Chapter 6 - The Shadows Strike Back
With the courtroom victory, a sense of deep peace finally seemed to settle over Steel Manor.
Three months passed. Autumn arrived in Chicago, turning the vast trees around the estate into vibrant shades of gold, orange, and red.
Lily and Owen were thriving. They were enrolled in a prestigious local private school, where they excelled in art and science. Their hollow cheekbones were gone, replaced by rosy cheeks and bright, constant smiles. Owen had taken up piano lessons, while Lily spent hours painting in the manor’s sunroom.
They no longer called him "Ryker." They called him "Uncle Ryker," though sometimes, late at night when Ryker read them bedtime stories, Lily would accidentally slip and call him "Dad." Every time she did, Ryker’s heart swelled with a warmth he had never known existed.
However, dark clouds were brewing in the background.
Vanessa Vance was in prison awaiting trial, but her criminal associates were not.
Before her arrest, Vanessa had borrowed a massive sum of money—over one million dollars—from a dangerous underground syndicate run by a notorious mobster named Marcus Kane. Kane wanted his money back, and with Vanessa behind bars and her Cayman assets frozen by Ryker’s legal team, Kane decided to target the billionaire himself.
It was a chilly Thursday afternoon. Ryker was stuck in an emergency board meeting in downtown Chicago, while Marco accompanied the twins on their way home from school in a bulletproof SUV.
As the SUV negotiated a quiet, wooded turn two miles from Steel Manor, a heavy delivery truck suddenly backed out of a side road, blocking both lanes.
"Stop!" Marco ordered the driver, his instincts immediately flaring. "Backup! Reverse now!"
Before the driver could shift into reverse, two black sedans swept in from behind, box-in the SUV completely.
Six armed men wearing ski masks stepped out of the vehicles, raising heavy automatic weapons.
Inside the back seat, Lily grabbed Owen’s hand, her eyes wide with terror. "Marco... what's happening?!"
"Stay down! Under the seats! Now!" Marco yelled, pulling his sidearm. He pressed the emergency distress beacon on his wristwatch, which instantly alerted Ryker’s personal security network and the state police.
TAK-TAK-TAK-TAK!
Bullets rained against the reinforced bulletproof glass of the SUV. The glass spider-webbed but held firm.
"Get the kids out! Use the flashbangs!" shouted the leader of the masked men—a henchman working for Marcus Kane.
The attackers attached a heavy magnetic explosive charge to the SUV's rear door hinge.
BOOM!
The heavy door was blown off its hinges. Smoke filled the cabin.
Marco fired three quick shots, taking down two attackers, but he was quickly overwhelmed by superior numbers. A heavy blow from a rifle butt knocked Marco to the pavement, blood streaming from his forehead.
The lead attacker reached into the smoked-filled back seat, grabbing Lily by her arm.
"No! Let her go!" Owen screamed, bravely punching and kicking the heavy man with all his five-year-old might.
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"Shut up, kid!" the man growled, shoving Owen back into the seats and pulling the screaming girl toward his sedan. "Kane wants the girl! It'll force Steel to pay up!"
"LILY!" Owen shrieked, tears blinding his vision as he watched his twin sister being dragged away into the dark sedan, which sped off down the winding country road, leaving Marco bleeding on the asphalt.
