Chapter 9 - SIEGE OF THE ESTATERed laser sights danced across the dark boardroom walls.
"Get down!" Alejandro yelled, flipping the heavy mahogany table onto its side to create an improvised barricade just as a hail of gunfire shattered the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Glass rained down like deadly hail. The board members screamed in terror, scrambling for the exits, but Lucas’s hired mercenaries blocked the main doors, firing indiscriminately to keep everyone trapped inside.
Alejandro shielded Emma beneath his body, using his own torso to protect her from flying shrapnel.
"Vargas!" Alejandro roared into his tactical comms earpiece. "Where is your team?"
Static answered him. Then, a cold voice came through the earpiece.
"Captain Vargas isn't coming, Mr. Moretti," the voice said with a chilling chuckle. "He took my payment two hours ago. The entire perimeter guard belongs to me now."
Alejandro’s heart sank. Vargas—the man he had trusted with his life for a decade—had sold him out.
"Breathe, Emma, stay low," Alejandro whispered into the terrified child's ear. "Do you trust me?"
Emma nodded frantically, her small hands clutching his collar. "I trust you, Uncle Alejandro."
Using the chaos and thick smoke filling the room, Alejandro fired three precise shots at the overhead chandelier supports. The massive crystal fixture snapped from the ceiling, plunging down onto the mercenary squad, crushing two of them and creating a momentary blind spot.
Alejandro grabbed Emma, vaulted over the shattered glass, and ducked into the private express elevator behind the boardroom. He slammed his palm against the manual override button just as bullets riddled the elevator doors.
The elevator plunged downward into the dark bowels of the mansion.
"Where are we going?" Emma gasped, her voice trembling.
"To the only place in this house they cannot reach easily," Alejandro said, re-loading his sidearm. "The old wine cellars. We hold out until help arrives."
The elevator doors opened onto the vast, stone-walled wine cellars deep beneath the estate. Cold air seeped through the ancient brickwork.
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Alejandro led Emma into the deepest vault, pulling the heavy steel door shut and locking the mechanical bolts from the inside.
They were safe for the moment, but they were trapped. Outside, the blizzard raged, cutting off all rescue efforts. Inside, a private army was hunting them down floor by floor.
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