Chapter 10
"It wasn't my idea! I swear to God it wasn't my idea!" Julian sobbed, his shoes dangling in empty space over the dark abyss.
"Give me a name, Julian," Ethan said, his grip loosening on the silk tie by an inch.
Julian screamed as he slipped lower, grabbing Ethan's wrists with trembling hands.
"My father! Marcus!" Julian shrieked hysterically. "He ordered it after Senator Harrington said she had the transaction logs!"
"My father hired the mercenary team from Detroit! I just paid the local hitman to finish her in the hospital!"
Ethan stared into Julian’s terrified eyes, remembering the sight of Clara covered in bandages and the cold monitor flatlining in the ICU.
"You took my son's life for political leverage," Ethan whispered softly.
"Please... we're the Vances... you can't kill me... the police will hunt you to the ends of the earth!" Julian cried out.
"Let them try," Ethan replied.
Ethan let go of the tie.
Julian’s scream echoed through the freezing night sky, fading rapidly as he fell into the dark expanse seventy floors below.
Ethan stood on the balcony edge for a long moment, watching the snow fall into the dark street below.
He pulled out his laptop driver, inserting it into Julian's desktop computer to initiate a remote wipe of all Vance family cloud backups.
Suddenly, the elevator doors at the end of the penthouse chimed.
Ethan drew his sidearm, taking cover behind a structural pillar as the doors slid open.
Instead of tactical officers, a tall, distinguished man stepped out into the room, flanked by four heavily armed private military contractors wearing tactical gear without insignia.
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It was Senator Robert Harrington himself, wearing a pristine black cashmere coat.
"I must admit, Mr. Cross," Senator Harrington said, his voice calm and refined. "You are far more dangerous than your wife's research suggested."
