Chapter 10 - Shadows in the Dark
""Perimeter line breached,"" Jax’s voice crackled over the shortwave radio. ""They didn't send deputies. This is a private hit team. Four targets, night-vision optics, approaching the south terrace.""
Arthur pulled a concealed tactical pistol from a desk drawer. ""Clara, take Blair into the subterranean vault beneath the wine cellar. Lock the blast door from inside. Do not open it for anyone other than my voice.""
""Mr. Sterling, you can't stay up here alone,"" Clara urged, drawing her backup piece.
""I have lived fifty-two years, Clara,"" Arthur said calmly. ""My granddaughter has lived five. Go.""
Clara ran up the stairs to the master suite, scooping the terrified child into her arms just as the library’s floor-to-ceiling glass patio doors shattered under suppressed automatic fire.
Arthur ducked behind a heavy mahogany partners desk as high-velocity rounds tore through leather-bound volumes and antique plaster. He waited, counting the intervals between suppressed bursts.
One. Two. Three.
Arthur leaned out and fired twice into the darkness. A muffled grunt followed by the heavy thud of body armor hitting parquet signaled the first intruder was down.
Footsteps moved along the corridor above. They weren't after him—they were tracking the child's heat trail.
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Arthur bolted from cover, ignoring the shards of glass tearing through his shoes, racing toward the service stairs. He knew every blueprint of this estate; he had funded its renovation ten years ago.
On the second-floor landing, a masked operative leveled a submachine gun at Clara’s back as she sprinted toward the basement access door.
