Chapter 9 - The Siege in the Snow
“They tracked us,” Silas said, racking a round into his rifle. “They must have put a GPS tracker in Maya’s clothes while she was in the bunker.”
“Silas, we’re trapped,” Eleanor panicked, grabbing the baby.
“Vance!” Victor Blackwood’s voice boomed over a megaphone from outside. “You are surrounded. Send the woman and the baby out, and I will let you and the old lady walk away.”
“He’s lying,” Maya whispered, terrified. “He’ll kill us all.”
“I know,” Silas said grimly.
Silas kicked the wooden table over, creating a barricade near the window. He handed Eleanor the hunting knife. “Keep them safe, Eleanor.”
Silas smashed the window glass with the butt of his rifle. He took aim at the lead SUV and fired. The bullet shattered the windshield, sending the driver ducking for cover.
The forest erupted in gunfire.
Bullets tore through the thin wooden walls of the cabin, shattering the woodstove and sending sparks flying. Silas returned fire, his lever-action rifle barking with lethal precision. Two of Victor’s mercenaries dropped into the snow.
“Move in! Burn them out!” Victor roared from behind the safety of his armored vehicle.
Two men rushed forward carrying heavy incendiary flares.
Silas knew the cabin wouldn't hold. He looked at the back door, which led directly toward the steep, frozen embankment of the river.
“Maya, Eleanor, out the back door! Go down the embankment to the river ice!” Silas ordered, providing covering fire.
The women fled out the back, sliding down the snowy hill. Silas threw a kerosene lantern into the center of the cabin, setting the dry wood ablaze to create a wall of fire between them and the front door, and sprinted after the women.
They reached the frozen river. The ice was thick, but it groaned under the weight of the blizzard.
Victor and his men emerged at the top of the embankment, looking down at them.
“You have nowhere left to run, Vance!” Victor yelled, raising his revolver. He began walking down the hill, stepping onto the frozen river, flanked by four armed guards.
Silas was out of ammunition. He looked at Victor, then down at the ice.
“You're right, Victor,” Silas yelled back over the howling wind. “We’re done running.”
Silas didn't aim his empty rifle at Victor. He pulled the heavy iron crowbar from his belt, raised it high above his head, and slammed it down with all his might directly onto the stress fracture in the ice between them.
The sound of the ice cracking was louder than thunder.
A massive fissure tore through the frozen river, racing directly toward where Victor and his heavy mercenaries were standing.
The ice gave way.
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Victor Blackwood screamed as the frozen shelf collapsed beneath him. He and his men plunged into the black, freezing, rushing current of the river. The heavy winter gear and weapons acted like anchors, dragging them instantly beneath the surface.
Silas, standing on the solid bank with Maya and Eleanor, watched as the billionaire who had tortured this family was swallowed whole by the very winter he thought he controlled.
