Chapter 15 - The Brother Robert Chose
Daniel crouched beside the wire.
“Can you disarm it?”
Vanessa shook her head. “Grant used blasting charges at construction sites. I know enough not to touch it.”
Lily screamed again.
Daniel looked at the low stone arch above them. To the right, an old ventilation crawlspace opened behind broken boards.
“I can fit through that,” Vanessa said.
“No.”
“She’s my niece too.”
Daniel’s stare hardened.
Vanessa swallowed. “Half niece. Whatever. I helped create this nightmare. Let me do one useful thing.”
She crawled into the opening.
Daniel stayed behind, every second cutting into him.
Then a distant gunshot echoed.
“Vanessa!”
No answer.
Daniel heard boots behind him. Ruiz and two tactical officers appeared from the icehouse side.
He pointed out the wire.
One officer began working around the explosive.
Ruiz asked, “Where’s Vanessa?”
“Crawlspace.”
Minutes later, the charge was bypassed. Daniel ran through the tunnel and emerged near the quarry.
A cold wind tore across the open rock.
Grant stood near the edge with Lily in front of him.
Vanessa lay ten feet away, blood on her shoulder.
“Stop!” Daniel shouted.
Grant laughed. “Look at us. Robert’s sons fighting over his kingdom.”
“I don’t care about the company.”
“That’s why you got it.”
Grant’s face twisted.
“You had his name. His house. His wife at Christmas. I got envelopes of cash and a warning not to embarrass him.”
Daniel’s anger shifted. For one brief second, he saw the wounded boy Grant had been.
Then Grant pressed the gun closer to Lily.
And Daniel saw the man he had chosen to become.
“Our father failed you,” Daniel said. “That doesn’t give you the right to destroy everyone else.”
Grant’s eyes flashed.
“He chose you.”
“No. He was ashamed of himself. You turned that shame into a weapon.”
Sirens sounded faintly in the distance.
Grant looked toward the road.
Lily suddenly stomped hard on his foot—the move Daniel had taught her if a stranger ever grabbed her.
Grant cursed.
She ducked.
Daniel ran.
Grant fired.
The shot cracked across the quarry.
Daniel felt something punch his side.
May you like
He fell.
And Grant grabbed Lily again before she could reach him.
