Chapter 9 - THE ATTACK
“MOVE!”
Luis pulled his handgun.
Daniel grabbed Rosa.
“Take Ethan to the panic room.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You’re leaving for him.”
Another crash came from downstairs.
Claire screamed.
Daniel turned.
Two masked men were moving up the staircase.
Luis fired once.
The first man dropped behind the railing.
The second fired back.
A bullet ripped into the wall beside Daniel’s head.
“GO!”
Rosa ran.
Daniel dragged Claire behind a stone column.
She was shaking so hard she could barely stand.
“This is my mother,” she whispered.
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“She told me if you ever found the records, she’d fix it.”
“Fix it?”
Claire started crying.
“I didn’t know she meant this.”
Daniel stared at her.
“How many times are you going to say you didn’t know?”
Footsteps pounded upstairs.
Daniel grabbed the ledger.
Luis covered the hallway.
“Panic room. Now.”
They ran.
The panic room was hidden behind Daniel’s dressing room.
Rosa was already inside with Ethan.
Daniel pushed Claire in.
Luis entered last and locked the steel door.
Gunshots hit it seconds later.
Ethan cried.
Rosa rocked him.
Daniel opened the emergency phone.
Dead.
“No signal?” Claire asked.
“Jammer.”
Luis checked the security tablet.
“They cut the network.”
Daniel looked at the ledger.
“Then this is what they want.”
Claire stared.
“Give it to them.”
Everyone turned.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“Give them the book.”
Rosa’s eyes filled with disgust.
“So they can do this to another woman?”
Claire snapped.
“So we can survive!”
Daniel stared at his wife.
Then he understood.
Claire wasn’t evil in the same way Evelyn was.
That almost made it worse.
Claire was weak.
And weakness had allowed evil to move through her life without resistance.
Daniel opened a cabinet.
Emergency satellite phone.
Signal.
He dialed 911.
Before the call connected, Claire grabbed the ledger.
Daniel spun.
“What are you doing?”
She hit the emergency release.
The panic room door opened.
“No!”
Claire ran into the hallway with the book.
“Claire!”
Daniel chased her.
She reached the stairs.
The masked man pointed his gun.
Claire lifted the ledger.
“I have it!”
He lowered the weapon.
For one second, Daniel thought she had saved them.
Then the man said:
“Mrs. Cross said there can’t be witnesses.”
Claire’s face went blank.
“What?”
The gun rose again.
Daniel tackled her as the shot fired.
The bullet struck the chandelier chain.
Crystal crashed everywhere.
Luis fired.
The attacker dropped.
Claire lay beneath Daniel, frozen.
She whispered:
“My mother tried to kill me.”
Daniel looked toward the front doors.
May you like
A black sedan was pulling away.
And through the rear window, Evelyn Cross was watching them.
