Chapter 6 - The Bloodline
The tension in the lavish bedroom was thick enough to choke on.
Arthur Vance kept the submachine gun leveled directly at his own daughter's chest.
Veronica slowly lowered her pistol, her arrogant demeanor entirely shattering into genuine fear.
Ross and Ethan stepped into the room, their eyes locked onto me with pure, unfiltered hatred.
Arthur ordered Ethan to grab the flash drive from my hand and destroy it instantly.
I gripped the tiny piece of plastic tightly, knowing it was the only leverage keeping me alive.
Ethan lunged forward, but I side-stepped his aggressive grab and shoved him hard into Veronica.
They both tumbled to the carpet, giving me a split second to react.
I grabbed a heavy bronze lamp from the nightstand and hurled it directly at Arthur's face.
The heavy metal struck him in the jaw, causing him to blindly fire a burst of suppressed bullets into the ceiling.
I did not wait to see if he recovered.
I dove through the large glass window of the bedroom, shattering the expensive pane into a million pieces.
I plummeted twenty feet and crashed brutally into the dense hedges lining the perimeter of the house.
Sharp branches tore at my skin, but I rolled out of the bushes and sprinted toward the rear gardens.
The alarm sirens on the estate blared loudly, completely drowning out the crackle of the distant brush fire.
I needed to find the hidden entrance to the underground bunker where Veronica said Maya was being held.
I remembered a strange, heavy steel door located inside the large detached greenhouse from when I was married.
I raced across the expansive property, dodging the panicked security guards running toward the main house.
I burst into the humid greenhouse and found the steel door partially concealed behind a row of exotic ferns.
I grabbed a heavy landscaping shovel and smashed the electronic keypad until the locking mechanism sparked and failed.
I pulled the heavy door open and descended a spiraling concrete staircase into the dark earth.
The bunker was dimly lit and smelled strongly of sterile medical supplies and damp concrete.
I found Maya lying on a small medical cot, staring blankly at the ceiling with heavily sedated eyes.
I rushed to her side and gently scooped her fragile, cast-covered body into my arms.
She blinked slowly and managed a weak, painful smile when she recognized my face.
I whispered that Daddy was finally here and everything was going to be okay.
I turned around to carry her back up the stairs to freedom.
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Standing at the bottom of the staircase was Chief Hector Miller, holding a loaded service revolver.
He smirked and thanked me for leading him directly to the loose end he needed to tie up.
