Chapter 6 - The Confrontation at the Gate
The rain poured down in heavy sheets, bouncing off the polished hood of Damian Kross’s lead armored vehicle outside the massive wrought-iron gates of the Vance estate.
Damian Kross stood under a black umbrella held by one of his henchmen. He was thirty-eight years old, sleek, handsome in a cruel, sharp-featured way, wearing an expensive tailored overcoat with a fox-fur collar. His dark eyes burned with arrogant impatience as twenty of his heavily armed soldiers stood behind him, their machine guns hidden beneath their long coats, ready for a bloodbath.
The heavy iron gates hissed open.
Elias Vance walked out into the pouring rain alone.
He wore no coat against the storm, no hat, and carried no visible weapon. He walked down the long driveway with smooth, measured strides, his broad shoulders squared, his hazel eyes fixed on Damian like an apex predator evaluating a foolish trespasser.
Behind the stone walls of the estate, thirty Vance snipers clicked the safeties off their rifles, their red laser sights painted invisibly onto the chests of every single one of Damian’s men.
Elias stopped six feet from the gate, the rain soaking his dark hair, his face cold and unyielding as granite.
"You're far from your docks, Kross," Elias said, his voice cutting through the roar of the rain with terrifying clarity. "And you brought an awful lot of trash onto my driveway."
Damian sneered, taking a step forward, his hand resting arrogantly inside his coat pocket. "Vance. I’ll make this quick. I’m looking for something that belongs to me."
"Is that so?" Elias asked smoothly, crossing his arms over his chest. "I didn't realize I was holding any of your property."
"A woman," Damian spat, his jaw clenching. "And two infants. My intelligence officers tracked a vehicle matching your driver's description near the northern border two weeks ago—the night my wife vanished."
Elias offered a faint, mockingly cold raise of his eyebrow. "Your wife? I heard a rumor on the street that your wife died in childbirth, Damian. Didn't you host a grand banquet celebrating her tragic passing?"
Damian’s face twitched with a flash of dark humiliation. "She was a traitor who stole from me before she ran! She carried stolen assets from my family! If she’s inside your house, Vance, hand her over right now, and we can keep our peace intact."
Elias stepped closer to the iron bars, his height towering over Damian.
"And what if she is here?" Elias asked softly.
Damian’s eyes flared with vicious rage. He reached under his coat, pointing a finger wildly at Elias’s face. "She is my wife! My blood! My legal property! You have no right to harbour my family, Vance! Hand her and those cursed children over to me, or I swear to God I will bring every gun in the eastern district and tear this mansion down stone by stone!"
Elias didn't flinch. He didn't blink.
Slowly, Elias reached out, his massive, scarred hand gripping the wet iron bar of the gate. He leaned forward until his face was inches from Damian’s umbrella.
"Let me educate you on how things work in this city, Damian," Elias whispered, his voice so dark, so heavy with lethal intent that the air around them seemed to freeze. "The moment you flayed her back and dumped her in a frozen ditch to die, she ceased to be your wife."
Damian went pale. "You... you know."
"I know everything," Elias growled, his eyes burning with an ancient, terrifying fury. "I know you beat an innocent mother because your frail, pathetic ego couldn't handle twin daughters. I know you used her body as a provocation against my land. And I know that you are a coward who hides behind money and mercenaries."
Damian reached frantically into his coat for his gun. "You arrogant bastard—"
CLICK.
Simultaneously, twenty red laser dots appeared on Damian’s forehead, chest, and throat.
At the same moment, the stone walls surrounding the estate flickered to life as thirty Vance soldiers stood up from the parapets, their heavy assault rifles aimed directly down at Damian’s men.
Damian froze, his hand paralyzed inside his pocket, his heart hammering in terror as he realized he had walked directly into a death trap.
"Take your hand off your weapon, Damian," Elias said calmly, his voice smooth as glass. "If you draw that gun, my snipers will paint this driveway with your brain before your body hits the gravel."
Damian slowly withdrew his empty hand, sweating profusely despite the freezing rain. His men behind him began backing away toward their vehicles, completely terrified.
"You're starting a war for a broken woman, Vance," Damian hissed through his teeth, his voice trembling with humiliated rage. "The Maroni family will back me! The city council will back me! You can't stand against the entire eastern syndicate!"
Elias looked at him with profound, icy contempt.
"Go tell your syndicate," Elias said softly. "Tell them that Ara and her daughters are under the protection of the Vance family now. Tell them that if any man from the east takes one step across my border, I will not just kill him... I will hunt down everyone who shares his name."
Elias turned his back on Damian Kross, walking calmly back up the grand driveway through the rain.
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"This isn't over, Vance!" Damian screamed desperately behind the closing iron gates. "I will kill her! I will kill those girls! I will burn your legacy to ash!"
Elias didn't even bother to look back.
