SHE THOUGHT NO ONE SAW HER PUSH HER PREGNANT DAUGHTER-IN-LAW OFF THE CLIFF—UNTIL THE COLD DEAD HAND ON HER SHOULDER SPOKE!

Twenty minutes later, the storm outside had reached whiteout conditions.

Julian sat on the floor, propped against the ruined leather sofa, his trembling hands wrapped around a mug of scalding water Emily had brought him. Daniel had dragged Cole into the basement vault, zip-tying his limbs to a steel support pillar, leaving him unconscious and bleeding from a fractured jaw.

"How did they get through the mountain gate, Julian?" Daniel demanded, standing over him, his face streaked with soot and blood. "That security code was encrypted on a local server. No one had the cipher except me, the head of private security, and you."

Julian looked up, his battered face crumpling into profound despair. "I didn't give it to them, Daniel... I swear on my life! I was ambushed at the downtown parking garage right after I left the prison. They... they drugged me. They held me down and used a retina scanner on my eye to unlock the Sterling cloud accounts!"

Daniel cursed violently, pacing toward the broken French doors where the snow was already accumulating in thick drifts across the living room carpet.

"Victoria didn't plan an assassination tonight," Daniel realized aloud, cold dread washing over his face. "This wasn't an extraction. This was a diversion."

Emily stepped forward, cradling Daniella against her chest, her knuckles white. "What do you mean, a diversion? Cole was sent to take my baby!"

"Cole was sent to keep me pinned down here!" Daniel snapped, grabbing his tactical tablet from his vest and booting it up. The screen flickered, showing the encrypted secure alerts from the Colorado Department of Corrections.

A red emergency banner was flashing across the top of the screen:

**MASS CASUALTY EVENT: FLORENCE MAXIMUM SECURITY FACILITY. GAS EXPLOSION IN WING C. MULTIPLE INMATES UNACCOUNTED FOR.**

Emily’s breath caught in her throat. Her blood turned to ice water. "She’s out..."

"During the shift change," Daniel read, his jaw tightening into iron. "A tanker truck exploded outside the perimeter wall at 8:15 PM. A tactical strike team breached the infirmary from the outside using high-grade explosives. Two guards dead. Victoria Sterling is gone."

Julian buried his face in his bloody hands, weeping openly. "She’s coming here. She’s coming to finish what she started."

"No," Daniel said coldly, checking the magazine of his sidearm. "She knows this house is fortified, even with the power cut. She knows I’m here. Victoria is a narcissist—she doesn't hide in the shadows when she wins. She returns to the place where she holds dominion."