Chapter 20 - The Midnight Ambush
"You bought the judge," Daniel spat, blood dripping from a cut on his temple as he slowly raised his hands, keeping his body positioned between me and Croft’s gun.
"Judge Harrison owes fifteen million dollars to an offshore trust controlled by Vance Enterprises," Sterling replied with a thin, aristocratic smile. "In this city, Detective, justice isn't blind. It merely bills by the hour."
Sterling gestured with his gold-tipped cane. Two armed private security contractors stepped out from the shadows of the cemetery trees, disarming the federal officers who had been incapacitated by the perimeter blast.
"Where is she, Sterling?" I demanded, my voice raw, leaning against the cold stone memorial to keep from collapsing. "Where is Martha?"
Sterling checked his platinum wristwatch. "Mrs. Vance is currently at The Cliffhouse—the private estate on the bluffs. Preparing for the final transfer of the estate assets."
He stepped closer to me, his cold eyes studying my face with a mixture of disgust and clinical curiosity. "Arthur Senior was a visionary, Elizabeth. He knew his daughter Martha was a narcissistic sociopath incapable of managing the shipping empire. That was why he created you. You weren't an accident. You were an engineered masterpiece meant to preserve his genetic legacy."
"I am a human being!" I screamed at him. "She tried to murder me! She murdered my child!"
"And yet, you survived," Sterling whispered, leaning in. "Just as Arthur knew you would. But a masterpiece is useless if the artist's will cannot be executed. Martha wants you dead, of course. But I am an executor, Elizabeth. I have a fiduciary duty to the Vance trust."
Before I could process his words, Sterling turned to Croft. "Shoot the detective."
"No!" I shrieked, throwing myself forward, wrapping my arms around Daniel’s chest just as Croft raised his weapon.
A sudden, earth-shaking roar tore through the cemetery woods.
Headlights—blinding, high-intensity halogen beams—blazed to life from the tree line. The sound of heavy diesel engines revved furiously as a black armored SUV plowed straight through the cemetery’s iron gates, smashing them off their hinges with a terrifying metallic crash.
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The vehicle didn't slow down. It barreled directly across the lawn, crushing headstones and throwing geysers of wet mud into the air, heading straight for the mausoleum entrance.
"Get down!" Sterling yelled, his cool demeanor shattering as he leaped behind a marble sarcophagus.
