Chapter 68 - The Shattered Alliance
The machine gun roared with a deafening, rhythmic thunder: *THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!*
Heavy caliber rounds tore through the engine block of the lead SUV, shearing the radiator to scrap and sending plumes of superheated steam and fire erupting through the crushed hood. The vehicle violently spun out, slamming sideways into the second SUV and blocking the narrow carriage path.
"Ethan!" Olivia sobbed, the sound swallowed by the rotor wash that whipped the falling snow into a blinding hurricane.
The Black Hawk hovered ten feet above the snow. Ethan unclipped his harness and leaped out, landing knee-deep in the frozen drifts, followed immediately by four heavily armed tactical operators from the Federal Marshals' Special Operations Group.
Ethan didn't look at the burning wreckage. He didn't look at the mercenaries scrambling for cover.
He sprinted straight for the granite wall.
"Olivia!"
He reached her, dropping to his knees in the freezing slush, pulling her into his arms with an intensity that knocked the breath from her lungs. He buried his face in her hair, his body shielding her from the flying ice and shrapnel, his hands checking her shoulders, her face, her trembling hands.
"I have you," Ethan breathed, his voice breaking, tears cutting through the soot on his cheeks. "I have you. You're safe. You're both safe."
Olivia sobbed against his chest, her fingers clutching his coat as if she would never let go. "The baby, Ethan... they wanted to take the baby..."
"Nobody touches you," Ethan swore, his voice turning into an iron vow. "Nobody ever touches my family again."
Eleanor crawled over, collapsing against Ethan’s shoulder. Ethan wrapped his other arm tightly around his sister, kissing the crown of her head. "You held the line, Eleanor. You were brilliant."
"I learned from the best," Eleanor whispered, her voice shaking with exhaustion, a fierce, bloody smile breaking through her bruised lips.
"Ethan! We have a problem!" Dominic yelled, ducking behind the granite wall as sniper fire pinged off the stone rim.
Ethan looked toward the third SUV, which had reversed out of the bottleneck and was speeding away down the private access road toward the highway.
"Pendelton is in that car," Dominic said, swapping magazines. "If he reaches the parkway, he has a private helicopter waiting at Westchester County Airport. Once he leaves the country, the Zurich accounts remain locked in legal limbo. We’ll never break the sovereign trust."
Ethan looked down at Olivia.
Olivia met his gaze. Despite the cold, despite the horror she had just endured, her amber eyes burned with an unwavering resolve. She reached up, touching the cut on his cheekbone.
"Finish it, Ethan," she whispered softly. "Finish what your father started. End this nightmare once and for all."
Ethan kissed her forehead, then turned to Dominic. "Get Olivia and Eleanor onto the Black Hawk. Fly them directly to New York Presbyterian under federal escort. Dominic, if a single unauthorized person steps within fifty feet of that hospital floor, kill them."
"On my life, Ethan," Dominic promised.
Ethan stood up, his face hardening into a mask of pure, absolute retribution. He grabbed a tactical carbine from one of the fallen federal agents and sprinted toward the Black Hawk's co-pilot, who was waiting by the skids.
"Call in the New York State Police," Ethan commanded through his radio headset. "Lock down Interstate 87, the Saw Mill River Parkway, and Westchester County Airport. Tell them Arthur Pendelton is classified as an armed domestic terrorist."
Ethan looked through the swirling snow at the red taillights disappearing into the forest.
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"He wants Charles’s empire?" Ethan muttered, racking the charging handle of the rifle. "I’ll give him Charles’s grave."
***
