Chapter 18
The betrayal cut deeper than Marcus's bullets ever could. Evelyn had been at Sarah’s birthday party last week. She had sat at their dining table, poured tea for Emily, and praised Ryan for turning the family away from violent street warfare into legitimate high-finance holdings.
It had all been an orchestration. Evelyn hadn't wanted peace; she had wanted Ryan weak, domestic, and distracted while she built a parallel syndicate using Marcus as her blunt instrument.
"We aren't running to the woods," Ryan said, his voice dropping into a register of terrifying calm that made even Emily step back.
"Ryan, please," Emily begged, her voice trembling. "We have the girls. We can take the car at the reservoir boathouse and drive across state lines. We can call the federal marshals. We can vanish!"
"You can't vanish from Evelyn Cross, Emily," Ryan said, staring into the dark side tunnel Lily had revealed. "She owns judges in three states. She owns the ports. If we run, she will track us to whatever hole we crawl into, and one morning you will wake up and Sarah and Lily will simply be gone. The only way this ends is if the head of the snake is severed tonight."
Emily stared at him, the water swirling around their boots. She looked at Lily, then at Sarah, who was leaning her head against her sister's shoulder, completely exhausted.
"How do we do it?" Emily asked quietly.
"Lily knows the service ducts under the caretaker's cabin," Ryan said. "That cabin connects directly to the private communications suite Evelyn set up during the treaty negotiations. If she’s orchestrating Marcus, that’s where she’s watching the assault from."
Ryan knelt in front of Lily, taking her small, cold hands in his. "Lily, can you show me the way to the room with the screens? Without Marcus’s men seeing us?"
Lily nodded solemnly. "There is a pipe under the floorboards. Only small people can fit. But I can open the latch from the inside for you."
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Ryan looked at his firstborn daughter, a child who had survived five years of isolation, starvation, and fear, yet possessed the unbreakable will of the bloodline she had inherited.
"Show me," Ryan whispered.
