Chapter 6 - THE BLACK-TIE BETRAYAL
A sudden, deafening alarm shattered the tension. Liam, waking up to the danger, had reached blindly behind the sofa and smashed his small fist against the panic button wired into the baseboard—a feature Alexander had installed specifically for the boy's safety years ago. Red strobe lights bathed the room in a bloody hue. The sudden noise startled Vanessa. Her finger flinched on the trigger. A silenced phut echoed, and the bullet embedded itself in the antique mirror behind them, raining glass down on the carpet. Alexander didn't hesitate. He lunged, tackling Vanessa to the floor. The gun clattered away into the darkness of the hallway. "Run!" Alexander roared over his shoulder. Elena hoisted Liam into her arms with a strength she didn't know she possessed. She remembered the layout of this house. The hidden service corridors built into the 19th-century architecture. She bolted toward the master closet, sliding the heavy mahogany paneling aside to reveal the narrow, unlit passage used by the original staff. She pushed Liam inside and squeezed in after him, plunging them into pitch blackness just as she heard the heavy boots of Marcus's mercenary guards storming the second floor.
