Chapter 6 - Blood and IceTime slowed down to a fraction of a second.
Julian’s finger tightened on the trigger.
He didn't notice the red laser dot dancing silently across the center of his forehead.
From the shadows of the upper rafters fifty feet behind Julian, Marcus’s silenced sniper rifle let out a soft thwack.
Julian’s eyes went wide. The gun slipped from his trembling fingers, clattering loudly against the concrete floor as he collapsed backward, lifeless before he even hit the ground.
The echoes of the silenced shot faded instantly into the winter wind.
"Clear!" Marcus’s voice crackled quietly over the comms earpiece in my ear.
I didn't waste a second. I sprinted across the concrete floor, vaulted up the metal stairs of the catwalk, and fell to my knees beside Elena. With a flick of my pocketknife, I sliced through the heavy zip-ties binding her wrists and pulled the cloth gag away from her mouth.
Elena gasped, sucking in cold air as tears finally spilled over her lashes. She threw her arms blindly around my neck, burying her face into the heavy wool of my coat, sobbing with all the pent-up terror of the last twelve hours.
"You came," she choked out against my shoulder. "You actually came."
"I told you, nobody touches what belongs in my house," I murmured, holding her tightly against me, feeling the feverish heat radiating from her body.
Footsteps echoed up the stairs as Marcus jogged over, checking Julian’s pulse before looking up at me. "The package is secure, Boss. Federal marshals and our clean-up crew are twenty minutes out. We found Julian’s offshore accounts on his phone—every ledger from the Russian syndicate is right here."
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"Good," I said, standing up and lifting Elena easily into my arms, bridal style. She didn't protest; she just buried her face deeper against my chest, completely exhausted. "Burn the rest of Julian's files. I want his name wiped off every payroll, every record, and every memory associated with this family."
As we walked out of the dark, freezing slaughterhouse and into the blinding white light of the falling snow, the heavy burden I had carried for six long years finally began to lift.
