Chapter 4 - The Reckoning on the Lawn
The thunderstorm rolling in off Lake Michigan brought heavy, dark clouds that blocked out the late afternoon sun, plunging the estate grounds into a deep twilight. Rain began to patter heavily against the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the main conservatory.
Lily stood inside the reinforced panic room behind the master bedroom closet, holding Ethan tightly against her chest. The room was equipped with live security monitors displaying every camera angle across the property.
On the main monitor, she saw him.
Derek Vance was walking across the manicured lawn, soaking wet in a leather jacket, holding a heavy shotgun in his right hand. Beside him was an armed driver he had hired from the Gary underworld.
"Eleanor!" Derek’s voice roared through the external speakers of the security system, laced with psychotic rage. "Come out, come out, you little bitch! You think you can run from me?! You belong to me!"
He fired a shotgun blast into the glass doors of the pool house, shattering the frame into a thousand glittering shards.
"I know you're in here!" Derek screamed, marching toward the main patio. "I'm gonna kill your billionaire boyfriend, and then I'm gonna drag you back to Detroit in chains!"
Suddenly, the floodlights surrounding the patio snapped on with a blinding, white glare, illuminating the entire lawn like a stadium.
Victor Blackwood walked out onto the patio, completely unarmed, holding a black umbrella over his head against the pouring rain. He walked down the stone steps with effortless grace, stopping twenty feet away from Derek.
"You're making a lot of noise on private property, Mr. Vance," Victor said, his voice smooth, echoing over the sound of the rain.
Derek aimed the shotgun directly at Victor’s chest. "Where is she?! Where is my wife?!"
"You don't have a wife," Victor replied calmly, taking a step closer despite the weapon pointed at his heart. "Eleanor Vance died two years ago in a hospital in Detroit. The woman living in this house is Lily Parker. She is the legal guardian of my son, and she is under the protection of the Blackwood estate."
"She’s mine!" Derek shrieked, his finger tightening on the trigger. "I made her! I own her! Step aside or I'll blow a hole right through your expensive suit!"
Victor didn't step aside. Instead, he let out a cold, dark laugh that made Derek’s driver visibly flinch.
"You think you are a predator because you beat a defenceless woman behind closed doors," Victor said, his gray eyes turning into two pieces of burning ice. "You are not a predator, Derek. You are a rodent who wandered into a lion's den."
Victor lifted his left hand and snapped his fingers once.
From the shadows of the surrounding oak trees, twenty laser sight dots—bright, crimson red—appeared simultaneously on Derek’s chest, forehead, and throat.
Out of the darkness, twelve heavily armed tactical operatives stepped into the light, wearing black gear and holding submachine guns equipped with suppressors. Marcus stood at the front, aiming a sniper rifle directly at Derek’s head.
Derek froze. His face went completely white as he looked down at the dozen red laser spots dancing across his rain-soaked jacket.
"Drop the weapon," Victor commanded softly. "Or my men will remove your arms before your body hits the grass."
The driver dropped his pistol immediately, raising his hands into the air and falling to his knees in the mud. "I didn't know! I didn't know who this guy was coming after! Don't shoot!"
Derek’s hands trembled violently. The psychotic bravado that had sustained him for years evaporated in the face of absolute, overwhelming military force. He looked at Victor—a man who didn't even need to hold a gun to command life and death—and realized the catastrophic mistake he had made.
"She... she was my wife..." Derek whimpered, his voice shrinking into a pathetic whine as he slowly lowered the shotgun to the mud.
"She was your victim," Victor corrected him, stepping forward and kicking the shotgun away across the grass. "And now, you belong to the state of Michigan."
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Victor looked at Marcus. "Call the State Police. Inform them that an escaped federal fugitive has been apprehended on my property. Ensure he is placed in a maximum-security facility without bail."
Victor turned his back on Derek, walking away through the rain without looking back once as his men pinned the screaming, weeping coward into the mud.
