Chapter 11 - The Blood on the Dock
I turned around slowly, shielding Ilaria with my body.
Vanessa was dragging herself across the blood-slicked floorboards of the boathouse. Her right leg was useless, trailing blood, but her face was twisted into a mask of pure demonic hatred.
In her shaking hands, she was holding the second security guard’s fallen .45 caliber pistol, aiming it directly at my forehead.
"You ruined my life, Mark," she hissed, blood dripping from her lips where she had bitten through her tongue. "You think you won? If I'm going down, we’re all going down together."
"Put the gun down, Vanessa," I said calmly, holding Ilaria’s head against my chest so she wouldn't have to see. "Look around you. It's over."
"It's never over!" she screamed, her finger tightening on the trigger.
A deafening boom shattered the air.
Vanessa’s body jerked violently backward. A dark red rose bloomed instantly in the center of her chest.
She stared down at the wound with wide, uncomprehending eyes, dropped the gun onto the planks, and toppled backward over the broken railing into the black, churning waters of Lake Moraine.
The splash was swallowed instantly by the roaring waves.
Standing in the rear doorway of the boathouse was Leo Carter, leaning heavily against the wooden doorframe, a smoking hunting rifle clutched in his bruised hands, and behind him stood six armed agents wearing blue windbreakers with FBI stenciled in bold yellow letters across their backs.
"Federal agents! Drop all weapons and remain where you are!" a booming voice commanded through a megaphone.
Leo lowered the rifle, spitting blood onto the floor, and looked at me with a tired, broken smile.
"Told you, Mark," Leo wheezed, slumping against the wall as federal paramedics rushed past him. "I told you I had friends in the Attorney General's office."
The agents swarmed the dock, securing the area and wrapping thermal shock blankets around Sarah, Ilaria, and me.
A tall woman with silver hair and an FBI field badge knelt beside me. "Mr. Miller? I’m Special Agent Hayes, Department of Justice. We’ve just taken Judge Harlan Croft into federal custody at his estate. We have the basement server archives, the bank ledgers, and the body from the county morgue."
She looked down at Ilaria, who was clutching my wet shirt with both hands, her crying finally subsiding.
"It’s over, Mr. Miller," Agent Hayes said softly. "They will never touch your family again."
May you like
I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead against my daughter's wet hair as the storm howled around us.
For the first time in fourteen months, the air in my lungs didn't feel cold anymore.
