Chapter 16 - The Vault In The Ice
Dante was still wrestling with the first mercenary on the floor, using his zip-tied arms like a garrote around the man's windpipe until the soldier's body finally went limp. Dante rolled off him, gasping for air, his chest heaving violently against his fractured ribs.
I dropped the gun, fell to my knees beside him, and used the carbon-steel butcher knife to slice the plastic ties binding his wrists.
The moment his hands were free, Dante didn't check his own broken bones. He grabbed my face, pulling me against his bloodied chest, his trembling hands checking my hair, my neck, my shoulders. "Are you hit? Lena, tell me you’re not hit!"
"I'm fine. I'm not hit," I sobbed, pressing my face into the crook of his neck, breathing in the scent of him. "The babies... they’re in the pantry. They’re safe."
Dante closed his eyes, his entire body shuddering with an overwhelming, silent sob. For five seconds, the ruthless corporate titan was just a broken father holding his wife in the ruins of their life.
Then, from the floor near the doorway, a wet groan broke the spell.
Roman was stirring. Blood poured from his ear and temple where the cast-iron pan had fractured his skull, but he was alive. His fingers clawed weakly at the floorboards, trying to drag himself toward the door.
Dante stood up slowly. His left shoulder was still dislocated, but with a terrifying, stoic grunt of agony, he threw his back against the stone fireplace and shoved the joint backward, popping the bone back into its socket with a sickening, wet crunch. He didn't even yell; he merely bared his bloody teeth.
He walked over to Roman, picked up the discarded Walther from the floor, and pressed the cold barrel directly against his half-brother's temple.
"Don't," a weak voice gasped from the corner.
Sienna Montgomery was leaning against the kitchen island, clutching her broken arm, her face white as chalk. "Don't kill him, Dante. If you kill him, the board will call it murder. His legal team has a dead-man's switch on his offshore server. If his vitals flatline, the trust fund documents are automatically contested, and the feds freeze every dollar your children are entitled to."
Dante didn't lower the gun. "He came to slaughter my family, Sienna."
"I know," Sienna whispered, pulling a small, titanium flash drive from the lining of her ripped coat. "Which is why you don't kill him. You take this. It has the biometrics to Roman's private vault in the Zurich Union Bank. Everything he stole from your father—the original trust deed, the offshore bonds, and the surveillance tapes proving he fabricated the entire affair between us five months ago."
I froze, staring at Sienna.
"What did you say?" I asked, my voice barely audible over the roaring storm.
Sienna looked at me, her eyes filled with genuine, bitter shame. "The anniversary, Lena. The penthouse in Manhattan. Roman blackmailed my father’s hedge fund. He told me if I didn't stage that scene—if I didn't make sure you walked in and saw me kissing Dante on your fifth anniversary—he would bankrupt my family. Dante didn't kiss me. He shoved me away two seconds later. But Roman’s photographer had already taken the shot from the terrace across the street."
I turned to Dante. He was looking at me, his dark eyes brimming with unshed tears, the silence between us heavier than the blizzard outside.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I whispered, my voice breaking. "Why did you let me walk away believing you broke our vows?"
"Because when I investigated who set it up," Dante said, his voice cracking with raw pain, "I realized Roman had placed snipers around your mother’s hospice facility. If I told you the truth, if I fought back publicly, he would have ended her life before I could secure the floor. I had to let you hate me, Lena. I had to let you run so you’d be far away from the crosshairs while I tore his network down from the inside."
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Before I could speak, a thundering roar shook the cabin from above.
Twin spotlights, blinding and white as magnesium flares, cut through the snowstorm outside. The Aegis private security helicopters had arrived.
