Chapter 10 - The Lioness Strikes
The explosion threw wood splinters into the haze. Two armed operatives charged into the room through the smoke, weapons raised, aiming straight for Nathaniel.
Nathaniel didn't hesitate. Even without a mask, holding his breath, he lunged forward. He seized the first operative's assault rifle, wrenching the barrel toward the ceiling as a burst of suppressed fire shredded the plaster overhead. With a brutal elbow strike to the throat, Nathaniel dropped the man to the floor.
The second operative stepped over his fallen comrade, pivoting his weapon toward Nathaniel’s exposed chest.
"Nathaniel, down!" Rose screamed.
Without a second thought for her own safety, Rose vaulted over the overturned mahogany desk. She threw the heavy brass paperweight with pinpoint precision. The solid metal struck the second gunman square in the visor, cracking the protective glass and blinding his vision.
Before he could recover, Rose tackled him around the knees with all the ferocious momentum of someone fighting for her family. They tumbled to the floor. The operative roared in anger, raising an armored gloved fist, but Rose drove her heel into his instep and sank her fingers into the exposed wiring of his communications headset, ripping it violently away.
Nathaniel leaped over, bringing the butt of his weapon down on the attacker's helmet, knocking him cold.
Panting heavily in the swirling gas, Nathaniel dragged Rose into his arms, checking her frantic pulse. "Are you hit? Rose, tell me you’re not hit!"
"I'm fine," she coughed through the filter, her eyes burning but resolute. "Eleanor! Where is Eleanor?"
Through the settling smoke, they saw Eleanor. The matriarch hadn't cowered in fear. In her hands, she held an antique cavalry saber pulled from the wall display, the point resting directly beneath the chin of a third operative who had tried to flank them from the balcony.
"Move an inch, darling," Eleanor purred with venomous nobility, "and I'll show you why this family ruled this city before you were born."
Flashlights beamed in from the corridor as Marcus and six Vance security officers rushed in, weapons drawn.
"Secure the perimeter!" Marcus yelled, pinning the third intruder to the floor. "Sir, the power is coming back online. The perimeter has been reclaimed. Three hostiles down. But we found something outside."
Marcus held out a velvet box recovered from the terrace roof. Nathaniel opened it with a trembling, blackened hand.
May you like
Inside lay a single white lily dipped in black paint, along with a handwritten card penned in ornate, familiar cursive:
*The wedding was lovely. But funerals are so much more dramatic. See you soon, Rose. — V.*
