Chapter 6 - The Breaking Point
Z
The world evaporated into pure, unadulterated instinct.
Griffin didn't say a word. He didn't wait for the elevators. He slammed through the heavy emergency exit door and charged down six flights of stairs, his dress shoes slamming against the concrete like gunshots. Sloan was right behind him, adrenaline coursing through her veins, her fear for her children overriding the exhaustion in her body.
They burst into the underground parking garage just in time to hear the screeching of tires. A black SUV accelerated toward the exit gate, its tires smoking against the polished concrete floor.
"Hazel! Iris!" Sloan screamed, her voice echoing violently off the concrete walls.
Griffin sprinted toward his sleek, custom armored Maybach parked in the VIP bay. He ripped the driver’s door open. "Get in!" he roared at Sloan.
Sloan threw herself into the passenger seat as Griffin slammed the car into gear. The twin-turbo engine roared to life with a terrifying snarl. The Maybach launched forward, tearing out of the garage and bursting onto the rain-slicked streets of downtown Seattle just seconds behind the black SUV.
The storm outside had turned into a full-blown gale. Rain lashed against the windshield in torrential sheets, the streetlights flickering against the black pavement.
Griffin hit a button on his steering wheel, activating his encrypted comms unit. "Arthur! I want every traffic camera from 4th Avenue to the I-5 corridor patched into my display now! Shut down the Mercer family’s private airfield in Boeing Field!"
"On it, Mr. Drake!" Arthur’s voice boomed over the speakers. "GPS tracking shows the vehicle is heading north toward the industrial docks near Elliott Bay!"
Sloan gripped the dashboard, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. "Why would she do this?! She’s insane! She can't think she can get away with kidnapping!"
"She isn't trying to get away with it," Griffin said, his voice terrifyingly calm, his eyes locked onto the red taillights two hundred yards ahead. "Genevieve’s family lost everything this morning. She has nothing left to lose. She’s spiraling."
Griffin swerved hard, dodging a delivery truck, the Maybach’s tires gripping the wet asphalt perfectly. "She wants to hurt me, Sloan. She thinks if she takes the girls, she can force me to return her family’s assets."
"If she touches a single hair on their heads," Sloan choked out, tears of absolute fury rolling down her face, "I will kill her myself."
Griffin glanced at her, his jaw set in a hard, dangerous line. "She won't get the chance."
Ahead, the black SUV veered violently off the main road, smashing through a rusted chain-link fence into an abandoned shipping container yard near the docks. The heavy vehicle slid across the wet gravel before slamming to a halt beside an old, dilapidated warehouse overlooking the black, churning waters of the bay.
Griffin slammed on the brakes, bringing the Maybach to a controlled slide fifty feet behind them, blocking the only exit lane.
Before the car even fully stopped, Sloan ripped her door open and ran into the pouring rain.
"Sloan, stay behind me!" Griffin commanded, springing out of the driver’s side, his suit jacket instantly soaked.
The door of the black SUV opened. Genevieve stepped out into the pouring rain. Her hair was wild, plastered to her head, her evening dress ruined and covered in mud. She held a heavy iron tire iron in her hand, her eyes wide and unhinged.
"Stay back!" Genevieve shrieked over the roar of the wind and rain. "Stay back, Griffin, or I swear to God I’ll smash the windows!"
From inside the back seat of the SUV, small hands pounded against the tinted glass. Hazel’s terrified face appeared against the window, crying out for her mother.
"Mommy! Dad!"
Sloan’s chest shattered. She tried to rush forward, but Griffin caught her arm, pulling her firmly behind his back.
"Genevieve," Griffin said, stepping forward slowly, his hands held open at his sides. His voice was steady, commanding, echoing over the sound of the crashing waves against the dock pillars behind them. "Look at me."
"You ruined my life!" Genevieve screamed, her voice cracking with hysteria. "You took my family’s money! You made us laughingstocks! My father is in the hospital with a heart attack because of you!"
"Your father stole tens of millions from his own shareholders," Griffin said coldly, taking another step. "I didn't destroy you, Genevieve. Your family destroyed yourselves. But this? Kidnapping my daughters? This ends with you spending the rest of your life in a federal prison."
"I don't care!" she shrieked, raising the iron bar. "I have nothing left! Give me back the shares! Sign the Mercer Holdings transfer agreement, or I’ll drive this car right off the edge of the pier into the bay!"
Sloan gasped, terror paralyzing her. The pier dropped thirty feet into freezing, dark water with violent currents.
Griffin didn't flinch. He took another step, his green eyes locked onto hers with lethal intensity. "You think you have nothing left to lose? Let me tell you what happens if you hurt those children, Genevieve."
He stepped so close that the point of the iron bar was inches from his chest.
"I won't call the police," Griffin whispered, his voice dark, quiet, and far more terrifying than the storm around them. "I won't send my lawyers. I will use every dollar of my billions to dismantle every person you have ever known. I will make sure you, your family, and anyone who ever looked at you with kindness suffers until the day you die. You will not survive this night."
Genevieve stared at him, the utter, absolute truth of his words sinking into her warped mind. She looked into Griffin’s eyes and saw no mercy. No restraint. Only a father ready to tear the world apart.
Her hand began to tremble. The tire iron slipped from her numb fingers, clattering loudly against the wet gravel.
In that split second of hesitation, Griffin lunged forward, slamming Genevieve back against the SUV and pinning her arms behind her.
"Sloan! Get the girls!" Griffin roared.
Sloan sprinted forward, ripped open the back door of the SUV, and pulled Hazel and Iris out into her arms. The girls sobbed frantically, burying their faces into their mother’s neck as Sloan fell to her knees on the wet ground, holding them tight, kissing their hair, weeping uncontrollably.
"I've got you," Sloan sobbed, holding them like she would never let go. "I've got you, my babies are safe..."
Sirens wailed in the distance, blue and red lights cutting through the thick rain as half a dozen police cruisers and private security vehicles tore into the shipping yard.
Griffin held Genevieve pinned until the officers rushed in, slamming handcuffs onto her wrists and dragging the hysterical heiress away into the night.
Griffin turned around, his chest heaving, his dark hair soaked. He walked slowly over to where Sloan was kneeling in the mud with their daughters.
He dropped to his knees beside them.
Hazel looked up, her small, tear-streaked face pale, and reached out her arm. "Dad..."
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Griffin pulled all three of them into his arms, wrapping his large frame around his family, shielding them from the cold rain. He buried his face in Sloan’s hair, his shoulders shaking as silent tears mixed with the rain on his face.
For ten years, he had been a man with an empire, but tonight, holding them against his heart, Griffin Drake finally knew what it felt like to have everything.
