Chapter 11 - The Last Hunt
Viktor reached the southern perimeter as police flooded the compound.
Fog swallowed the road.
Elena followed the blood trail.
She wasn’t thinking about revenge.
Revenge made people careless.
She was thinking about Maria.
Marcus.
Julian.
Cassian lying on the floor.
And every person Viktor had treated like a piece on a board.
She found him near the old greenhouse.
He stood beside a black SUV.
A wounded driver waited inside.
Viktor saw her.
“You always were persistent.”
Elena aimed.
“Drop the ledger.”
“You won’t shoot me.”
“Why?”
“You need answers.”
“I needed answers six years ago.”
He smiled.
“And now?”
“Now I need you to stop hurting people.”
Viktor laughed.
“You became soft.”
“No.”
Elena took one step closer.
“I became human again.”
Viktor raised his gun.
They fired almost together.
His bullet shattered the greenhouse window.
Hers struck his shoulder.
The ledger fell into the mud.
Viktor lunged for it.
Elena kicked it away.
He attacked her.
The fight was brutal and fast.
No elegant moves.
No heroic poses.
Just two exhausted people trying to survive.
Viktor slammed Elena against the greenhouse wall.
“You were nothing before me.”
Elena hit him with her elbow.
“You keep saying that.”
He grabbed her throat.
“I made you.”
Elena drove her knee into him and broke free.
“No.”
She gasped for air.
“You destroyed people.”
She picked up the ledger.
“They made themselves again.”
Sirens approached.
Viktor pulled a hidden pistol.
“Elena!”
Cassian’s voice.
She turned.
Cassian stood thirty yards away, supported by Marcus.
A bulletproof vest showed beneath his torn shirt.
Elena almost laughed.
“You were wearing a vest?”
Cassian grimaced.
“I’m paranoid.”
Viktor aimed at Cassian.
Elena fired first.
Viktor dropped his weapon.
Police surrounded him.
For a man who had terrified entire cities, the end was strangely quiet.
Handcuffs clicked around his wrists.
He stared at Elena.
“This changes nothing.”
She looked at the ledger.
“You’re right.”
Viktor smiled.
Then she continued.
“It changes everything.”
A federal agent approached.
“Ma’am, we need that evidence.”
Elena looked at Cassian.
Cassian looked at the ledger.
Everything his father had done was inside.
Perhaps things Cassian himself had done too.
He nodded once.
“Give it to them.”
Elena was surprised.
“You understand what that means?”
Cassian glanced at his burning manor.
“Yes.”
“It could destroy your empire.”
He gave a tired smile.
“Maybe some empires deserve to burn.”
Then Marcus’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“Boss.”
Cassian looked over.
“What?”
Marcus slowly lowered the phone.
May you like
“Julian is gone.”
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