Chapter 6 - The Federal Iron
Right on cue, heavy, metallic footsteps echoed from the portico outside the ballroom’s double doors.
Four men in dark navy suits, wearing yellow bulletproof vests marked U.S. MARSHAL, stepped into the grand ballroom. Their hands rested on their holstered sidearms, their faces severe and unyielding.
Behind them stood the Chief of Police, carrying a thick stack of official arrest warrants stamped with red ink.
"Julian Vance," the lead Marshal announced, his voice booming through the silent hall. "You are under arrest for federal conspiracy, kidnapping, grand larceny, and corporate fraud. Do not attempt to move."
Two officers stepped forward, pulling heavy steel handcuffs from their utility belts.
Julian looked around the room frantically. He looked at his wealthy friends, his business partners, his society peers. Every single one of them stepped back, turning their faces away, disgusted by the sight of the blood-stained, disgraced heir.
The officers grabbed Julian by his arms, hauling him up from the floor. He winced in agony as the cold steel cuffs clicked tightly around his wrists behind his back.
"James!" Julian shrieked, his voice choked with rage as he was dragged past the couple. "You think you won?! You're a grease-monkey mechanic from the docks! You'll never hold this estate! The board will crush you!"
James stepped directly into Julian’s path, forcing the two Marshals to pause for a second.
James leaned down, his dark eyes looking straight into Julian’s trembling, blood-soaked face. His voice was a quiet, lethal rumble that only Julian could hear.
"I didn't come for the estate, Julian," James murmured. "I came for my wife and my daughter. You can keep the brick walls. You're going to spend the next thirty years in a concrete box where the lights never turn off."
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Julian opened his mouth to spit at James’s face, but one of the Marshals slammed his shoulder forward, marching him violently out through the grand mahogany doors into the bright, blinding sunlight outside.
The heavy doors swung shut behind them with a deep, echoing BOOM.
