Chapter 50 - Blood and Glass
Before we could initiate the hunt for Julian Vance, the war escalated into physical violence.
It was 2:00 AM. I was upstairs in the apartment above the diner, reviewing Arthur’s legal counter-motions, when a deafening crash shattered the silence of Elm Street.
I grabbed the heavy metal flashlight from my nightstand and raced downstairs, my heart hammering in my throat.
The main front window of the diner was completely blown out. Shards of safety glass coated the checkered floor, shimmering in the dim glow of the streetlights. A heavy cobblestone lay in the center of the dining room.
David rushed in from the back alley, breathing heavily, a cut above his eye bleeding freely.
"They tried to force the back door," David panted, wiping the blood from his brow. "Two of them. I fought them off with the wrench, but they smashed the front window before they peeled out in a gray sedan."
Hannah ran down the stairs a second later, clutching the baby monitor. "Is Maya safe?!"
"She's fine, she’s asleep upstairs," I said, my voice trembling with a mixture of adrenaline and absolute fury. I looked at the shattered glass, the ruined sanctuary I had spent years building with my own two hands.
Victor was trying to show me that nowhere was safe. He was trying to invoke the old terror, the paralyzing fear I used to feel in the mansion when footsteps echoed down the hall.
But I didn't feel fear. I felt a cold, atomic rage.
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I walked over to the cobblestone, picking it up amidst the broken glass.
"He thinks this is a game of intimidation," I said, my voice echoing in the ruined diner. "Arthur, get the car. We are finding Julian Vance tonight. And we are going to burn Victor Holloway’s world to ash."
