PART 8 — THE WOMAN THEY TRIED TO ERASE
A hand closed around my throat.
Cold metal pressed beneath my jaw.
Celeste screamed.
Adrian lunged forward, but Julian dragged me backward against his chest.
“Move and she dies.”
Emergency lights flickered on inside the house, staining the terrace in dim red.
Julian’s face reflected in the glass doors.
Sweat.
Blood.
Desperation.
He held a pistol in one hand and a small black device in the other.
A detonator.
Adrian saw it.
His expression hardened.
“What did you do?”
Julian smiled.
“The vault was built under the oldest gas line in the house. My grandfather showed my father where the shutoff was.”
“You’ll kill yourself too,” I said.
“I don’t need to survive. I just need all of you to disappear.”
