Chapter 3 - The Safe Room
Dominic didn’t react for three full seconds.
Then he smashed the phone against the wall.
Marcus gasped.
Dominic looked at him.
“Sorry.”
My son studied him.
“You broke it.”
“Yes.”
“That was bad.”
Despite everything, one guard almost smiled.
Dominic didn’t.
“You’re right.”
Marcus nodded seriously.
“Mommy says when I break things, I say sorry.”
Dominic looked at me.
Then at the shattered phone.
“Sorry.”
Marcus seemed satisfied.
I wasn’t.
“Victor said all three of us die tonight,” I said. “I’m taking my son somewhere safe.”
Dominic pointed toward a steel door.
“That is somewhere safe.”
Leon punched in a code.
The door opened into a hidden room built like a bunker.
Food.
Water.
Medical supplies.
Weapons locked behind glass.
Screens connected to outside cameras.
“This room can survive a direct attack,” Dominic said.
“I don’t care what the room can survive. I care what happens when somebody who knows this house better than I do knows exactly where we are.”
Dominic looked at Leon.
“Does Victor know the code?”
Leon hesitated.
That hesitation answered the question.
Dominic swore.
“Change it.”
Leon started typing.
Marcus tugged my hand.
“Mommy, I’m hungry.”
My heart cracked a little.
He had no idea what was happening.
To him, this was still just a strange night in a big house.
I found crackers on a shelf and sat him in a corner.
Dominic watched him.
“You brought him here because you couldn’t find childcare?”
I stared at him.
“Is this really when you want to discuss my parenting?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He looked away.
“My mother used to clean houses.”
That stopped me.
Dominic Cray did not look like a man who had ever worried about rent.
“She brought me to work once,” he continued. “The owner caught me sleeping in a closet and fired her.”
“What happened?”
“We lost our apartment.”
For the first time, I saw something human behind his reputation.
Then Leon cursed.
“What?”
He pointed to a screen.
A black SUV had stopped near the south entrance.
Men in tactical gear climbed out.
Not ours.
Dominic stared.
“How many?”
“Eight outside. Maybe more.”
Another screen showed movement near the east gate.
Then the west.
We were surrounded.
“Police?” I asked.
Dominic gave me a look.
“No.”
“Why not call them?”
“Because half the men attacking this house have probably had dinner with cops.”
I hated that his answer made sense.
Leon opened a secure drawer.
Inside was a small scanner.
“Sir. The device.”
Dominic placed the black object on a tray.
Leon scanned it.
Numbers appeared.
Then a signal graph.
His expression changed.
“This isn’t just blocking your hearing.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“What is it?”
Leon stared at the screen.
“It was transmitting.”
My stomach dropped.
“Transmitting what?”
Leon looked at Dominic.
“Audio.”
Dominic went completely still.
“For how long?”
Leon checked.
“Battery chemistry… signal design…”
He swallowed.
“Years.”
Dominic stared at the tiny device.
Three years of deafness.
Three years of private meetings.
Three years of secrets.
And all that time, someone had been listening.
Leon’s computer beeped.
A new window appeared.
SIGNAL ACTIVE.
Dominic frowned.
“How can it still be active?”
Leon looked toward Marcus.
“It’s not coming from that device.”
My blood froze.
He lifted the scanner.
The signal grew stronger.
May you like
Closer.
He pointed it directly at my son’s backpack.
