Chapter 6 The Glass House

The quiet in the study was oppressive, punctuated only by the whir of the cooling fans from the server rack. Julian's smile was frozen, a jagged, porcelain mask that didn't reach his eyes.

"Julian, put the gun down," Luca said, his voice falling into a register that Aria had never heard before. It wasn't the voice of a businessman or even a rival, but the voice of a man standing on the edge of a cliff. "You don't know what you're doing."

"I know exactly what I'm doing, big brother," Julian said, his voice cheerful. He shifted his weight, the suppressed barrel of the pistol never leaving Aria's temple. "I'm finishing the merger. The real one. The one where the Hales disappear and the Veridians, the ones who actually have the stomach for this, take the throne."

Aria's heart was racing in her chest, but her mind was curiously clear. The Architect. Julian was too young, too rash to be the mastermind from twenty years ago. He was a grunt.

"You're working for him," Aria said, her voice steady despite her shaking. "The man who killed my mother. You're selling out your own blood to the man who murdered your father."

Julian's eyes flickered. He had a hit. "I'm working for the winning side, Aria. My father was weak. He spent his life chasing ghosts and 'honor.' The Architect offers results."

Luca made a move, shifting his weight to the left, just a fraction of an inch.

"Don't," Julian said, clicking the safety off. The sound was deafening in the small room. "One more inch, and Aria becomes a memory. Toss the drive, Luca. Now."

Luca picked up the USB drive, his eyes fixed intently on Julian. He glanced at Aria for a fraction of a second. Trust me, his eyes said.

He tossed the drive. But he didn't toss it to Julian. He threw it hard towards the floor-to-ceiling glass window overlooking the cliffs.

Julian's instincts took over. His eyes followed the trajectory of the drive.

In that one second, Luca made his move.

He didn't go for the gun. He tackled Aria, throwing her behind the desk, which was made of heavy mahogany. Julian fired. The bullet hit the crystal decanter on the shelf in the background. It exploded into a thousand pieces of glass that looked like diamonds scattered all over the carpet.

"Run!" Luca yelled.

He rushed forward, tackling Julian. They crashed to the carpet in a tangle of limbs and muted yells. Aria didn't wait to see what was going to happen. She ran toward the server. She didn't grab the drive. She grabbed the brass paperweight from the desk and smashed the main computer screen, then the CPU. If they wanted the information, they could dig through the wreckage to find it.

"Aria, run!" Luca yelled. He had Julian pinned to the carpet. Julian was younger and quicker. He brought his forehead into Luca's nose. The crunch of bone was like a scream in the room.

Aria looked at the door. She looked at Luca, blood pouring down his face, fighting to keep a traitor in check. She didn't make a dash for the exit.

She made a dash for the gun that had slid across the floor.

Her hands closed around the cold steel. She'd never fired a gun in her life, but as she stood, pointing it at the two men, her hand didn't tremble.

"Stop!" she shouted.

Both brothers froze. Luca was on top, his hands clamped around Julian's throat. Julian's hand was inches from a spare knife concealed in his boot.

"Aria, hand over the gun," Luca growled, his chest heaving with effort.

"No," she breathed, her eyes locked on Julian. "He knows where the Architect is. He'll talk."

Boots echoed from the hallway. Security. But whose?

Aria moved towards the broken window, the Atlantic wind whipping her hair into a frenzy. She glanced at Luca, the man she was supposed to hate, the man who was bleeding for her at the moment.

"The drive is only a decoy, Julian," Aria lied, her voice icy. "The actual information is already uploaded to a cloud server. Kill me, and it will go live to the SEC and Interpol in ten minutes."

Julian laughed, a wet, bloody sound. "You're bluffing."

"Try me," Aria said.

The door slammed open.