Chapter 9 - The Last Stand
Hearing Julian's voice absolutely completely shattered the fragile remaining pieces of my highly fabricated, peaceful reality.
The man I had deeply loved, deeply mourned, and completely believed was dead was standing right outside as a brutal monster.
"Do not listen to a single word he says, Mara, he will absolutely kill you the second he has Ellie," Damen warned breathlessly.
I tightly hugged Ellie against my chest, completely refusing to let the violent psychopath outside ever touch my innocent child.
"I am never giving her to you, Julian, you are absolutely dead to us!" I screamed defiantly toward the barricaded wooden window.
Julian simply laughed, a cold, deeply terrifying sound that severely chilled my absolute core.
"You really leave me absolutely no choice, my sweet wife," Julian mocked cruelly through the loud megaphone.
He proudly announced that his heavily armed men were currently pouring highly flammable gasoline completely around the base of the cabin.
"We are totally completely trapped inside a wooden box," Anthony stated grimly, racking the heavy slide of his pistol.
Damen slowly forced himself to sit up, a deeply terrifying, completely unhinged smile slowly spreading across his pale face.
"My deeply paranoid father firmly believed in absolute total security," Damen whispered, struggling entirely to catch his dying breath.
He painfully reached entirely under his ruined suit jacket and pulled out a heavy, incredibly outdated electronic detonator box.
He brilliantly revealed that the old cabin and the surrounding trees were heavily rigged with highly unstable, bootlegger-era explosives.
"If we trigger this specific switch, the entire outer perimeter absolutely violently detonates in a massive fireball," Damen explained quickly.
Anthony carefully took the heavy detonator box, looking deeply impressed by the extremely lethal, hidden contingency plan.
Before Anthony could forcefully press the switch, Julian's cruel voice echoed completely through the megaphone once again.
"Before you try anything completely stupid, Mara, I highly suggest you look exactly who I brought with me," Julian announced confidently.
Anthony quickly peered through a tiny crack in the thick wooden curtains, his tough face completely draining of all color.
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"He has Mrs. Alvarez from your apartment building violently tied up directly to the hood of his armored truck," Anthony reported with absolute horror.
Julian was completely willing to violently murder the sweet, innocent old babysitter just to force my total, unconditional surrender.
