Chapter 18 - The Shadow in the Whiteout
The metal front gates—bolted into solid granite posts at the entrance of the driveway—had been rammed open.
"What was that?" Sarah gasped, backing toward the front porch.
Deputy Miller immediately drew his service sidearm, his eyes narrowing as he peered down through the pines. "Stay back, all of you!"
A blinding squall had suddenly whipped up from the southern pass, throwing a curtain of white fury across the ridge. Out of the swirling whiteout, a massive, unplated black SUV came tearing up the narrow road, its engine roaring like a wounded beast, completely ignoring the sheriff's vehicle blocking the lane.
The SUV didn't stop. It violently clipped the sheriff's cruiser, sending it spinning into the ditch, and skidded to a halt directly in the center of the lodge’s circular driveway.
The driver’s door was kicked open.
A tall, broad-shouldered man stepped out into the blizzard, his face obscured by a heavy shearling coat and a dark fur cap. In his gloved hands, he held a sealed titanium lockbox stamped with the crest of the Hart Family Foundation.
Behind him, from the passenger seat, stepped out a woman whose presence made my breath catch in my throat.
It wasn't Evelyn. It wasn't Olivia.
It was a woman I hadn't seen in twelve years—my father’s first business partner, the woman who had mysteriously vanished right after my mother’s death, taking half the family company’s original capital with her.
Victoria Vance—Cole’s estranged mother.
Cole froze, his entire body locking into rigid shock, his voice barely a whisper against the howling gale.
"Mom...?"
Victoria stepped forward through the swirling snow, ignoring Cole completely. Her piercing green eyes locked onto mine with terrifying, predatory intensity.
"You have Richard's deed, Rebecca," Victoria said, her voice cutting through the roar of the blizzard like a razor. "But you don't have the master key to what’s buried underneath this house. And neither did Evelyn."
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She raised the titanium box.
"Open the cellar vault, Rebecca," Victoria commanded, as the man beside her drew a heavy combat shotgun from beneath his coat. "Or this mountain will become your tomb."
