Chapter 2 - BENEATH THE LIBRARY

The first floorboard came up at 11:43 p.m.

Underneath it was concrete.

Ronan frowned.

“That shouldn’t be here.”

Adrian stared into the opening.

“Why?”

“The original plans show a crawlspace below this room.”

Adrian looked toward him.

“How deep?”

“Almost eight feet.”

Another board was removed.

Then another.

A rectangular concrete slab appeared beneath them.

Steel hinges had been installed along one side.

Adrian’s expression darkened.

It was not construction.

It was a door.

Someone had hidden it beneath the library floor.

Lily stood near the wall wrapped in one of Adrian’s coats.

She watched without blinking.

Evelyn had been escorted upstairs.

Adrian had ordered two guards outside her room.

She had protested loudly.

He had ignored every word.

Ronan wedged a steel bar beneath the slab.

Two guards helped.

The door groaned.

Cold air escaped from below.

Then came a smell Adrian recognized instantly.

Blood.

“Lily.”

The child looked at him.

“Go with Maria.”

“No.”

“Lily.”

“I want Mommy.”

Adrian crossed the room.

He crouched in front of her.

“You will see her.”

“But first I need to make sure it’s safe.”

Lily’s eyes filled with tears.

“What if she’s dead?”

The question hit harder than Adrian expected.

He had delivered death sentences without hesitation.

He had watched enemies collapse.

He had buried men he loved.

But nothing prepared him for the terror in a five-year-old child’s voice.

“She knocked.”

Adrian kept his voice steady.

“That means she’s fighting.”

Lily stared at him.

“Promise?”

Adrian almost never made promises.

Especially not promises involving life and death.

But he held out his hand.

“I promise I’ll bring you to her.”

Lily slowly placed her hand in his.

Then Maria, one of the kitchen staff, led her away.

Adrian returned to the opening.

Ronan switched on a flashlight.

Stone steps descended beneath the library.

There were no stairs on any architectural plan Adrian had ever seen.

“Stay behind me,” Ronan said.

Adrian gave him a flat look.

Ronan sighed.

“I had to try.”

They descended.

The underground chamber was older than the house above it.

Stone walls.

Low ceiling.

Iron pipes.

A narrow electrical line had been added recently.

At the bottom they found a corridor.

One door stood at the far end.

Adrian moved toward it.

There were scratches around the handle.

Deep scratches.

Someone had tried desperately to get out.

Ronan drew his weapon.

Adrian pushed the door open.

A woman lay inside.

Curled on the stone floor.

Barely conscious.

Her wrists had been tied.

One ankle was chained to an iron pipe.

Adrian stopped breathing.

“Anna.”

Her eyelids fluttered.

Ronan rushed forward.

“Call the doctor.”

Adrian was already kneeling beside her.

Anna looked thinner than she had four days earlier.

Her lips were cracked.

A bruise covered one side of her face.

Her uniform was stained with dirt and dried blood.

“Anna.”

He touched her shoulder.

She flinched.

Then she recognized him.

“Mr. Blackwood.”

Her voice was almost nonexistent.

“You’re safe.”

“No.”

Her eyes widened.

“No.”

She grabbed his wrist.

“They’re still here.”

“Who?”

Anna stared toward the doorway.

Her entire body began trembling.

“You can’t trust anyone.”

Ronan froze.

Adrian’s gaze sharpened.

“Who did this?”

Anna tried to speak.

Her voice failed.

Adrian leaned closer.

“Anna.”

“Julian.”

Everything stopped.

Adrian stared at her.

“Julian Mercer?”

Anna nodded weakly.

Then she whispered another name.

“Victoria.”

Adrian felt something inside him turn to ice.

Victoria Shaw.

His fiancée.

The woman sleeping in his Manhattan penthouse three nights earlier.

The woman who had kissed him before leaving for Paris.

The woman he was supposed to marry in thirty-nine days.

Anna squeezed his wrist.

“They know.”

“Know what?”

“The tunnels.”

Adrian frowned.

“What tunnels?”

Anna looked terrified.

“The ones under your house.”

A faint sound came from somewhere behind the stone wall.

Click.

Ronan turned.

“What was that?”

Then the lights went out.

Complete darkness swallowed the underground chamber.

Ronan raised his weapon.

“Movement!”

Adrian heard metal scrape.

A door slammed somewhere behind them.

Then footsteps ran through the darkness.

Not one person.

Several.

Ronan shouted into his radio.

“Breach underground!”

No response.

Static.

Adrian reached for Anna.

“Stay down.”

A gunshot exploded through the corridor.

Stone shattered beside his head.

Ronan fired back.

The muzzle flash illuminated the tunnel for half a second.

Adrian saw a shadow.

Black clothing.

Covered face.

Then another shot.

Someone upstairs screamed.

And Adrian suddenly understood.

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