Chapter 6 - The Setup
Elias froze completely with his sharp combat knife still hovering over the thick ropes.
He stared down closely at the man he had considered a brother for over twenty years.
Bruno was absolutely not a hostage at all.
The dark blood on his face was completely fake, painted on meticulously for dramatic effect.
"You and Rourke have been working together this whole time?" Elias asked, his voice dripping with absolute, unfiltered disgust.
"Rourke handles the dirty money, I handle the muscle," Bruno laughed proudly, standing up from the wooden chair freely.
Cormac Haverin stepped boldly out from the dark shadows of the upper catwalk.
The rival boss looked directly down at Elias with a smug, highly arrogant grin on his face.
"Your pathetic empire is completely finished, Baron," Cormac announced loudly.
"We just needed to draw you out of the mansion to finish the job cleanly."
Elias rapidly calculated his tactical odds of survival and realized they were mathematically zero.
He was heavily outnumbered, surrounded completely, and bleeding out rapidly from his shoulder.
"What about the boy and the pretty woman?" Bruno asked casually, loading his weapon with a loud click.
"My best men are already heading directly to the church to retrieve them," Cormac replied without care.
A massive surge of pure, unfiltered panic flooded violently through Elias's veins.
He had practically handed Adeline and Leo directly over to the literal slaughter.
He tightly gripped his heavy rifle, knowing he had to break out of this trap immediately to save them.
Back at the abandoned church, Adeline shivered uncontrollably in the freezing bell tower.
Leo was fast asleep on a pile of dusty blankets in the far corner.
Adeline kept her tired eyes glued constantly to the heavy wooden door far below.
She cautiously decided to check the small tactical bag Elias had left behind for extra ammunition.
Her cold fingers brushed against a thick, sealed manila folder at the absolute bottom of the bag.
Curiosity totally overwhelmed her anxiety, and she pulled the folder eagerly into the moonlight.
The typed label on the cover read "Thomas Hayes Elimination Protocol."
Her fragile heart completely stopped beating inside her chest.
She opened the file cautiously with trembling, incredibly icy hands.
Inside were highly detailed orders, fully signed by Elias Baron himself, authorizing the brutal assassination of her husband three years ago.
The fake paperwork claimed Thomas simply had to die because he knew too much about the family's off-shore accounts.
Tears of absolute rage and horrifying betrayal streamed heavily down Adeline's face.
The man who had sworn to protect her was the exact monster who deliberately ruined her life.
She picked up the heavy pistol Elias had trusted her with.
She clearly heard the sound of multiple vehicles pulling up rapidly to the front steps of the church.
Violent men were shouting loud orders as they aggressively broke the locks on the sanctuary doors.
Adeline did not aim the gun defensively at the intruders breaking in.
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She coldly checked the magazine, clicked off the safety mechanism, and walked out a secret side door into the night.
She was going straight to the warehouse to put a bullet directly into Elias Baron's heart.
