Chapter 10 - The False Haven
My heart stopped completely in my chest.
It was Julian.
The private investigator I had left lying in a massive pool of his own blood in the basement.
He looked perfectly healthy, without a single scratch on his handsome face.
"You're alive?" I gasped, completely unable to process the absolute impossibility of the situation.
"I am very good at holding my breath and playing dead," Julian smiled, his voice entirely devoid of warmth.
"But you saved me," I stammered, gripping the rails of the gurney tightly.
"You unloaded your gun so Arthur couldn't shoot me."
Julian laughed softly, pulling a small, loaded syringe from his uniform pocket.
"I didn't unload the gun to save you, Serena," Julian explained calmly.
"I unloaded it because I needed you to survive long enough to unlock the doors with your blood."
The ambulance engine roared to life, and Julian aggressively shifted the vehicle into drive.
We sped rapidly away from the burning estate, completely bypassing the police barricades.
"Arthur and Fiona were just greedy, short-sighted amateurs," Julian sighed, staring at me through the rearview mirror.
"They genuinely believed they were fighting over a simple billion-dollar trust fund."
I tried to jump off the gurney and reach for the ambulance doors, but my legs suddenly felt incredibly heavy.
A strange, numbing sensation was rapidly spreading completely through my entire body.
I looked down and saw a tiny, clear IV line already inserted perfectly into my wrist.
Julian had drugged me the second I lay down.
"Who do you actually work for?" I demanded, my words slurring heavily as the paralytic took effect.
"I work for a highly exclusive organization that specializes in acquiring very unique assets," Julian answered.
He parked the ambulance in a dark, completely abandoned airplane hangar.
My vision began to blur violently as a massive black private jet came into view.
"The Dre family bloodline possesses a very rare, highly coveted genetic mutation, Serena," Julian whispered, stepping into the back of the ambulance.
May you like
He leaned over my paralyzed body, gently resting his hand directly over my pregnant stomach.
"And my buyer has been waiting entirely too long for your baby to finally be delivered."
