Chapter 14
Z
"If I can't have the Vance legacy, nobody can," Julian muttered to himself, unclenching the cap of the fluid canister and splashing accelerant across my grandmother’s mahogany bookshelves.
"Touch one more thing, Julian, and you won't walk out of here," I said, stepping into the doorway of the conservatory, shining the blinding beam of the tactical flashlight directly into his eyes.
Julian winced, raising his arm to block the blinding light. "Lena! How sweet of you to join me for the grand finale."
"You're pathetic," I said, keeping the light pinned on his face while slowly stepping backward toward the kitchen alarm panel. "You ruined your own life twenty years ago, and now you want to burn down my grandmother's memory because you're broke."
"Eleanor destroyed me!" Julian screamed, his voice echoing wildly in the high-ceilinged room. "She loved her charity work, her estate, her precious reputation more than her own flesh and blood! She left me with nothing!"
"She gave you two million dollars to keep you out of prison!" I shouted back. "You squandered it! Just like you squandered every opportunity you were ever given!"
Julian pulled a silver lighter from his pocket, flicking the flame to life. The blue light danced ominously against the glass walls. "Say goodbye to your precious house, Lena."
He raised his arm to toss the lighter onto the fluid-soaked rug.
Without hesitation, I aimed the tactical flashlight's high-intensity strobe setting directly at his eyes and slammed my hand down on the manual fire suppression system switch on the wall beside me.
WHOOSH!
High-pressure industrial fire retardant foam exploded from the ceiling nozzles, drenching the entire conservatory in a dense, suffocating white cloud.
Julian choked, blinded by the strobe light and smothered by the chemical foam. He dropped the lighter into the wet pool, where the flame instantly sputtered and died. He stumbled backward, coughing violently, dropping the iron pry bar onto the marble floor.
I stepped forward through the foam, grabbed the heavy pry bar from the floor, and kicked his feet out from under him.
Julian hit the marble floor hard, groaning in agony as the chemical foam covered his expensive Italian suit. Before he could recover, the heavy oak double doors of the conservatory were kicked open, and four county deputies rushed in with weapons drawn.
"FCSO! Don't move! On the ground!" the lead deputy barked, pinning Julian to the floor and slamming handcuffs onto his wrists.
Victoria ran in behind them, holding her phone. "The panic button worked! The deputies were already down the street!"
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I stood over Julian as he gasped for air on the wet floor, wiped a spot of white foam from my sleeve, and looked down at my uncle with absolute contempt.
"Welcome back to America, Uncle Julian," I whispered.
