Chapter 4 - THE FOOTSTEPS ON THE SECOND FLOOR
"Liam," I gasped.
My ex-husband's voice was coming from the end of the hall.
It sounded rougher than I remembered. More desperate.
"Maddie," Liam called out in the pitch black. "Tell the big bad boss to slide the key out the door. You and the kid can walk away."
Ellie whimpered, gripping my leg. She didn't even recognize her own father's voice.
Luca moved silently. He pressed his back against the wall next to the doorframe, signaling me to stay down.
"You think you're walking out of here, Liam?" Luca yelled back, his tone dangerously calm. "My men have the perimeter. You're a dead man."
"I disabled your backup generator," Liam laughed, though it sounded hysterical. "And I'm not alone. Vanessa was very helpful with the security codes."
I felt sick. Vanessa had truly sold us all out for a PR stunt.
Luca looked at me. Even in the dim moonlight filtering through the shattered window, I could see the fierce protection in his eyes.
He wasn't acting like a man using bait. He was acting like a man protecting his own.
He leaned close to my ear. "There's a service stairwell behind the closet in your room. It leads to the underground garage. Take Ellie. Run."
"What about you?" I whispered, my voice trembling.
"I finish what I started."
He handed me a heavy iron flashlight from his belt, then gently touched Ellie's hair.
"Be brave, sweetheart," Luca whispered.
Then he spun into the doorway and fired two warning shots down the hall.
The deafening CRACK made Ellie scream.
Return fire immediately splintered the doorframe, raining wood chips onto my hair.
"Go!" Luca roared over the gunfire.
I scooped Ellie into my arms. She was heavy, but adrenaline made her feel weightless.
I bolted into our tiny bedroom, shoved the sliding closet door aside, and pushed through the false panel at the back.
The service stairwell was freezing and smelled of dust.
I flicked on the flashlight. The beam cut through the darkness, illuminating steep concrete steps.
"Hold on tight, baby," I sobbed, practically flying down the stairs.
Gunfire echoed above us, muffled but terrifying.
I burst through the heavy fire door at the bottom, stumbling into the massive underground garage.
Rows of luxury cars sat in the dark.
I ran toward the security exit, praying Marco had unlocked it.
But as my flashlight swept across the concrete floor, the beam caught something that made me freeze.
A pair of men's dress shoes.
I slowly raised the light.
Standing between me and the exit was a man holding a suppressed pistol.
It wasn't Liam.
It was Marco. Luca's head of security.
He didn't look surprised to see me. He looked annoyed.
"I told Liam to keep Luca busy," Marco muttered, raising his gun toward me. "Looks like you're the one who found the way out."
I backed up, clutching Ellie so tight she gasped.
"Marco?" I breathed. "You're with him?"
"Liam promised me half the vault," Marco said coldly. "Two million is a lot of money to be someone's bodyguard forever."
He racked the slide of his pistol.
"Hand over the kid, Madison. Liam wants his insurance policy."
"No!" I screamed, turning to run back to the stairs.
But Marco was faster. He grabbed my hair, yanking me backward so violently I fell to my knees, dropping the flashlight.
It rolled across the floor, casting long, erratic shadows.
Ellie shrieked, hitting Marco's leg with her tiny fists. "Leave my mommy alone!"
Marco backhanded her. Not hard enough to break bone, but hard enough to send my seven-year-old sprawling to the concrete.
Something inside me snapped.
A primal, blinding rage I didn't know I possessed erupted in my chest.
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I didn't cower. I didn't beg.
I grabbed the heavy iron flashlight from the floor, lunged upward, and swung it with every ounce of strength I had left.
