Chapter 5 - THE FIRST BREACH
Emily sprinted through the crimson-lit corridors, her bare feet silent against the plush carpet. Gunfire erupted outside, the thunderous roar of automatic rifles rattling the mansion’s reinforced double-glazed windows.
She burst into the twins’ suite. Lily and Grace were huddled together beneath the canopy bed, clutching their pillows in terror.
“Emily!” Lily cried out.
“Shh, both of you, quiet!” Emily whispered, pulling them out and ushering them into the adjoining master bathroom, where a concealed bookshelf slid open to reveal a reinforced steel panic room.
Just as she guided Grace inside, the suite’s double doors swung open with a violent crash.
Emily turned, shielding the entrance to the panic room with her body. Standing in the doorway was a tall man in tactical body armor, blood dripping from a gash on his forehead. It was Arthur Reed, Dominic’s traitorous head of security.
“Well, well,” Reed sneered, raising a silenced pistol. “The little good Samaritan from the diner. Step aside, girl. Volkov’s paying twenty million for the brats. You don’t have to die here.”
Emily’s eyes darted across the bathroom vanity. Beside the sink sat a heavy brass tray holding Dominic’s straight razor and an emergency medical kit.
“You betrayed a father who gave you everything,” Emily said, her voice shaking with controlled fury as she slowly backed toward the counter. “You let two seven-year-old girls freeze in a blizzard.”
“Business is business, sweetheart,” Reed said, stepping closer, his finger tightening on the trigger. “Now move!”
Emily didn't move away. Instead, she grabbed a high-pressure aerosol disinfectant spray from the vanity and fired it directly into Reed’s eyes while simultaneously swinging a heavy marble soap dispenser into his gun hand.
Reed roared in pain, dropping the pistol as the corrosive alcohol blinded him. He lunged forward blindly, his massive hands wrapping around Emily’s throat, slamming her against the marble wall. Emily gasped for air, spots dancing in her vision, but her fingers clawed at the emergency medical kit on the shelf, finding a pre-filled syringe of high-dose succinylcholine—a paralytic Dominic’s private medical staff kept for emergency intubations.
With the last ounce of her strength, Emily drove the needle straight into Reed’s carotid artery and depressed the plunger.
Reed’s eyes bulged. His grip went slack within three seconds as the neuromuscular blocker paralyzed his diaphragm. He collapsed heavily onto the floor, conscious but completely unable to move a single muscle.
The bedroom door kicked open again. Dominic stood there, shotgun smoking, flanked by four blood-spattered bodyguards.
May you like
He took in the scene: the paralyzed traitor on the floor, the crying girls safe inside the panic vault, and Emily standing over the threat, bruised, bleeding, and fierce as a lioness.
Dominic lowered his weapon, his chest heaving. “Miss Parker... remind me never to get on your bad side.”
