CRIMSON DEBTS Chapter 32
Chapter 32: The Shepherd’s Trap
The Call from the Grave
The burner phone on the cabin’s wooden table vibrated with a violent hum. Kaelen was mid-sentence, mapping out a route to the border, when he froze. He didn't recognize the number, but he recognized the rhythm of the vibration—it felt like a cold, rhythmic heartbeat.
He answered. He didn't say hello.
"The cabin is drafty, Kaelen," Silas’s voice came through, sounding as smooth as aged whiskey. "I hope the salt air isn't ruining Julian's lungs. Or his hands. He’ll need them for what comes next."
Kaelen’s grip on the phone tightened until the plastic groaned. Julian, sensing the shift, stood up from the bed, his face turning ghost-white.
"If you've sent men, they’ll die before they hit the porch," Kaelen hissed.
"I didn't send them to the coast, Kaelen.
I sent them to the suburbs," Silas replied. In the background, Kaelen heard a muffled, wet cough—a sound he knew. It was the sound of Julian’s father, Mr. Vane.
"Your guest is currently in my conservatory. He’s admiring the orchids.
He seems... fragile. The weight of his debt has clearly taken a toll. "
The Ransom
Julian let out a small, choked sound.
He lunged for the phone, but Kaelen held him back with one arm, his eyes locked on the wall.
Julian knew that cough. It was the sound of the man who had raised him, the man who had tried to provide for him until the Thorne Syndicate swallowed their lives whole.
"He has nothing to do with this," Kaelen growled. "The debt was transferred to Julian. You agreed to let the older man be."
"The debt was for money, Kaelen. This is about blood," Silas’s voice dropped an octave, becoming a lethal blade. "You threw my name in the dirt. You ripped the crest off your chest. For that, someone has to pay. I will give you a choice, because I am a fair man."
"There is no choice with you, Silas."
"Oh, but there is. Bring me the painter. Bring me Julian Thorne within six hours. If you do, I will let his father walk out of this house with his lungs intact and his debt finally, truly cleared. If you don't..."
A sharp, agonized cry from Mr. Vane echoed through the line. Julian collapsed against Kaelen, his hands over his ears, sobbing silently.
"...then I will show Julian exactly what happens to a man who fails to pay a Thorne. I’ll make him watch his father’s end, and then I’ll come for both of you."
The line went dead.
The Impossible Choice
The silence in the cabin was heavier than the darkness had ever been. Kaelen looked down at Julian, who was shaking so hard he could barely stand.
Julian looked up, his eyes glassy with tears and terror. "He'll kill him, Kaelen. My father... he's all I have left. He didn't choose this life; he just couldn't find a way out. Silas will tear him apart just to prove he can."
Kaelen grabbed Julian’s shoulders, his thumbs digging into the leather of the jacket. "It’s a trap, Julian! If I take you back there, you never leave. He’ll lock you in that basement and make you a weapon until there’s nothing left of the man I love."
"And if we don't go?" Julian screamed, his voice breaking. "How do I live knowing I let my father die so I could be 'free' with you? Every time you touch me, I’ll see his face! You’re asking me to choose between my soul and my father's life!"
Kaelen’s jaw set. The "Enforcer" was gone; there was only a man who had just realized that his father had found the one way to make him a captive again.
"I'm not taking you back to that house to surrender," Kaelen whispered, his eyes burning with a dark, terrifying light. "If we go, we aren't going as a debt and a collector. We’re going as a storm. We’re going to get your father, and I’m going to end the Thorne legacy once and for all."
"How?" Julian asked, wiping a tear away with a sleeve stained with the dust of their flight.
Kaelen reached into the duffel bag and pulled out a handgun, checking the slide with a metallic clack. "You said we fight. Well, Julian... the fight just moved into my father's living room. We’re going to walk through the front door. And God help anyone who tries to stop us."