Chapter 7 - The Confrontation
Gideon didn't flinch. He didn't lower the gun. “There is no business left, Silas. You broke the one rule this family had. You touched my wife. You tried to kill my daughter.”
Silas’s face darkened, the smugness fading. “That woman was a cancer! She was going to destroy everything your father and I built. She wanted to expose the harbor operations. She wanted to turn the Mercer name into a joke in a federal courtroom!”
“She wanted to stop you from selling children, you old bastard!” Gideon roared.
“It was profitable!” Silas shouted back, his cane slamming against the concrete floor. “Your father knew about it. He approved it. You became soft when you married that girl. You started talking about 'legitimate business.' We are mafia, Gideon! We live in the dark!”
“Then die in it,” Gideon said.
Before Silas could react, Gideon didn't shoot him in the head. He shot him in the right knee.
Silas screamed, collapsing to the floor, his cane clattering away. He clutched his shattered knee, his face contorted in agony.
Gideon walked over, stepping heavily onto the old man’s wounded leg. Silas howled in pain.
“The code, Silas,” Gideon whispered, bending down so close their faces almost touched. “Give me the code, or I will shoot the other knee. Then your elbows. Then I’ll leave you here to bleed out while I blast this door open with C4.”
Silas gasped for air, tears of pain rolling down his wrinkled cheeks. He looked into Gideon’s eyes and realized there was no mercy left in the man before him. Gideon would do exactly what he promised.
“0-8-1-4,” Silas choked out. “The day... the day your father died.”
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Gideon stood up, stepping over the groaning old man. He punched the numbers into the digital keypad on the steel door. A heavy, hydraulic hiss echoed through the corridor as the massive bolts slid back.
The door swung open.
