Chapter 7 - The Desperate Attack
"Ava! Bring my daughter out here!" Daniel’s voice shrieked through the intercom system, distorted and wild with hysteria. "You ruined my life! You gave those files to Maro! Come out here right now, you conniving bitch!"
He was smashing the iron bar against the heavy wrought-iron gate, his tuxedo from the night before disheveled and stained, his eyes wide and bloodshot from drugs or lack of sleep. Two of Nicholas’s armed security guards moved to flank the gate, but Nicholas held up a hand, speaking into his radio.
"Hold your positions. Do not engage unless he breaches the perimeter," Nicholas commanded calmly. Then he turned to me. "Stay in the back room with Lily, Ava."
"No," I said, my heart pounding in my throat, but my resolve burning hotter than fear. "I am not hiding from him anymore. Every time I ran or stayed quiet, he took another piece of my life. He needs to see that I am not afraid of him."
"Ava, he’s erratic," Nicholas warned, though his eyes held a flicker of deep respect. "He has nothing left to lose."
"Then he has everything to fear," I answered.
I walked to the heavy front door, flanked closely by Nicholas, whose hand remained poised near his holster. As we opened the door and stepped onto the wide brownstone porch, Daniel stopped swinging the tire iron. His face was twisted into a grotesque mask of fury, sweat dripping down his temples despite the biting winter air.
"There you are!" Daniel screamed, pointing the bloody, rusted end of the iron at me. "You think you won? You think you can steal my father’s company with this gangster? The board locked me out of the building this morning! My mother was arrested for securities fraud an hour ago! You did this to us!"
"You did this to yourself, Daniel," I said, my voice steady, projecting over the quiet street. "You gambled away forty million dollars. You lied to everyone. And when you realized you couldn't control me, you left your three-day-old child to die of hypothermia on the street. Look at yourself. You aren't a titan. You aren't an heir. You’re just a pathetic, spoiled little boy who never learned how to be a man."
"Shut up! Shut up!" Daniel roared, charging directly at the iron gate and attempting to scale the spiked bars. "I'll kill you! I'll take Lily and throw her into the river before I let you have a penny of my family's money!"
Those sickening words snapped whatever restraint was left in the air.
As Daniel reached the top of the fence, Nicholas didn't even draw his weapon. He stepped down the porch stairs with the graceful, terrifying speed of a hunting panther. As Daniel tumbled over the gate onto the stone walkway, Nicholas intercepted him mid-stride. With a single, devastating sweep, Nicholas struck Daniel across the jaw, sending the tire iron clattering harmlessly against the pavement.
Daniel hit the ground hard, gasping for air. Nicholas pinned him to the frozen flagstones with one knee firmly planted in the center of Daniel’s back, effortlessly neutralizing him.
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"You threatened a child," Nicholas whispered, his voice vibrating with a terrifying, icy rage that made Daniel whimper. "If the law wasn't watching, Daniel, you would never see the sunrise again."
Within seconds, the blare of police sirens filled the Gramercy neighborhood. Four squad cars screeched to a halt outside the gate, followed by an unmarked federal vehicle.
