Chapter 4 - The Price of Loyalty
The deafening roar of the twin jet engines vibrated through the chassis of the SUV as Dominic slammed on the brakes fifty yards short of the flashing runway lights. Elena flung the door open, stepping out onto the gravelly tarmac against the fierce backwash of the accelerating aircraft. The Gulfstream was already beginning to roll forward, its navigation lights blinking a warning against the obsidian sky. Beatrice Sterling was inside that cabin, clutching a Louis Vuitton briefcase stuffed with bearer bonds and encrypted drives. Elena pulled her tactical jacket tighter around her shoulders, ignoring the dull ache in her ribs as she marched resolutely toward the moving plane, signaling the trailing federal vehicles to block the taxiway.
The lead tactical truck surged forward, tires screeching, positioning itself squarely across the yellow centerline of the runway with emergency strobes flashing a blinding red and blue.
Inside the cockpit, the pilot caught sight of the barricade and slammed the throttles into reverse, the massive tires smoking as the jet skidded dangerously close to the dirt embankment.
Elena walked steadily toward the main cabin door, which began to unseal and slide outward with a loud pneumatic hiss.
A silver-haired woman in a fur-lined coat peered down from the top of the mobile staircase, her face a mask of aristocratic fury.
"Get these federal dogs off my runway immediately!" Beatrice screamed over the shriek of the idling turbine.
Elena climbed the first three metal steps, her dark hair whipping across her face in the jet wash, her expression utterly devoid of fear.
"The flight is canceled, Beatrice. Sit down."
Beatrice sneezed from the desert dust, her eyes narrowing as she recognized the woman she had helped her son torment for years.
"You? Julian assured me you were hanging from a ceiling fixture in the East Wing."
Elena stepped onto the landing platform, standing face-to-face with the matriarch who had signed off on her systematic financial ruin and isolation.
"Julian was always incompetent at finishing what he started. Just like you are at hiding your offshore accounts."
Beatrice raised a manicured hand to strike Elena across the face, her diamond rings flashing in the strobe lights.
"You ungrateful little parasite! Everything you own belongs to the Sterling family trust!"
Elena caught Beatrice's wrist mid-air with a grip of iron, her bruised fingers digging into the older woman's tendons with terrifying precision.
"The trust was liquidated three hours ago, Beatrice. You’re currently looking at the primary shareholder."
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Beatrice gasped, her arrogant facade cracking for the first time as she glanced past Elena down at the tarmac, where three federal marshals were unfurling an extradition warrant with her name on it.
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