Chapter 16 - The Glass Tower Confrontation: The Architect of Lies
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't put a bullet through your forehead right where you stand," Marcus hissed, his finger trembling against the hair-trigger of the Sig Sauer, his weapon aimed squarely between Elena’s eyes.
Elena didn't flinch. Her breathing was shallow, rattled by the lung trauma from the explosion. "Because Julian doesn't just have Sophia, Marcus. He has Emma’s medical tracker. The one he implanted during her last pediatric checkup under the guise of a measles booster."
Marcus felt ice pierce his chest. "You're lying."
"Check your phone's Vance Health app," Elena spat, blood flecking her chapped lips. "The biometric monitor Julian designed for Emma? It isn't just measuring her pulse. It’s a low-frequency GPS beacon. A strike team is already tracking your vehicle to this exact garage. We have four minutes before they seal the exits."
Marcus glanced at the SUV where Emma was sitting with the security guard. Through the tinted glass, he could see his daughter coloring in her sketchpad, completely unaware of the wolves circling the perimeter.
"Why are you helping me, Elena?" Marcus demanded, his voice low and lethal. "You wore a rubber belly in front of two hundred people. You tried to steal my wife’s fortune."
"I was a captive, you arrogant bastard!" Elena snapped, her eyes blazing with sudden, venomous fury. "Julian held my younger sister in a private sanitarium in Geneva. If I didn't play the doting socialite, if I didn't wear that disgusting silicone mold and deliver Sophia into your household on his schedule, he was going to turn off my sister’s life support! But the moment Emma touched my belly and exposed the silicone at that gala, Julian realized the plan had collapsed. He decided to scrub the entire operation. He put a thermite bomb under my cot in detention!"
She stepped forward, closing the distance between herself and the barrel of Marcus’s gun.
"He tried to burn me alive, Marcus. I don't care about the Vance billions anymore. I want Julian Sterling dead. And I want Sophia out of that lab before he destroys the evidence."
A high-pitched tire squeal echoed from the ramp of the parking garage.
Two black Cadillac Escalades with tinted windows blasted through the security gates, descending rapidly toward the sub-basement level.
"They're here," Elena whispered.
"Get in the car," Marcus ordered.
He lunged toward his SUV, opening the door and shoving Elena into the front passenger seat. He threw the security guard an extra stack of cash, ordered him to run for the pedestrian stairwell, and jumped behind the wheel.
"Emma, head down! Floorboard, now!" Marcus yelled.
Emma dropped instantly, curling into a ball beneath the leather seats.
Marcus slammed the transmission into reverse, flooring the accelerator. The heavy four-wheel-drive SUV surged backward with a roar of twin-turbocharged horsepower just as the first Escalade swung around the corner.
*BANG! BANG! BANG!*
High-caliber rounds shattered the rear windshield of Marcus’s vehicle, spraying safety glass across the cargo bay.
Marcus slammed on the brakes, shifted into drive, and rammed the front bumper directly into the driver’s side door of the lead Escalade, caving in the frame and deploying its side airbags with a deafening *pop*.
May you like
Without stopping to check the carnage, Marcus swung the wheel hard left, tires screaming against the slick concrete, and accelerated up the outbound exit ramp into the blinding morning light of downtown Boston.
***
