Chapter 3 - Flight in the Night
The revelation hung in the kitchen air like toxic smoke, but before Julian could even process the full horror of his mother’s treachery, the sudden, sharp crack of breaking glass echoed from the front wing of the house.
David’s hand went straight to the holster at his belt. “That’s the conservatory window. Stay down, Julian!”
From the radio clipped to David’s tactical vest, a frantic voice crackled through the static: “Boss! We have a breach at the south gate! Two unmarked black Subarus just rammed the perimeter fence! Armed men are on the grounds!”
Julian didn’t hesitate. Instincts he didn’t know he possessed took over his entire being. He scooped up Aurora and Stella from their pillow bed, holding both sleeping girls tightly against his chest. Aurora whimpered, her tiny hands clutching the fabric of his shirt as her eyes fluttered open in terror.
“Shh, sweetie, I’ve got you. Nobody is going to hurt you,” Julian whispered fiercely, pressing a kiss to her damp forehead.
“We can’t hold the main house, Julian,” David barked, checking the magazine of his sidearm as he peered down the dark hallway. “Marcus and your mother must have realized what we were searching for on the hospital servers. They sent a cleanup crew. They want those girls silenced before a legal paternity test can be filed.”
“Where do we go?” Julian asked, his heart thundering as heavy boots pounded against the hardwood floors of the grand foyer just rooms away.
“The boathouse,” David ordered, gesturing toward the back kitchen door that led to the lake trail. “I have a custom Chris-Craft speedboat docked down there with the keys in the ignition. It’s equipped with GPS navigation and can cross Lake Tahoe to the Nevada side in fifteen minutes. My secondary team is waiting with a safehouse vehicle in Incline Village.”
“What about you?” Julian asked as David shoved him toward the rain-slicked back porch.
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“I’m going to buy you five minutes to get to the water,” David smiled grimly, racking the slide of his gun. “Go, Julian! Be a father! Save your daughters!”
Julian burst out into the freezing autumn rain, clutching his children to his chest as he sprinted down the stone pathway leading through the dense pine trees toward the black waters of Lake Tahoe. Behind him, the terrifying sound of gunfire erupted inside his late wife’s home, echoing off the mountains beneath the starless sky.
