Chapter 2 - Darkness
The mansion disappeared into blackness.
Someone screamed in the ballroom.
Glass shattered.
Marcus grabbed my dress.
“Mommy!”
“I’ve got you.”
I dropped to my knees and pulled him against my chest.
“Stay quiet.”
Heavy footsteps thundered in the hallway.
Dominic shouted, “Nobody moves!”
A gunshot exploded somewhere downstairs.
Marcus jumped.
My whole body went cold.
Another shot.
Then another.
Dominic swore.
Emergency lights flickered on, painting the conservatory in dim red.
Victor was gone.
“Where is he?” Dominic snapped.
One of the guards checked the doorway.
“Sir, he disappeared when the power dropped.”
“Find him.”
Dominic turned toward me.
His face was different now.
The tired man from ten minutes earlier was gone.
This was the man people feared.
“You and the boy stay with me.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
I surprised myself by saying it again.
“No. Marcus is going home.”
“You leave this house right now, you won’t make it to the front gate.”
The words hit me like ice water.
Marcus looked up.
“Why?”
Dominic’s expression softened slightly.
He crouched until he was eye level with my son.
“Because there are bad people outside.”
Marcus frowned.
“Mr. Victor?”
Dominic looked at me.
Smart kid.
Too smart.
Dominic stood.
“Come.”
We moved through a narrow hallway behind the conservatory.
Two guards surrounded us.
Dominic kept touching his ear, almost like he didn’t trust the sounds entering it.
“How long?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“How long what?”
“How long had your ear hurt?”
His jaw tightened.
“Three years.”
“You never let doctors examine it?”
“They did.”
“And?”
“They saw inflammation. Scar tissue. Nerve damage.”
I glanced at the device.
“So how did nobody see that?”
Dominic’s face darkened.
“That’s what I intend to find out.”
We reached a security room.
Monitors covered the walls.
Several screens were dead.
A guard named Leon punched commands into a computer.
“Power was cut from inside,” he said.
“Cameras?” Dominic asked.
“Half the system is down.”
“Victor?”
Leon searched footage.
Then he stopped.
“There.”
A grainy screen showed Victor entering a staff corridor.
He wasn’t alone.
Three armed men followed him.
My stomach twisted.
Dominic stared at the screen.
“Who are they?”
Leon zoomed in.
His expression changed.
“Those are our guys.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Our guys?”
“East gate security.”
Dominic said nothing.
He didn’t have to.
The betrayal was bigger than Victor.
Much bigger.
A phone on the desk suddenly rang.
Everyone froze.
Dominic stared at it.
After three years without hearing a phone ring, the sound seemed almost unreal to him.
Leon reached for it.
Dominic stopped him.
“I’ll take it.”
He pressed the speaker button.
Victor’s voice filled the room.
“You should have stayed deaf, Dominic.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“You put this thing in my ear.”
Victor laughed softly.
“You think this started with your ear?”
Dominic leaned toward the phone.
“What does that mean?”
“It means the boy didn’t save you.”
A pause.
May you like
“He just made sure all three of you die tonight.”
The line went dead.
