Chapter 4 - FLIGHT THROUGH THE STORM
The hallway was pitch black, illuminated only by intermittent flashes of lightning. Nathaniel kicked open the bedroom door. The twins were awake, crying in terror at the sounds of gunfire erupting from the ground floor.
"Wren! Briar! Come here, right now!" Nathaniel commanded, keeping his voice steady despite the adrenaline surging through his veins. He scooped them both up, one in each arm. They were shockingly light.
"Daddy?" Wren whimpered, burying her face in his neck. The word sent a shockwave through his soul. He didn't correct her. He was their father. And he was going to burn the world down to protect them.
"I've got you," he whispered. "We're playing a game. We have to be as quiet as mice."
He moved to the hidden service stairwell at the back of the closet, a relic from the 1920s when the house was built. As he descended into the damp cellar, he could hear boots stomping on the hardwood above.
"Find the girls!" a gruff voice barked. "The old lady wants them gone. The boss is expendable if he gets in the way!"
They were willing to kill him. His own mother had ordered his execution. Nathaniel pushed open the cellar door leading to the old boathouse. The wind nearly knocked him backward, the rain stinging his face like glass. He strapped the girls into life jackets in the dark, his hands moving entirely on muscle memory. He lowered them into his vintage Chris-Craft speedboat.
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Just as he untied the mooring line, a flashlight beam cut through the darkness, landing right on them. "There! In the boat!"
Gunfire shattered the wooden door frame. Nathaniel threw himself over the girls, gunning the engine. The 400-horsepower motor roared to life, and the boat shot out of the boathouse like a bullet, violently launching into the turbulent, pitch-black lake. Waves crashed over the bow, soaking them to the bone, but Nathaniel didn't look back. He navigated by the jagged flashes of lightning, fleeing into the void, leaving his old life and his treacherous bloodline behind. They were officially at war.
