Chapter 10
"What are you doing?" Ryan panicked, his eyes widening as James bypassed the lock screen using a code he had just forced Linda to provide. "If you don't send the delay code, they will slaughter everyone at your house!"
"My house is empty," James stated coldly. "My men patrol the perimeter to maintain appearances, but my inner circle moved to the secondary safehouse three days ago when I suspected a leak in our port operations."
Ryan’s face dropped. The absolute, crushing realization that he had been outplayed from the very beginning settled into his bones.
"You knew?" Linda gasped, her rosy complexion turning a sickly, pale white. "You knew he was betraying you?"
"I knew someone was," James corrected, looking at the encrypted phone. "I didn't know it was the man sharing a bed with my pregnant daughter. But now that I do, I am going to make a minor adjustment to your plan."
James tapped the screen, opening the secure messaging application. He typed a quick, precise code into the chat labeled V-Command.
"There," James said, holding the phone up so Ryan could see the screen. "I just sent the all-clear signal. The shift change is happening. The gates are open."
"Are you insane?" Ryan screamed, thrashing wildly against the chair. "They are going to breach the compound! They are going to storm your house!"
"Yes, they are," James agreed, dropping the phone onto the hardwood floor and crushing it beneath his polished shoe. "And when those thirty men walk through my front doors, they are going to find four hundred pounds of military-grade C4 wired to the foundation, rigged to a remote detonator."
The silence in the room was absolute. The lead bodyguard smirked, lowering his weapon.
"You're going to blow up your own estate?" Linda whispered, horrified.
"Bricks and mortar can be rebuilt," James replied smoothly. "But a message like this lasts for generations."
Emily walked out of the bedroom, carrying her small duffel bag. She wore a heavy coat over her maternity dress, her face pale but resolute. She did not look at her husband or her mother-in-law. She walked directly to her father's side.
"Are we ready to go, Dad?" Emily asked softly.
"We are," James said, wrapping a protective arm around her shoulders. He looked at his bodyguards. "Tie them up in the surveillance room. Leave them there. When Volkov realizes his entire strike team was just incinerated, he will come looking for the rat who gave them the green light. Let him find Ryan."
"No! Please, James! You can't leave us for them!" Linda shrieked, weeping hysterically as the bodyguards dragged her chair down the hallway. Ryan was sobbing, begging incoherently, but James didn't even blink.
May you like
James escorted his daughter out the front door, stepping into the bright, sunlit hallway of the apartment building. The cinematic light caught the gold signet ring on his finger as he pulled the heavy door shut, sealing the traitors inside their own tomb.
The war had begun, and the Bennett family was just getting started.
