Chapter 5 - THE SIEGE OF BLACKWOOD PASS
The return trip was a battle against time and the mounting elements.
As Ronan threw the Ram into reverse, two heavy armored SUVs crested the ridge behind them, their high-beam spotlights cutting through the snowstorm like burning yellow eyes. Heavy machine-gun fire echoed across the canyon, tearing through the pine canopy above them.
"They brought thirty men!" Ronan yelled over the roar of the engine as he spun the steering wheel, sending the heavy truck into a slide down the narrow mountain trail. "Marcus isn't trying to capture her anymore, Gray! He’s trying to bury us all under the ice!"
In the back seat, Clara was wrapping a clean bandage around Gray’s bleeding shoulder while Sera kept her massive body wedged against Clara’s legs, shielding her from the violent jolts of the vehicle.
"The drive," Clara said desperately, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small, blood-stained notebook. "The drive in the collar has the decryption keys, but the actual files are stored in the server farm at your fortress, Gray. My father built a backup node into your house ten years ago without your father’s knowledge!"
Gray turned his head, staring at her in disbelief. "My house?"
"Your house was designed by my father's engineering firm in 2012," she revealed, her voice steadying despite the chaos around them. "He knew the mob would eventually eat itself alive. He built your house as a vault, Gray. Not just to protect you, but to store the entire paper trail of every corrupt politician, judge, and syndicate boss in four states. It’s all hidden behind the foundation wall in your wine cellar."
Gray’s mouth formed a tight line. Everything he had believed about his fortress was a lie—or rather, a far grander truth than he had ever imagined. His father hadn't built it as a hideout for a retired soldier; Julian Vance had built it as a ticking time bomb meant to destroy the entire empire when the time was right.
"Ronan!" Gray called out. "Head for the main gate! We make our stand at the house!"
"The main gate is compromised if they have heavy explosives!" Ronan shouted back.
"They don't have the codes for the vault," Gray said, looking down at Clara’s ice-cold hands and placing his left palm over hers. "And they don't know that the house has been waiting for this night for fifteen years."
A heavy caliber bullet tore through the rear window of the truck, shattering the reinforced glass into a shower of harmless granulates. Sera let out a low, terrifying roar that rattled the interior of the cab, standing up and thrusting her massive head toward the ruined rear window.
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"Hold her!" Gray said to Clara. "We’re almost through the gate!"
Ronan slammed the truck through the heavy iron security gates at forty miles per hour. The heavy steel bars held, but the truck smashed through the perimeter lock, tearing up the stone driveway before coming to a violent stop right at the front porch of Gray’s estate.
