Chapter 2 - The Room Beneath the HouseThe basement was colder than the rest of the estate.
Not naturally colder.
Artificially.
The kind of cold used to preserve things.
Thorne led me through a hidden corridor behind a wine cabinet.
I knew this house.
I had walked through every room.
Every hallway.
Every staircase.
But this passage had never existed on the architectural plans.
At the end stood a steel door.
My name had been engraved into it.
JULIAN VANCE.
Not the name I had been born with.
The name I had created four years ago.
I touched the lettering.
“Impossible.”
Thorne stood behind me.
“That's what I thought.”
“Open it.”
The lock scanned my palm.
A green light appeared.
The door opened.
Inside was not a weapons room.
Not contraband.
Not money.
Photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Pinned across the walls.
Lily.
Me.
Caroline.
My old identity.
My old headquarters.
My commanders.
Men I had buried.
Places I had destroyed.
Every secret I had buried during the four years I had lived as Julian Vance was displayed before me.
At the center of the room was a photograph of Lily.
Taken six days before her birth.
On the back, one sentence had been written.
WE KNOW WHO HER FATHER IS.
I stared at it.
Thorne walked toward another wall.
“Sir.”
There were six photographs.
Six men.
All dead.
All former members of my inner circle.
Beneath their pictures was another phrase.
THE BLOODLINE REMEMBERS.
My fingers curled.
I knew that phrase.
It belonged to a syndicate I'd believed had been destroyed nine years ago.
The Aurelian Circle.
My greatest enemy.
A network older than my own organization.
A network that believed power belonged to bloodlines.
I had dismantled them.
At least, I thought I had.
Thorne looked at me.
“They've been tracking Lily.”
“How long?”
“Since before she was born.”
Something slammed into the basement wall.
Gunfire.
Thorne drew his weapon.
My men opened fire.
Rounds shredded the corridor.
I moved automatically.
Four attackers.
Two from the west entrance.
Two from the ventilation shaft.
Disciplined.
Professional.
Not Cynthia’s people.
Not the family’s guards.
Aurelian.
I stepped behind a concrete pillar.
“Take them alive.”
Thorne looked at me.
“Why?”
“Because I have questions.”
The firefight lasted eleven seconds.
One attacker surrendered.
The other three were disarmed.
I walked toward the surviving man.
He was young.
Too young.
A silver symbol was tattooed behind his ear.
An eye surrounded by thorns.
Aurelian.
I knelt.
“Who sent you?”
He smiled.
“You're late.”
“For what?”
“To save your daughter.”
My stomach tightened.
He leaned closer.
“The bloodline already has her.”
The world stopped.
I turned.
Thorne was already shouting into the radio.
“Locate Lily!”
Nothing.
No response.
I ran upstairs.
The truck was empty.
The back door hung open.
The trench coat lay on the seat.
Lily was gone.
I stood frozen.
For four seconds.
Then every instinct I had buried for four years exploded.
“Lock down every road.”
Thorne reached me.
“Sir…”
“Find my daughter.”
“We're sweeping the property.”
“No.”
I looked at the open door.
“They didn't enter through the gates.”
Thorne understood.
“Someone inside helped them.”
I looked toward the manor.
Cynthia.
Caroline.
Their guests.
Their staff.
Someone had opened a door.
Someone had known where Lily would be.
My communicator vibrated.
One message.
Unknown sender.
I opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Lily.
Alive.
Tied to a wooden chair.
Her face wet with tears.
Behind her stood a man in a black suit.
Then another photograph appeared.
Caroline.
Standing beside him.
The message underneath read:
May you like
COME ALONE, JULIAN.
OR YOUR DAUGHTER LEARNS WHAT YOUR REAL FAMILY LOOKS LIKE.
