Chapter 10 - The Traitor’s Last Stand
“Did you really think you could take my birthright with an old cassette tape, Clara?” Julian sneered, raising the weapon and aiming it directly between her eyes. “I tracked your little convoy through the port authority’s traffic cameras while my mother distracted the federal marshals!”
Vincent immediately stepped in front of Clara, shielding her entire body with his broad frame, his eyes locking onto Julian with lethal, unyielding calm. “Lower the gun, Julian; you are surrounded by three tactical squads, and every exit from this pier is blocked.”
“I don't care about the exits, Vincent!” Julian shrieked, his sanity completely unraveling in the dim light of the vault. “I spent ten years pretending to be a legitimate executive while you treated me like a useless parasite!”
“You are a parasite, Julian,” Vincent replied coldly, his voice steady and devoid of fear. “You murdered an innocent man, stole his life’s work, and sold your own family to a cartel because you lacked the spine to build anything of your own.”
Julian’s finger tightened on the trigger, his hand shaking violently with murderous intent. “Then let’s see how much your spine is worth when I put a bullet through your heart!”
Before Julian could fire, Clara acted with lightning speed, grabbing a heavy bronze maritime compass from the oak desk and hurling it with all her strength directly at Julian’s face. The solid metal artifact struck Julian across his cheekbone, shattering his glasses and causing his shot to discharge harmlessly into the reinforced ceiling.
Vincent lunged forward like a striking panther, closing the distance in a fraction of a second. He grabbed Julian’s wrist, twisting the firearm out of his grip with bone-shattering force that elicited an agonizing scream from the traitor.
Vincent drove a devastating knee into Julian’s ribs, followed by a crushing right hook that sent Julian crashing onto the concrete floor of the vault. Julian lay there on his back, bleeding from his broken nose, gasping for air as Vincent pinned his throat beneath the heavy sole of his tactical boot.
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“You’re finished, Julian,” Vincent said in a low, terrifying growl that shook the vault walls. “Your empire of lies ends right here on the floor of the man you murdered.”
Clara stepped up beside Vincent, holding the original bearer bonds and the cassette tape against her chest, looking down at the broken traitor with pure, unadulterated disdain. “My father sent his regards, Julian… and he told me to make sure you rot in the dark.”
