Chapter 18 - Fire in the House
The blast shattered windows but did not bring down the house.
Smoke flooded the east hall.
Emergency lights flashed red.
“Elena, outside!” Mara ordered.
Elena moved with the evacuation team until she heard something through the radio.
Evelyn was missing.
“She was in the cellar,” Elena said.
“Not anymore,” an agent answered. “She went back for Adrian’s father’s letter.”
Elena stared through the smoke-filled glass doors.
The letter was evidence. It was also the last piece of a dead man’s truth.
Adrian was still inside.
She did not run after him.
She grabbed the estate floor plan from the emergency cabinet.
“There’s a greenhouse service passage,” she told Mara. “It bypasses the east hall.”
Mara immediately redirected two agents.
Minutes later they found Evelyn unconscious near the library, overcome by smoke, the evidence case clutched against her chest.
Adrian reached them from the opposite corridor.
For one second, he simply held Evelyn’s hand while paramedics worked.
Then Kane appeared on the balcony above the foyer.
Gun in one hand.
Detonator in the other.
“Vale!” he shouted.
Adrian looked up.
Kane laughed. “Your father burned men for property. You really thought you’d become respectable?”
Adrian said nothing.
“You’re him,” Kane continued. “You just wear a cleaner suit.”
Elena entered the far doorway beside Mara.
Kane saw her.
“There’s the bride.”
Adrian moved slightly, putting himself in Kane’s line of sight.
Kane smiled. “Victor said she was weak.”
Elena answered before Adrian could. “Victor was wrong about a lot of things.”
Kane’s attention shifted.
Mara’s team moved along the upper corridor.
Kane raised the gun toward Elena.
Adrian did not charge him. He did not play hero.
He dropped behind the marble pillar and shouted, “Now!”
Agents hit Kane from the side.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
The detonator skidded across the balcony and fell through the railing.
Elena saw it land on the floor near a burning curtain.
A red timer flashed.
00:18.
“There’s another charge!” Dante yelled.
Everyone ran.
Adrian grabbed the detonator with a fireplace tool and threw it through the broken terrace doors.
The explosion hit outside, blasting snow and stone into the night.
When the smoke cleared, Kane was in cuffs.
Adrian was on one knee, blood running from a cut above his eye.
Elena crossed the room.
He looked up at her.
“May I touch you?” she asked.
His surprised laugh was quiet.
“Yes.”
May you like
She put her hand against his face.
For once, neither of them flinched.
