Chapter 4 - The House in Little Italy
The neighborhood of Little Italy in East Baltimore was quiet, shrouded in thick sea fog rolling off the harbor.
Row houses built of red brick lined the narrow streets, their iron gas lamps flickering dimly in the damp night air.
Anika’s childhood home was a modest, two-story row house with white window shutters and a small porch overflowing with potted geraniums. It was the house her father had built before he passed away, the house where her mother worked sixteen hours a day sewing alterations to pay for Leo’s college tuition.
Adrian’s black SUV pulled into the alley behind the house, keeping its headlights off.
Marcus Vance sat in the front passenger seat, adjusting an encrypted tactical receiver. "Boss, thermal scanners show four armed signatures inside the ground floor. Two more on the roof."
Anika looked through the rain-streaked window at her mother’s kitchen window.
A shadow passed across the glass inside—a tall man holding an automatic weapon.
"My mother," Anika whispered, her blood running cold. "Where is my mother?"
"Thermal shows a single civilian reading tied to a chair in the dining room," Marcus reported, his voice grim. "Heart rate elevated, but stable."
Anika reached for the door handle, her knuckles white around her pistol grip. "I'm going in."
"Not alone," Adrian said, catching her forearm.
He looked at Marcus. "Deploy the flash-bangs on the perimeter. Marcus, take the roof team. Anika and I take the kitchen."
"Sir," Marcus warned, "Julian Vale’s personal vehicle—a silver Maybach—is parked two blocks away. He’s supervising this sweep personally."
Adrian’s eyes turned into cold steel. "Good. That means I don't have to go hunting for him tomorrow."
Inside the dim dining room of the Rao house, sixty-year-old Priya Rao sat bound to a wooden chair with thick plastic zip-ties. Her silver hair was messy, her eyes filled with tears, her trembling hands clutching a small rosary.
Standing over her, holding a glass of iced scotch he had poured from her refrigerator, was thirty-year-old Julian Vale.
Julian was Adrian’s half-brother—dressed in an pristine ivory cashmere turtleneck, a gold Rolex on his wrist, his handsome face ruined by an arrogant, sneering mouth.
Standing behind him were four heavy mercenaries wearing the dark blue leather cuffs.
"Where is the drive, old woman?" Julian asked casually, taking a sip of his scotch. "Your son took a forty-thousand-dollar bribe to deliver a courier pouch six weeks ago, but he kept the secondary flash drive. Where did he put it?"
Priya wept quietly, shaking her head. "I don't know what you're talking about! Please... my son is in a coma... my daughter is working... we have no money—"
"I don't care about your money," Julian sneered, setting his scotch glass down heavily on the oak dining table. "I care about sixteen gigabytes of encrypted lab files that could destroy my family's inheritance."
He reached into his jacket, pulling out a small black suppressed pistol. He pressed the cold steel barrel directly against Priya's forehead.
"I’ll give you five seconds," Julian said softly. "Five... four... three—"
BOOM! BOOM!
Two flash-bang grenades shattered the high kitchen windows simultaneously!
A blinding flash of twelve million candlepower white light and a deafening 170-decibel blast exploded through the ground floor!
The four mercenaries shrieked in pain, blinded and disoriented, clutching their bleeding ears as smoke flooded the dining room!
Anika kicked open the back kitchen door, entering the smoke like an avenging angel!
BANG! BANG!
She dropped two mercenaries instantly with two surgical shots to their chest plates, using kinetic force to knock them off their feet.
Adrian vaulted over the kitchen island, his tall frame cutting through the smoke. He tackled the third mercenary into the glass china cabinet, shattering porcelain plates across the floor before slamming the man's head into the floorboard with a devastating elbow strike.
Julian Vale gasped in sheer panic, dropping his scotch glass as it shattered on the floor. He tried to pull his gun on Priya, using her as a shield.
Anika sprinted across the dining table, launching herself off the edge!
She slammed her boots directly into Julian’s chest, sending the thirty-year-old billionaire flying backward across the room! He crashed into the mahogany sideboard, knocking over a brass lamp before rolling onto the floor, clutching his broken ribs and gasping for air.
"Mama!" Anika cried out, dropping to her knees beside her mother.
She pulled a tactical blade from her belt, slicing through the zip-ties on her mother's wrists in one swift motion.
"Anika! Oh, my sweet girl!" Priya sobbed, pulling her daughter into a desperate, shaking embrace. "They came into the house... they were looking for something—"
"Shh, Mama, you're safe," Anika whispered, holding her mother close while keeping her gun trained on Julian, who was groaning on the floor.
Adrian stepped over Julian, pressing his heavy leather boot directly onto his half-brother's throat.
Julian choked, his gold Rolex flashing in the dim emergency light as he looked up into Adrian’s icy steel-blue eyes.
"Adrian..." Julian gasped, his arrogance completely vanishing, replaced by pure terror. "Adrian... wait... it wasn't my idea... it was Victoria! She made me do it!"
"Shut up, Julian," Adrian said, his voice so quiet and lethal it made the air in the room freeze.
Adrian reached down, grabbed Julian by his cashmere collar, and hauled him off the floor like a sack of garbage, slamming him against the brick wall.
"Where is Victoria?" Adrian demanded.
"She’s... she’s at the main estate in Potomac!" Julian stammered, tears of fear leaking from his eyes. "She’s signing the power-of-attorney documents at dawn! She bribed the hospital board to declare Dad legally brain-dead at six o'clock this morning! Once she signs, she takes total ownership of Vale Biotech!"
Anika walked over to the corner of the dining room where a small, brass Hindu altar stood on a carved wooden shelf.
She reached behind the velvet curtain of the altar, pulling out a tiny, silver cylinder flash drive that Leo had taped hidden behind a statue of Lord Ganesha.
She held the flash drive up to the light.
"We have it," Anika said.
Adrian looked at the silver drive, then looked down at his trembling half-brother.
"Marcus," Adrian called out.
Marcus Vance walked into the smoke-filled dining room, carrying a pair of heavy steel handcuffs.
"Take my half-brother into custody," Adrian ordered coldly. "Put him in the holding cellar at our safehouse. If he tries to speak, choke him out."
"With pleasure, Boss," Marcus grinned, snapping the cuffs around Julian’s wrists and dragging him out into the rain.
Adrian turned to Anika and her mother. He looked at the quiet, brave house, at the shattered glass, and at the girl who had risked everything to protect her family.
He walked over to Priya, bowing his head in deep respect. "Mrs. Rao, I am deeply sorry for the violence my family brought into your home. My security team will remain here to protect you, and tomorrow, this house will be fully restored."
Priya looked at the handsome billionaire, then looked at her daughter standing beside him—holding a gun, her eyes shining with quiet strength.
"You brought my daughter home safely, Mr. Vale," Priya said softly, taking his hand in hers. "Just finish this. Stop the people who hurt my son."
May you like
Adrian looked into Anika’s gray eyes.
"It ends at dawn," Adrian promised.
