Chapter 15 - The Hidden Arsenal
By 4:30 AM, the fire in the woodstove was roaring, but the cold inside my bones wouldn't thaw. Dante had boarded up the lower windowpanes with thick cedar planks, his hammer blows rhythmic and deafening in the dark house.
"We have to run, Dante," I said, pacing the small living room with Clara strapped to my front in a canvas carrier while Mateo slept in the laundry basket lined with fleece blankets. "We pack the truck, we head north into Canada. We have fake passports, don't we? You promised me we had an escape hatch!"
Dante set the hammer down on the counter. He wiped sweat and sawdust from his forehead, his dark eyes shadowed with exhaustion and grim resolve.
"Canada won't save us, Lena," he said softly, walking over to cup my cheek with his rough hand. "Vance has connections with the Royal Mounted Police through his international corporate ties. The moment our plates cross the border, an automated amber alert will trigger. They will pull us over at a checkpoint, take Mateo and Clara into custody, and hand them over to Eleanor within six hours."
"Then what do we do?!" I cried, my voice breaking. "We can't just hand our babies over to that woman! She will use Mateo like a financial token! She will poison his mind just like she poisoned yours!"
"I am not handing them over," Dante replied.
He turned toward the kitchen pantry. He moved the heavy sacks of flour and dried beans aside, reached into the back wall, and pressed three specific wooden knots in the cedar planking. A loud mechanical *click* echoed behind the drywall.
With a smooth pull, an entire four-foot section of the shelving swung inward, revealing a steel, temperature-controlled vault recessed into the stone foundation of the cabin.
I froze, staring into the dark opening. "What is that?"
"My contingency," Dante said quietly.
Inside the vault sat three black Pelican cases, a rack of satellite communication transceivers, and six stacks of untraceable Swiss bearer bonds, each wrapped in black polymer film. Dante reached inside and pulled out the largest Pelican case, snapping open the latches.
Inside lay two suppressed tactical pistols, boxes of hollow-point ammunition, and a sleek, military-grade encrypted laptop.
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"You told me you gave it all up," I said, a wave of betrayal washing over me, making my voice shake. "You told me you walked away from the violence, from the secrets!"
"I walked away from the greed, Lena," Dante said, looking straight into my eyes without flinching. "I walked away from the power. But I never walked away from being a father. A man who doesn't prepare to defend his home against his own demons is an idiot. My mother is a demon. I knew she would come eventually. I just didn't think she would use Julianna's grave as her weapon."
