a six-inch tactical combat blade caught the pale lightning flashes.
"You were always the blunt instrument, Harrison," Arthur breathed, his heterochromatic eyes wide with manic energy, his bespoke suit drenched and ruined. "The builder. The brute. But Evelyn loved me first. Before your billions, before your towers. She belonged to me."
"She despised you," Harrison spat, circling him in the mist. "She saw the monster you were. That’s why you had to kill her slowly. You couldn't bear to let her walk away."
Arthur lunged with blinding speed, the blade slashing in a vicious arc toward Harrison’s throat.
Harrison ducked, the steel missing his windpipe by inches, slicing cleanly through his collar. He closed the distance, slamming his uninjured left elbow into Arthur’s jaw with the force of a battering ram. Arthur staggered back, spitting blood, but slashed downward, catching Harrison across the forearm.
Blood welled from the cut, mixing with the irrigation water and rain, but Harrison didn't flinch.
He drove his shoulder into Arthur’s midsection, tackling the older man into the center of the marble reflecting pool.
The two men crashed into the shallow, ice-cold water, sending a tidal wave over the surrounding orchids. Arthur fought like a cornered beast, clawing at Harrison’s eyes with his free hand while trying to drive the knife into his ribs.
Harrison grabbed Arthur’s wrist with both hands, using his entire body weight to pin the blade against the marble floor of the pool. Thunder rattled the glass overhead, wind howling through the broken panes as the storm reached its zenith.
"It was... for the empire..." Arthur choked out beneath the water, his grip on the knife failing as Harrison leaned all his weight onto the blade hand.
"Evelyn was my empire," Harrison growled, his voice breaking through the storm.
With a brutal, sweeping twist, Harrison snapped Arthur’s wrist against the edge of the fountain. The knife clattered harmlessly into the dark water. Harrison pinned Arthur down by the throat, pulling him up just enough to look into those twisted, mismatched eyes.
"Confess," Harrison commanded, his breath ragged. "Confess what you did to her."
Arthur, coughing water and blood, let out a wet, rattling laugh. "I gave her... the medicine she deserved... and tomorrow... Maya would have joined her..."
The headlights of four tactical vehicles suddenly cut through the glass walls of the conservatory. Sirens wailed, red and blue lights painting the shattered greenhouse in brilliant crimson. Marcus, flanked by a dozen state troopers in full tactical gear, stormed through the conservatory doors, assault rifles leveled.
"Drop your weapon! State Police!" the megaphone blared.
Harrison held Arthur down for one more agonizing second, staring into the face of the man who had destroyed his family, before slowly raising his bloodied hands and stepping backward into the shallow water.
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Arthur Blackwood lay gasping in the pool, his wrist broken, his bespoke suit soaked in mud and blood, his empire dead on the marble floor.
***
