Chapter 10 - THE ASHES OF THE ADIRONDACKS
Nathan crashed through the wooden wall studs into the center of the blazing living room.
He landed hard on the shattered coffee table, splintering the oak boards beneath his spine.
The silver revolver flew from his hand, sliding into the burning hearth.
Nathan screamed, rolling across the burning rug, his cashmere coat catching fire.
He beat the flames out with his bare hands, coughing violently as dense black smoke filled his lungs.
Gabriel stepped through the shattered doorway.
He held no weapons.
He didn't need one.
His knuckles were raw, split to the bone, dripping dark crimson over his wedding band.
Director Vance helped Claire up through the trapdoor into the burning kitchen.
Claire stopped at the threshold.
She took in the scene.
Fourteen mercenaries lay dead across the living room and the snowy porch outside.
Silas Vance’s strike team had been completely dismantled.
And Nathan Brooks was crawling backward on his hands and knees through the glass, weeping, begging, dragging his ruined trousers across the blood-soaked floor.
“Gabriel... please!” Nathan shrieked, his voice cracking into high-pitched hysteria.
“It was Vincent! Vincent made me do it!”
“He threatened my family’s hedge fund!”
“I didn't have a choice!”
Gabriel stopped three feet from where Nathan cowered against the stone hearth.
Gabriel looked down at him with pure, unadulterated disgust.
“You always had a choice, Nathan.”
“You chose to steal from an honest man.”
“You chose to sleep with another woman while Claire worked two jobs.”
“And you chose to laugh at my daughter in a grocery store.”
Nathan looked past Gabriel toward Claire.
He reached out a trembling, soot-blackened hand.
“Claire! Tell him!”
“We were together for three years!”
“You know I’m not a violent man!”
“Tell him to spare me!”
Claire walked slowly into the burning room.
The heat of the flames washed over her face, turning her cheeks rosy pink.
She stopped beside Gabriel.
She did not look away from Nathan’s pathetic, tear-streaked face.
“You gave me seventeen dollars, Nathan,” Claire said.
Her voice was calm.
Clear.
Colder than the mountain blizzard outside.
“You told me I was too poor to be a mother.”
“You told me I was irresponsible.”
Claire reached into her pocket.
She pulled out the wrinkled five-dollar bill she had kept for bus fare.
She dropped the bill onto Nathan’s face.
“Keep the change,” she said.
Nathan stared at the paper bill resting on his nose, paralyzed with humiliation and terror.
Gabriel looked at Director Vance.
“Take him,” Gabriel said.
Vance stepped forward, cold steel handcuffs gleaming in his hand.
He kicked Nathan flat onto his stomach, wrenching Nathan’s arms behind his back with brutal force.
CLICK-CLACK.
The steel ratchets engaged.
“Nathaniel Brooks,” Vance recited, hauling the weeping banker to his feet.
“You are under arrest for federal treason, conspiracy to commit murder, and armed racketeering.”
“You won't see a courtroom in New York.”
“You’re going to ADX Florence.”
“For the rest of your miserable life.”
As Vance dragged Nathan out onto the snowbound porch, the distant chop of heavy military rotors broke through the mountain quiet.
Three Sikorsky helicopters bearing the official seal of the United States Marine Corps broke through the storm clouds.
Searchlights illuminated the burning cabin.
Reinforcements had finally arrived.
Gabriel turned to Claire.
The adrenaline finally washed out of his broad frame, leaving him swaying slightly on his feet.
His breath came in ragged, shallow gasps.
Claire stepped into his arms.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face into his chest, holding onto him with everything she had left.
Gabriel’s arms locked around her waist, pulling her flush against his beating heart.
He buried his face into her hair, inhaling the clean, sweet scent of the woman who had redefined his entire existence.
“You came back,” she wept into his collar.
“I told you I would,” Gabriel whispered against her ear.
“I will always come back for you, Claire.”
The roof beams of the cabin groaned as the fire consumed the timber.
Gabriel swept Claire into his arms, carrying her down the porch steps into the clean, cold white snow.
The federal medics rushed forward with stretchers and blankets, but Gabriel waved them away.
He didn't let go of her.
May you like
Not for a single second.
He carried her toward the landing zone as the morning sun broke through the Adirondack peaks, painting the snowy forest in brilliant shades of rose, gold, and sapphire blue.
