Chapter 6 - The Night the Mansion Fell Silent
Adrian pushed me behind the heavy library desk.
“Stay down.”
Thomas crouched beside me.
Boots thundered through the corridor. Glass shattered. Someone shouted for the security team to fall back.
I clutched my stomach.
The baby moved.
“It's okay,” I whispered, though I was terrified.
Adrian disappeared through the doorway.
For several minutes, the sounds of fighting filled the house. Then came silence.
Too much silence.
Thomas crawled toward the wall and found an emergency light.
Its dim glow revealed a narrow service door behind the bookshelves.
“Dad showed me something like this once,” he whispered.
“Where does it go?”
“An old maintenance passage.”
He helped me through the doorway just as footsteps approached the library.
We moved slowly through the dark corridor. My ribs screamed with every step, but I kept going.
At the end was a small room containing a telephone, emergency supplies, and a steel door.
Thomas opened it.
Beyond lay a tunnel leading toward the estate's detached garage.
We emerged into the freezing night.
A black SUV waited beneath the trees.
The driver was Dr. Bennett.
“Get in,” she ordered. “Adrian sent me.”
“Where is he?”
“Still inside.”
I tried to turn back.
Thomas caught my arm.
“Emily, if we go back now, we accomplish nothing.”
I hated him for saying it.
I hated Adrian for making me feel safe enough to worry about him.
And I hated myself because, despite everything, I was already afraid of losing the man who had rescued me.
The SUV sped toward Denver.
Dr. Bennett explained that the attackers had used a stolen security code. Someone inside the organization had betrayed Adrian.
“Who?” I asked.
“That's what he needs to find out.”
We reached a safe apartment shortly before dawn.
An hour later, Adrian walked through the door.
His coat was torn, and a thin line of blood ran along his temple.
I stood before I could stop myself.
“Are you hurt?”
“Nothing serious.”
“You could have died.”
“So could you.”
“That doesn't mean you should act like you're invincible.”
For the first time, something resembling a smile touched his face.
“You sound like my sister.”
“Maybe your sister is right.”
His smile vanished.
He looked down at my hands, which were still trembling.
Then he said quietly, “I thought I had lost you once before I ever found you.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
He took a slow breath.
“Your father saved my life when I was seventeen. Victor's men had cornered me after I discovered what my uncle was doing. Your father got me out.”
I remembered the photograph.
My father standing beside a younger Adrian.
“You were there that night?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't know whether the man who killed your father was still watching you. I couldn't risk bringing you into this until I had enough evidence.”
He looked at me with an intensity that made my heart ache.
“Your father asked me to protect you and Thomas if anything happened to him. I failed to save him. I wasn't going to fail you too.”
I had spent eleven years alone with my grief.
Now I understood why this dangerous stranger had recognized me on that mountain.
May you like
He hadn't found me by chance.
He had finally found the daughter of the man who saved his life.
