Chapter 4 - THE DARKNESS IN THE HALLWAY
The sudden, absolute darkness plunged the room into chaos.
Someone had cut the estate’s main breaker.
“Don't shoot!” Paul yelled to his men. “You'll hit Caroline!”
In the pitch black, Luca didn't hesitate.
He knew every inch of his study.
He dropped to the floor, swept his leg out, and caught Paul behind the knees.
The heavy man crashed to the carpet with a grunt.
Marco, still holding Caroline, shoved her hard into the bookcase, knocking her unconscious, before drawing his own weapon.
“Emily!” Luca shouted over the noise. “The secret door behind the fireplace! Go!”
Emily was already moving.
She clutched Sophie tightly to her chest, feeling her way along the cold stone of the fireplace.
Her fingers found the hidden latch Luca had once shown Sophie during a game of hide-and-seek.
She pressed it.
The heavy panel clicked and swung inward.
Emily slipped inside with the little girl, pulling the door shut just as gunfire erupted in the study.
The secret passage was narrow, smelling of dust and old wood.
It led down a spiral staircase to the old servant tunnels beneath the mansion.
Sophie was crying silently, her tiny hands gripping Emily’s apron.
“It's okay, sweetheart,” Emily whispered, kissing her hair. “I’ve got you. We’re going to be safe.”
Emily fumbled in her pocket and pulled out her small cell phone.
She turned on the flashlight app, casting a dim, shaky beam down the stone stairs.
They hurried downward, the muffled sounds of the fight echoing above them.
They reached the bottom of the stairs.
The tunnel branched in two directions.
One led to the wine cellar.
The other led to the old carriage house outside the estate walls.
“Which way, Miss Emily?” Sophie whispered.
Emily looked at the dirt floor.
Then she noticed something glinting in the beam of her phone light.
She knelt down.
It was a heavy silver pocket watch.
It was identical to the ones Luca gave to his high-ranking captains.
Emily picked it up.
The metal was warm.
Someone had just dropped it.
Someone had been waiting in the tunnels.
Before Emily could turn around, a heavy hand clamped over her mouth.
The phone fell to the dirt, the light spinning wildly.
Another pair of hands grabbed Sophie.
The little girl screamed, but it was quickly muffled.
Emily fought with everything she had.
She kicked, scratched, and threw her elbows back, but the man holding her was massive.
He dragged her backward into the darkness.
“Stop fighting, maid,” a gruff voice whispered in her ear. “Or I'll break your neck.”
It wasn't Paul.
It wasn't one of the mercenaries from upstairs.
Emily recognized the voice immediately.
It was Thomas, the estate’s head chef.
Thomas had worked for the Moretti family for fifteen years.
He baked Sophie’s birthday cakes.
He always saved Emily a plate of dinner when she worked late.
“Thomas?” Emily choked out as he loosened his grip slightly. “What are you doing?”
The chef stepped into the dim light of the fallen phone.
He didn't look angry. He looked terrified.
“I’m sorry, Emily. Paul has my wife. He told me if I didn't wait in the tunnel and grab the girl, he would kill her.”
The other man—one of Paul’s mercenaries—held a struggling Sophie by the arm.
“Bring the maid too,” the mercenary ordered. “Paul wants her dead for hitting his guy.”
Thomas looked at Emily.
His eyes were filled with absolute guilt.
“I have to, Emily. I’m so sorry.”
He reached into his chef’s coat and pulled out a roll of duct tape.
“No, please,” Emily begged, not for herself, but looking at Sophie. “Thomas, she’s a little girl. You baked her cakes. You know her.”
“I know my wife,” Thomas said, his voice breaking.
He grabbed Emily’s wrists and quickly bound them together.
Then he taped her mouth.
The mercenary did the same to Sophie, ignoring the child’s tears.
“Let's go,” the mercenary said. “The van is at the carriage house.”
They dragged Emily and Sophie through the dark, damp tunnel.
Emily’s heart hammered against her ribs.
If they got to the van, it was over.
Luca was trapped upstairs, probably thinking they were safe in the panic room.
Nobody knew they had been taken.
They reached the heavy wooden door of the carriage house.
Thomas pushed it open.
The cold night air rushed in, mixing with the freezing rain.
A black cargo van was idling in the dark driveway, its headlights off.
The mercenary slid the side door open.
“Get them in.”
Thomas lifted Sophie.
The little girl kicked wildly, but she was too small.
He set her on the metal floor of the van.
Then he turned to Emily.
Emily looked at him.
She couldn't speak, but her eyes screamed at him.
She deliberately let herself fall limp, dropping to the wet gravel.
“Get up!” the mercenary hissed, kicking her side.
Emily curled into a ball.
Thomas reached down to pull her up.
As his face came close to hers, Emily did the only thing she could.
She brought her bound hands up and shoved the heavy silver pocket watch she had found directly into Thomas’s coat pocket.
He didn't notice in the struggle.
They threw her into the back of the van alongside Sophie.
The heavy door slammed shut, plunging them into total darkness.
The van sped away into the night.
Ten minutes later, the fighting in the study ended.
Luca had neutralized Paul’s men.
Paul was bleeding on the floor, Marco standing over him with a gun to his head.
Luca sprinted to the fireplace and tore open the secret door.
“Emily! Sophie!”
He ran down the spiral stairs, his flashlight piercing the gloom.
He reached the bottom.
The tunnel was empty.
But lying in the dirt, abandoned, was Sophie’s stuffed rabbit.
Luca dropped to his knees.
He picked up the rabbit, his hands shaking violently.
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He let out a roar of absolute agony that echoed through the stone walls.
TITLE: THE TICKING SILVER WATCH
