Chapter 6 - THE PERSON ROMAN COULDN’T LOSE
Roman ran toward the stairs.
“Wait!”
He ignored me.
Titan didn’t.
The dog raced after him.
I followed because apparently survival had stopped being one of my priorities.
Another scream echoed from the second floor.
Roman shouted one name.
“ROSA!”
We reached the landing.
An older woman in a nightgown stood near the hallway, frozen.
A masked intruder had one arm around her neck.
Gun pressed against her side.
Roman stopped.
Everything inside him changed.
The billionaire disappeared.
The feared businessman disappeared.
What remained was a man staring at someone he loved.
“Let her go.”
The intruder laughed.
“Card.”
Roman raised his hands.
“You want the card, take me.”
“Not you.”
His gun shifted toward Rosa.
“The card.”
Titan lowered his body.
I caught the dog’s collar.
“Easy.”
Roman looked at me.
One tiny glance.
Then at Titan.
He understood.
“Where is it?” the intruder demanded.
I raised my voice.
“I have it.”
The masked man turned toward me.
That was the mistake.
Roman moved.
Titan moved faster.
The dog hit the attacker like a black freight train.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Rosa dropped.
Roman tackled the man.
I pulled Rosa away.
Two guards rushed in.
Within seconds, the attacker was pinned.
Roman knelt beside Rosa.
“Are you hurt?”
She touched his face.
“I’m fine, niño.”
Spanish.
Roman closed his eyes for half a second.
Rosa looked at me.
“You must be Nora.”
I blinked.
“How do you know?”
She smiled faintly.
“Titan has good taste.”
Even then, I laughed.
Roman didn’t.
He ripped the mask from the intruder.
Nobody recognized him.
But inside the man’s jacket, the guards found a Calder security badge.
Roman stared at it.
“This is internal.”
Rosa looked at Roman sadly.
“They know your house better than you do.”
That sentence stayed in the room.
The captured intruder refused to speak.
Until Titan walked closer.
Then his face changed.
Fear.
The dog sniffed him.
Suddenly Titan began barking at the man’s left pocket.
One guard searched it.
A syringe.
Clear liquid.
Roman’s physician examined it.
“Veterinary sedative.”
I looked at Titan.
“They came prepared for him.”
Roman looked at the man.
“You were going to drug my dog?”
The intruder smiled through a split lip.
“Again.”
Roman became still.
“Again?”
The man laughed.
“Ask Vale what happened in the garage.”
Roman leaned closer.
“Where is Vale?”
The attacker’s smile widened.
“You’re worried about the wrong man.”
Roman’s face sharpened.
“Who should I be worried about?”
The intruder looked directly toward the ceiling cameras.
Then he whispered two words.
“Your family.”
Before anyone could ask more, smoke began pouring beneath the library door downstairs.
Luca shouted.
“FIRE!”
We ran.
By the time we reached the library, flames were climbing one wall.
The computers containing Owen’s files were already burning.
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Someone hadn’t broken into Roman’s house to steal the evidence.
They had come to erase it.
