THE ECHOES OF BLOOD AND MARBLE

Marcus didn't wait. Ignoring Victoria's frantic whimpers, he lunged across the glass-strewn foyer and sprinted toward the back service staircase. He took the steps three at a time, his breathing measured, adrenaline dulling the sting of his cuts.

On the second floor landing, smoke poured from beneath the double oak doors of the master suite. The air was thick with the bitter scent of cordite and burned composite.

Marcus rounded the corner with his weapon raised. Two private guards he had posted earlier were slumped against the wainscoting, incapacitated by flashbang burns.

The master bedroom door hung from its hinges, blown inward.

Marcus entered low, weapon extended, scanning the corners. The sprawling suite was in ruins. Antique draperies were scorched, and the floor was littered with drywall fragments.

Behind the heavy mahogany dresser in the walk-in closet, Elena was huddled on the floor, shielding Leo with her entire torso. She was coughing violently, tears streaming down her soot-streaked face.

""Marcus..."" Elena gasped, pointing toward the dressing room's hidden vanity door. ""He took it. He broke through the wall safe.""

Marcus knelt beside them. ""Leo, are you hurt?""

The boy shook his head, burying his face deeper into Elena's navy uniform. But his small hands were empty.

""He took Mommy’s red book,"" Leo sobbed quietly. ""The man with the gray eyes. He told me if I made a sound, he would throw Daddy off the balcony too.""

Marcus's jaw hardened into iron. Clarissa’s hidden safe behind the cedar vanity—a compartment only three people in the world had known about: Marcus, Clarissa, and her twin sister, Vivienne.

And Vivienne had supposedly died in a plane crash ten years ago.

Marcus stepped to the blown-out window leading to the adjoining balcony. Outside, descending down a tactical rope toward an idling black SUV, was a figure dressed in tactical black—clutching Clarissa’s red leather journal.

The figure reached the ground, looked directly up at Marcus, and pulled off the tactical balaclava.