Chapter 3 - The Man at the Door
“Put the child down,” Dax ordered.
Anika held Maisie tighter. “She's six.”
“I know how old she is.”
Roman raised both hands. Not surrender. Calculation.
He counted two armed guards beside the east doors, one behind the piano, and Dax within six feet of the child. Victor stood safely behind them all.
“Whatever Victor promised you,” Roman said, “it won't survive the next ten minutes.”
Dax's mouth twitched. “You really think this is about money?”
“No,” Roman said. “I think it's about whatever he has on you.”
Elena moved before anyone else. She shoved a serving cart into the piano guard. Glass shattered. Roman caught Dax's gun wrist and slammed it against a marble pillar.
A shot tore through the ceiling. The chandelier above the stairs showered sparks.
“RUN!” Roman shouted.
Anika carried Maisie behind a heavy oak door. Two guests crawled under a table. Elena kicked the fallen pistol out of reach.
Dax struck Roman across the jaw. Roman hit back once, hard enough to stagger him, then pinned him facedown.
“Call emergency services,” Roman told the nearest waiter. “Tell them there are armed men and people trapped underground.”
Victor was already disappearing through the servants' corridor.
Roman saw the open door and felt the old instinct to chase him. Then he heard Maisie crying on the other side of the oak door.
He stayed.
“You could have gone after him,” Elena said.
“I know.”
She searched his face, unsure what to do with a dangerous man who had chosen a frightened child over revenge.
Dax laughed against the floor. “You can't stop the flood station. Victor bought every technician on the night crew.”
“What flood station?” Roman demanded.
“Ask your father,” Dax said. “Oh, that's right. He's dead.”
Anika returned, phone in hand. “Detective Keene is on her way. Fire rescue too. But the city says the lower service tunnels are no longer on the map.”
Elena closed her eyes. “They're not on the public map.”
“Explain.”
“My grandfather helped build them. Before he died, he gave me the original plans. I saw the same floor markings here last month.”
“And?”
“I heard men talking through a ventilation grille. About workers who knew too much. About opening a gate that should never open.”
Roman's phone lit with a message from an unknown number.
May you like
NINE O'CLOCK. TELL HER TO STOP TALKING OR THE CHILD GOES INTO THE WATER FIRST.
Attached was a photograph of Maisie taken inside Roman's house less than a minute earlier.
