Chapter 8 - The Price of Loyalty
Damian’s amber eyes hardened into pure, blinding diamond.
The grief, the shock, and the betrayal that had threatened to consume him melted away, replaced by an absolute, terrifying clarity.
She had been sent to kill him. She had been born his enemy. But in the dark, brutal world they both inhabited, she had chosen to stand between him and the ghosts of her past.
"Julian," Damian said, his voice dropping into an octave so low and dangerous it made the air in the cellar vibrate. "Look at me."
Julian flicked his eyes toward Damian.
"You think you brought me here to die in my own cellar," Damian said, taking a single, slow step forward. "You think you controlled this operation from the beginning."
"I have five men on your perimeter, Damian!" Julian snapped, his finger tightening on the trigger of his revolver against Khloe’s head. "I have the codes!"
"You had the old codes," Damian corrected smoothly. "Khloe didn't just stop sending you updates six months ago, Julian. She changed the primary encryption key on the main node forty-eight hours ago."
Julian froze, his eyes widening in sudden, darting doubt.
"The moment you walked onto this estate," Damian continued, stepping forward another inch, "your jamming signal was overridden by my secondary backup in Newark. Your five men on the lawn were neutralized three minutes ago by Leo’s team."
From the floor above, three quiet, muffled THUDS echoed through the heavy stone ceiling, followed by absolute silence.
Julian’s face turned pale. He pulled his revolver away from Khloe’s temple, aiming it straight at Damian’s chest. "I will take you with me, Vale—"
BANG.
A single high-caliber bullet shattered the iron lock of the cellar door behind Julian.
Leo Vance stepped through the doorway, his weapon smoking, while Damian moved with a speed that defied his heavy frame.
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Damian closed the ten-foot distance in a fraction of a second, his left hand striking Julian’s wrist upward, driving the revolver into the ceiling rafters as it fired harmlessly into the wood.
With a brutal, fluid motion, Damian drove his right elbow into Julian’s jaw, followed by a devastating knee to his chest that sent the smaller man crashing backward against the concrete pillar, unconscious before he hit the dirt floor.
