Chapter 12 - CRASH LANDING"Julian, please!" Maria begged, her professional facade shattering completely. Tears streamed down her face. "She has nothing to do with this!"
Julian stared at the screen, his mind racing through a million calculations. Alexander was a psychopath, but he operated on cruel logic. He wanted to break Julian mentally, just as he had tried to do with Leo.
"Five seconds, brother," Alexander taunted.
"Kill Victoria," Julian said. The words left his mouth like ice.
On the screen, Victoria screamed in absolute horror. "Julian, no! I'm your wife! You can't—"
BANG.
The masked man didn't hesitate. He pulled the trigger. Victoria slumped forward in the chair, silent forever.
Maria choked on a sob, covering her mouth. Julian didn't blink. He felt no grief for the woman who had tried to murder his infant son.
"Pragmatic as always," Alexander chuckled. "The sister lives. For now. You have exactly two hours to reach my compound at the summit of Mont Tendre. Come alone, or the girl and your son go over the cliff."
The feed cut to black.
Maria was shaking, trying to compose herself. "He... he actually did it."
"He thinks he has the upper hand," Julian said, throwing the G-Wagon into gear. "He thinks he's broken us. But he just made a fatal error."
"What error?" Maria asked, wiping her eyes, her training kicking back in.
"He left Elena alive," Julian said darkly. "He just gave you a reason to fight with absolutely nothing to lose. And an angry mother-wolf is far more dangerous than a scheming snake."
They drove the rest of the way up the mountain in silence, the air growing thinner, the cold more biting. As they neared the coordinates, the road ended entirely. A sheer, vertical cliff face stood between them and the summit.
"We climb," Julian said, pulling climbing gear from the trunk.
For the next hour, they scaled the freezing rock wall in the dead of night, the wind howling around them. Every muscle burned, their fingers numb and bloody. But driven by raw, unadulterated fury, they summited the peak.
Before them stood Alexander’s fortress. It didn't look like a cabin. It was a modern, brutalist masterpiece of concrete, steel, and bulletproof glass, built directly into the mountain rock. It bristled with security cameras and armed patrols.
May you like
"He said come alone," Maria whispered, lying prone in the snow beside Julian.
"I'm going to the front door," Julian said, handing her a sniper rifle. "You are going to find a vent, get inside, and find Leo and Elena. When the shooting starts... do not hesitate."
Related Stories
