Chapter 12 - The Ghost of Whitaker Manor
When Evan burst through the front doors of the mansion minutes later, having broken every speed limit on the interstate after receiving an encrypted panic alert from his backup generator grid, the estate was terrifyingly silent. The conservatory was a disaster zone of broken glass and lingering chemical fog. He dropped to his knees, his hands sweeping across the damp carpet where Caleb’s blue-threaded rabbit lay discarded and half-torn, its blue stitching stark against the dark fibers. Beside it lay Grace, unconscious, her fingers still curled protectively toward where the children had been sitting.Evan’s heart hammered against his ribs—not with fear, but with a cold, terrifying rage that threatened to consume his humanity entirely. For the first time since he had discarded his gardener’s disguise months ago, the ruthless, feared mafia boss of Connecticut awoke with a vengeance. He scooped Grace up into his arms, carrying her swiftly to the medical wing, where his private physician rushed to administer an antidote. When Grace’s eyes finally fluttered open, tears streaming down her pale face as she realized what had happened, Evan was already standing by the doorway, strapping his heavy holster around his chest. "Evan... they took them," Grace choked out, her voice raw from the gas. "They knew our routine... they knew every blind spot.""I know," Evan replied, his voice completely devoid of emotion, sounding more like a lethal machine than a grieving father. "Rest, Grace. Protect yourself. I am going to burn their world down to the bedrock."Within the hour, Evan activated the Omega Protocol—a dormant, catastrophic network of intelligence assets he hadn't deployed in over a decade. Every informant from Boston to Manhattan was put on high alert. The digital footprint left by the masked operatives led straight to an abandoned subterranean Cold War bunker hidden beneath a defunct pharmaceutical warehouse on the outskirts of Hartford. The Consortium wanted a war with the Whitaker empire? They were about to learn what happens when you wake a sleeping dragon in its own den.
