Chapter 4 - The Unseen Hunter
"Marcus, get down!" Emma screamed, throwing open the heavy glass door without thinking.
She lunged forward, throwing her weight against his side just as a sharp, suppressed crack echoed through the rainy night air. A high-caliber round shattered the stone balustrade right where Marcus’s head had been a second earlier, sending sharp fragments of masonry raining over them.
Marcus reacted with terrifying speed. He caught Emma mid-fall, twisting his body to absorb the impact of the ground, shielding her entirely with his wide frame. "Down!" he commanded in a harsh growl. Within seconds, his private guards swarmed the perimeter, assault rifles raised, returning controlled bursts into the dense tree line at the edge of the property.
"Are you hit?" Marcus barked, his eyes scanning Emma’s face in the dark, hands quickly checking her arms and torso for injuries.
"I’m fine! I’m fine!" she gasped, her hands trembling against the front of his soaked shirt. "Who was that? Julian doesn't hire snipers!"
"Julian doesn't have the stomach for it," Marcus said grimly, pulling her to her feet and ushering her swiftly into the fortified interior of the manor. The heavy blast doors sealed shut behind them with a definitive thud. "That wasn't Julian's doing. That was someone far more dangerous."
Inside the grand library, the air was tense. One of Marcus’s lieutenants, an older scarred man named Carter, approached with a tablet in hand. "The shooter used a suppressed CheyTac M200, sir. Professional hit squad. They melted into the state forest before our drones could lock their thermal signatures. But we found their brass."
Carter held out a clear evidence bag containing an empty shell casing. Etched onto the side was an intricate serpent insignia. Emma looked at the engraving and gasped, covering her mouth with both hands.
"You know that mark?" Marcus asked, his gaze narrowing on her.
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"My mother..." Emma stammered, her voice shaking violently. "She had a silver lighter with that exact crest before she died in the boat accident ten years ago. She told me it was a family crest from an overseas investment house."
Marcus took the bag from Carter, his expression shifting from anger to dark, calculating intrigue. "That's not an investment house, Emma. That’s the insignia of the Lucian Syndicate. And your mother didn't drown by accident."
