At one in the morning, Ferris Street Coffee held nothing but Marin and the fading hum of the espresso machine cooling down.

Word count target: ~1,500 words

The main lobby of Marlo Ridge shattered in a wave of glass and gunfire as Arthur Bennett stepped through the entrance.

He was sixty years old, wearing an expensive tailored grey overcoat, silver hair impeccably styled despite the blizzard outside. He didn't carry a weapon. Behind him walked four heavily armed mercenaries carrying assault rifles, sweeping the lobby with tactical lights.

"Find them," Bennett said quietly, adjusting his leather gloves. "Kill Vance. Bring me the girl and the boy."

In Room 114, Marin was frantically helping Julian disconnect the secondary monitoring leads from Leo's bed while keeping the primary life-support battery active on a portable gurney.

"We have two minutes before they secure the stairwells," Julian said, his voice clipped and precise. "Marin, take the portable ventilator. Keep your hand on the manual pump if the battery flickers."

"What about you?" she asked, watching him strap three smoke grenades to his chest harness.

"I'm going to make sure Arthur Bennett doesn't leave this building alive," Julian said grimly.

"Julian, no!" Marin grabbed his sleeve, pulling him around to face her. "He has an army down there! You said we were leaving!"

"If Bennett lives, Marin, he will spend the rest of his life and his fortune hunting us," Julian said, laying his hand over hers. "Switzerland, South America, it doesn't matter. Men like Bennett don't stop until they're in the ground. I started this war six years ago in Chicago. I have to finish it tonight."

"You promised me we were doing this together!" she cried out.

Julian looked down at her, his thumb gently tracing the line of her jaw. "And I meant it. Take Leo up the east service elevator to the roof. The pilot—a man named Vance—is already at the helipad with the engines running. If I'm not on that roof in three minutes, tell him to lift off."

"I'm not leaving without you!"

"You have to," Julian whispered, bending down and pressing his lips to hers—a brief, desperate, searing kiss that carried three years of unspoken grief, love, and longing. "Save your brother, Marin. Let me save you."

Before she could answer, Julian turned, unlocked the door, and stepped out into the smoke-filled corridor, firing three fast rounds down the hallway to draw the mercenaries' attention away from the east wing.

"Over here, Bennett!" Julian’s voice echoed through the building. "Come get your twelve million!"

Automatic gunfire erupted down the corridor, plaster dust explosion from the walls.

Marin bit her lip until she tasted blood. She grabbed the handles of Leo's gurney, pushed her shoulder against the heavy double doors, and burst out into the east service corridor, wheeling her brother toward the elevator.

The elevator doors opened instantly. She shoved the gurney inside, slapped the button for the ROOF / HELIPAD, and pulled the emergency manual key from the wall control box, locking the elevator doors from the inside so no one could call it back down.

The elevator hummed as it began its slow ascent.

Below her, through the shaft, she heard the muffled, terrifying sound of grenades detonating and continuous gunfire tearing through the luxury medical facility.

"Hold on, Julian," Marin whispered, tears streaming down her face as she squeezed Leo's cold hand. "Please... hold on."

The elevator jolted to a stop at the roof level. The doors slid open to reveal the freezing rooftop, the night sky screaming with wind and snow.

Fifty feet away, a sleek, twin-engine black medical helicopter was idling on the helipad, its rotor blades whipping the falling snow into a blinding white tornado.

A man in a flight suit ran out from the cabin toward her. "Marin?! Where's Vance?!"

"He's downstairs!" Marin yelled over the deafening roar of the rotors. "Help me load Leo!"

Together, they wheeled the gurney across the slick helipad, lifting Leo into the warm, illuminated medical bay of the aircraft. The pilot strapped the gurney into the floor mounts, connecting the onboard medical power grid.

"He's secure!" the pilot shouted. "We have to go! The storm is blowing in hard!"

Marin stood at the open side door of the helicopter, looking back at the stairwell door on the roof.

Ten seconds passed. Twenty. Thirty.

Nothing moved except the swirling snow.

"Marin, jump in!" the pilot urged, getting into the cockpit. "I have orders from Vance! If he isn't here, we lift off!"