Chapter 6 - The Confession in the Rain
The estate turned into a battleground.
Ronan moved through the dark corridors like a phantom. He knew every secret passageway, every hidden door, and every shadow in Blackwood Estate.
BANG! BANG!
Two gunshots echoed near the grand staircase as Ronan neutralized the first two mercenaries trying to breach the west wing.
Ivy followed close behind him, holding a heavy brass candlestick, her mind working at hyper-speed despite the terror in her chest. She realized something crucial as she watched the mercenaries' movements on the security monitor mounted in the panic corridor.
“Ronan!” Ivy hissed, grabbing his arm. “They’re not searching the main house! They’re heading for the server room in the basement! They’re trying to steal the Singapore reserve codes before the police arrive!”
Ronan looked at her, impressed once again by her tactical brilliant mind under fire. “The basement entrance is through the kitchen pantry.”
“I know a faster way,” Ivy said. “The old laundry chute behind the linen closet. It drops right outside the server vault.”
Together, they raced through the narrow service corridors.
When they reached the basement level near the laundry chute, two heavily armed mercenaries were already cutting through the electronic lock of the server vault with a plasma torch. Sparks flew through the dark corridor, illuminating their black tactical gear.
Ronan stepped out from the shadows, firing three quick rounds with lethal precision.
Both men dropped.
But as the sound of the gunshots died down, a third man stepped out from behind the heavy steel boiler—Dominic Vane himself, holding a high-caliber revolver, pointed directly at Ivy’s heart.
“End of the line, Blackwood,” Vane sneered, his ugly, scarred face twisted in a cruel grin. “The girl dies first. Then I take your empire.”
Ivy stood frozen, the red laser sight resting directly on her chest.
“Vane,” Ronan said, his voice terrifyingly quiet. He didn't raise his gun. “Put the weapon down.”
“Why? So you can execute me?” Vane laughed. “She’s just a maid, Ronan! You’re going to lose everything for a—”
Before Vane could pull the trigger, Ivy didn't freeze in fear.
She slammed her heel down onto the heavy iron release lever of the steam boiler right beside her.
PFTTTTTTTTT!
A blinding cloud of scalding six-hundred-degree steam erupted from the safety valve directly into Vane’s face.
Vane shrieked in agony, dropping his revolver and clawing at his blistered eyes.
Ronan didn't waste a millisecond. He closed the distance, disarmed Vane, and slammed him face-first into the concrete floor, pinning him down with a knee to his back and locking heavy iron cuffs around his wrists.
Outside, the sirens of thirty police cruisers finally tore through the night air, their red and blue lights flashing against the rain-slicked windows of the estate.
The siege was over.
Twenty minutes later, rain poured down over the front driveway as tactical officers dragged Vane, Senator Hale, and Vivien—who had been caught waiting in a getaway car down the street—into armored police vans.
Ronan stood on the grand porch, soaked to the skin, his shirt torn, blood on his knuckles.
Ivy walked out onto the porch, wrapped in a blanket provided by the paramedics. She looked at him—this powerful, terrifying man who had fought through hell to keep her safe.
Ronan walked up to her. He didn't care about the police, the reporters arriving at the gates, or the flashing lights.
He reached out, pulling her blanketed shoulders gently toward him, resting his forehead against hers in the cold rain.
“Are you hurt?” he rasped.
“No,” Ivy whispered, tears mixing with the rain on her cheeks. “I’m okay.”
Ronan looked into her eyes, his heart breaking open completely.
“I love you, Ivy,” Ronan confessed, his voice shaking with raw, unvarnished truth. “I’ve loved you since the day you stood in my library and corrected my philosophy books. I don't care about the board. I don't care about society. You are the only empire I want.”
Ivy let out a broken sob of joy, throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his.
May you like
The kiss was wild, sweet, and filled with three years of unspoken longing.
Around them, the rain fell like a blessing, washing away the blood, the fear, and the dark history of Blackwood Estate.
