Chapter 7 - POINT BLANK
Elena didn't calculate the risk. She didn't think about her two daughters waiting for her at home in Glendale, or the monthly rent due in four days. She just saw the glint of the black barrel and Victoria’s hand closing around the grip.
Elena hurled her entire body weight off the wheelchair handles, diving across the hallway like an open-field safety.
Crack.
The bullet tore through the air where Evelyn’s chest had been a fraction of a second before, lodging deep into the solid mahogany framing of the elevator shaft.
Elena collided with Victoria, her shoulder driving hard into the woman’s ribs. Both of them slammed onto the runner rug, rolling across the floor in a tangle of limbs, torn blue silk, and flying hair. Victoria was screaming like an animal, clawing at Elena’s face with her acrylic nails.
"Get off me, you peasant!" Victoria shrieked, raking her nails down Elena’s cheek, drawing hot lines of blood. "Let go of the gun!"
Elena took a sharp elbow to the mouth, tasting metallic copper, but she clamped both hands around Victoria’s wrist, pinning the gun against the baseboard. "Julian! Help!"
Heavy boots thundered down the hall.
Julian rounded the corner, his face pale, his left arm hanging limp from the crowbar strike, but his right hand was free. Behind him, Leo came sprinting with the bronze figurine.
Julian didn't hesitate. He planted his right foot on Victoria’s forearm, bearing down with all his weight until the bone groaned.
Victoria shrieked in agony, her fingers splaying open. The 9mm pistol skittered across the floor. Leo immediately kicked it fifteen feet away, out of reach, then dropped his knee onto Tyler’s back, pressing the crowbar against the man's throat to keep him pinned to the floor.
"Move and I break your windpipe," Leo grunted, his teenage voice cracking with pure adrenaline.
Julian stared down at Victoria, his chest heaving, his eyes bloodshot. He didn't say a word. He just kept his foot planted on her wrist, holding her to the floor like a captured snake.
"Get off me!" Victoria sobbed, thrashing against the carpet. "Julian, it was Tyler's idea! He forced me! He threatened to kill me if I didn't help him get the safe combination! You know I love you! I was protecting you!"
Julian looked down at her with pure disgust. "You tried to drown my mother twenty minutes ago, Victoria. We have it on tape. We have your emails. And now you just fired a shot at her head."
In the distance, the faint, wailing warble of police sirens began to rise from the canyon below.
Evelyn slowly lowered the .38 Special, resting it on her lap. She looked over at Elena, who was sitting against the wall, wiping blood from her cheek with the sleeve of her scrub top.
"You're bleeding, child," Evelyn said softly.
Elena let out a ragged, half-hysterical laugh. "I think... I think I'm okay, Mrs. Vance."
"You're more than okay," Evelyn murmured. Then the old woman’s face hardened. She looked over at Tyler, who was sobbing face-down on the floor under Leo’s grip. "Julian. Ask him where the rest of it is."
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Julian frowned, turning his head. "What do you mean, 'the rest of it'?"
Evelyn pointed her finger toward the open master bedroom. "The safe upstairs didn't have the Bearer bonds, Julian. Those were kept in the study vault. And someone opened that vault three days ago."
