Chapter 4 - THE BREACH AND THE SHIELD
The sound of heavy combat boots pacing across the antique hardwood floors of the grand foyer vibrated through the cellar ceiling. Alejandro locked the steel security door of the panic room from the inside, leaving only a digital feed monitor active. On the screen, three masked men moved through the living room like ghosts, flashlights sweeping across the furniture and checking the corners. One of them was holding a portable thermal scanner. Alejandro knew the panic room was shielded against thermal imaging, but it was only a matter of time before they found the hidden entrance behind the wine racks. He checked the desk drawer. Inside sat his old hunting rifle—a customized Remington bolt-action with a night-vision scope—along with three boxes of ammunition. He loaded the chamber with a slow, deliberate click. But his primary concern wasn't his own survival; it was the girls. Where had the men left Sofía and Lucía? Had they taken them back to the cabin, or were they locked in one of the guest rooms? He pulled up the external security camera feed on the monitor. The SUV was empty. The girls had been dragged out and locked inside the old horse stables fifty yards away from the main house. Rage, hot and blinding, surged through Alejandro’s veins. He wasn't just a grieving widower anymore. He was a father protecting his blood—or whatever connection these children held to his late wife. He keyed the manual emergency override on the panic room wall, popped the heavy hydraulic latch a fraction of an inch, and slipped out into the darkened wine cellar like a predator stepping into the night.
