Chapter 4 - THE GLASS CAGE
Marcus sneered, keeping the weapon leveled at her. "The police won't arrest the man who just stopped a deranged nanny from destroying her employer's servers." He had the narrative entirely prepared. It was a flawless frame job. Elena was meant to take the fall for both the stroller incident and the corporate espionage. But Marcus didn't know about Olivia. Downstairs, the blue and red flashing lights of police cruisers began to paint the front windows in frantic colors. Marcus cursed under his breath, his eyes darting toward the window. That split second of distraction was all Elena needed. She hurled the heavy brass poker not at Marcus, but directly at the reinforced glass of the balcony door. The impact shattered the pane into a thousand glittering web-lines. The sudden, deafening crack of the glass triggered the estate's secondary acoustic alarm, flooding the house with a blinding strobe light and a piercing siren. Marcus stumbled back, his hands instinctively coming up to shield his eyes. Elena lunged forward, tackling him around the waist. The two of them crashed onto the expensive Persian rug, the suppressed pistol sliding across the floor and disappearing beneath a leather sofa. Marcus struck her hard across the jaw, but Elena absorbed the pain, driving her knee into his ribs. She fought with the desperate ferocity of someone who had nothing left to lose. Before Marcus could recover, the study door burst open. Adrian stood there, no longer holding his daughter, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. He didn't hesitate. He crossed the room in two strides, grabbed Marcus by the collar of his tactical jacket, and drove his fist into the man's face.
