All Chapters of Double Thorns: The Ashford Inheritance: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

"Let them try," Victor growled, slamming a fresh magazine into his weapon. He looked at his brother—a long, searching look that seemed to bridge the years of silence and betrayal. "We move together. For the child. For him." Sebastian nodded, a grim, silent pact sealed in the middle of a war zone. He slid his arms under Adrian’s knees and back, lifting him with a strength that belied his lean frame. Adrian let out a muffled groan, his head falling against Sebastian’s shoulder. The scent of cold ozone and expensive wool enveloped him, a familiar comfort that now felt like a shroud. "Hold on, Adrian," Sebastian whispered into his ear. "The game isn't over yet." As they moved toward the door, a heavy thud echoed from the hallway. A flash-bang grenade detonated, filling the world with white light and a deafening roar. Adrian felt himself being lowered to the ground as the twins took positions on either side

The world was no longer composed of streets, buildings, or the cold Berlin sky. For Adrian Falk, the universe had shrunk to the narrow, pressurized cabin of a Gulfstream G650, vibrating with the low-frequency hum of twin engines pushing toward the limits of subsonic flight. He lay on a makeshift medical berth in the center of the cabin, the plush cream leather a stark contrast to the dark, blooming stains of his own blood. The internal hemorrhaging had been slowed, but the pain remained—a deep, rhythmic thudding in his pelvis that felt like a clock ticking down to an explosion. He was tethered to a bank of monitors that chirped with clinical indifference, his every heartbeat a data point for the two men who stood over him like rival gods presiding over a fallen angel.Adrian’s eyelids felt like lead. Through the haze of high-grade sedatives, he watched Sebastian. The London CEO had stripped off his soot-stained overcoat, his white dress shirt rolled up to his elbows, revealing forear

"We saved your life," Sebastian corrected. His fingers drifted to Adrian’s neck, pressing against the carotid artery to verify the mechanical readings on the screens. His gaze was terrifyingly soft, an intimate claim wrapped in a medical checkup. "The Syndicate was prepared to blow our plane out of the sky. We had to burn three different dummy companies in Frankfurt just to scramble the radar data." "They wouldn't have blown us up if you hadn't treated me like a prized cow at a state fair," Adrian hissed, pulling his hand away from Sebastian’s grip. The defiance drained him, leaving him lightheaded, his skin pale and slick with cold sweat.  Victor let out a dark, mocking laugh from the foot of the bed. "See? I told you, Sebastian. He doesn't want your fancy spreadsheets or your clean sheets. He wants his knife back." "What he needs is to remain alive long enough to carry our children to term," Sebastian

Above, a sudden, blinding flash engulfed the eastern turret as the estate’s defensive laser sliced through the Syndicate drone in a nanosecond burst of superheated metal.  The pressure in the room vanished. The sickening vibration that had been rattling Adrian's teeth suddenly ceased.  Victor kicked the hatch open, appearing back in the room, his tactical armor covered in ice. "They’re down. Three bodies cleared from the roof, two retreating toward the woods. But we've got more coming. That pulse triggered an extraction signal—a landing craft is moving into the valley." "They're not done," Adrian whispered, slumped against the mainframe bank. The blood drained from his face as he watched the monitor. "They sent the primary team. They’re going to breach the service tunnels." "Let them," Victor walked to the wall and opened a hidden vault that clicked into place with a

"We don't care about your family, doctor," Victor said, his voice dropping to a low, bloodthirsty growl. He stepped past the server stacks, his boots making no sound against the metal grating. "But I do care about people touching things that belong to me. Like those files. Like my spy."    "Wait!" Vogel screamed, his fingers tightening over a small manual trigger hidden in his lab coat pocket. "One button. I press it, and the localized thermal payload in the server core detonates. Every scrap of genetic research on the chimerism goes up in white phosphorus! You’ll never find another pathologist who can synthesize the hormone binders!"    Adrian leaned against the doorframe, his mind calculating the angles, the speed of the twins, and the micro-vibrations in Vogel’s thumb. He knew the type—Vogel wasn't a hero. He was a cowardly academic who had ove