Chapter 19 - The Basement Siege"Eric! What’s happening? I heard glass breaking!" Clara’s panicked voice crackled thinly through the laptop’s tiny internal speaker in the pitch-black basement room.
"They're inside the house!" I whispered fiercely into the phone, my heart hammering violently against my ribs like a trapped bird. I dropped the laptop onto the workbench, sprang to my feet, and gripped a heavy, heavy-duty iron pipe wrench from the tool chest. "Clara, call your brother right now! Tell him Judge Robert Vance is the head of the syndicate, and his hit squad is breaking into my home!"
Heavy, combat-booted footsteps pounded aggressively on the hardwood floor of the main hallway directly above the basement. The floorboards groaned under a stealthy, calculated weight. Whoever had broken in wasn't here to negotiate or steal jewelry; they were professional operators moving with cold, lethal efficiency.
The basement door at the top of the wooden staircase creaked open slowly. A beam of blinding tactical flashlight illumination cut through the darkness, sweeping across the concrete floor. Two masked figures dressed entirely in black tactical gear stepped stealthily down the steps, their suppressed firearms held firmly at the ready.
"Check the utility room and the archive desk," a harsh, digitally distorted voice hissed quietly. "The boss wants that drive wiped clean and the father eliminated before state police get wind of our breach."
My mind raced at hyper-speed. My son was sleeping soundly in his bedroom on the second floor. If these operatives cleared the ground floor and headed upstairs, my boy would be directly in their crosshairs. Rage completely eclipsed fear, burning away every ounce of hesitation in my veins.
As the first intruder walked past my hiding spot behind a towering metal shelving unit filled with heavy plastic storage bins, his back completely turned, I stepped out from the shadows with explosive, predatory speed.
I swung the heavy iron pipe wrench with every ounce of muscle and fury I possessed. It connected squarely across his body armor with a sickening, heavy thud, sending him crashing violently into a stack of wooden packing crates. He dropped instantly, gasping for air.
May you like
The second intruder spun around with lightning-fast reflexes, raising his suppressed pistol toward my chest. There was no time to think. I grabbed a heavy steel toolbox off the workbench and hurled it across the room like a baseball pitcher, catching him dead-center in the chest. The impact knocked the wind out of him, his gun clattering uselessly against the concrete floor.
I didn't wait for them to recover. I sprinted up the wooden basement stairs, slamming and throwing the heavy deadbolt on the reinforced oak door just as the second intruder slammed his fists against the wood with a furious, blood-curdling curse.
Related Stories
