Chapter 4 – The Intruder in the Dark

The darkness swallowed the mansion instantly. The only light came from the faint moonlight bleeding through Isabella’s curtains.

Adriano reacted with lethal speed. He drew his sidearm, pulling me and Isabella behind the heavy oak wardrobe. “Keep her quiet,” he whispered.

I wrapped both arms around Isabella, pressing her face against my chest so she wouldn’t cry out. She clung to me, her small fingers digging into my shoulders.

Footsteps echoed from the grand staircase. Heavy, deliberate boots. Not the polished shoes of Adriano’s guards.

“Boss!” A voice crackled through Adriano’s earpiece, loud enough in the silence for me to hear. “They breached the south patio! Bianca gave them the gate codes before we locked her up. There are at least a dozen heavily armed men inside!”

Adriano pressed a button on his radio. “Fall back to the panic room. Protect the child at all costs.”

He grabbed my hand. “We move now. Stay behind me.”

We crept out of the bedroom and into the pitch-black hallway. The mansion, usually so warm and inviting, now felt like a sprawling tomb. Every shadow looked like a man with a gun.

We made it to the second-floor landing just as three flashlights cut through the gloom below.

“Check the west wing!” a gruff voice shouted from the foyer. “Find the girl and the maid!”

Adriano didn’t hesitate. He raised his weapon and fired two suppressed shots. The flashlights shattered, plunging the men into darkness, followed by the heavy thuds of bodies hitting the marble.

“Run,” Adriano ordered, pushing us toward the library.

We sprinted through the double doors. Adriano shoved a massive bookcase aside, revealing a reinforced steel door. He quickly pressed his thumb to the biometric scanner. The door hissed open, and he pushed us inside, sealing it shut just as a spray of bullets tore through the library walls.

The panic room was small, lit by a dim emergency red light. It smelled of stale air and copper.

I set Isabella down on the small cot. She was trembling violently, her eyes darting around the red-lit room. I took her hands and signed, “Brave girl. You are so brave.”

Adriano stood by the heavy steel door, checking the security monitors on the wall. They were mostly static, but a few cameras still worked.

The radio on the console suddenly crackled to life.

“Adriano.” Elena’s voice filled the small room. She was inside the house. “You always did retreat to that steel coffin when things got difficult.”

Adriano grabbed the microphone. “You’re trespassing, Elena. The police are already on their way.”

Elena laughed. It was a cold, hollow sound. “The police won’t arrive in time to save you. But I’ll make you a deal. You know I don’t want the girl. Hand over the microchip, and I’ll let you and the maid live.”

Adriano looked at me, then at the monitors. “I don’t have it. The velvet pouch in the box was empty. You know that.”

A long pause hung over the radio.

“What do you mean it was empty?” Elena’s voice lost its confident edge. “I put it there myself before I left.”

Adriano frowned, his eyes narrowing. He turned to look at Isabella. The little girl was watching the red light on the radio box blink.

I followed his gaze, realization hitting me like a physical blow. Elena hadn’t taken the chip. Adriano didn’t have it.

I knelt in front of Isabella and signed carefully. “Bella. In your wooden box. There was a little bag. Did you move what was inside?”

Isabella nodded innocently. She signed back. “Yes. It was hard. I hid it in Mr. Bunny.”

My heart stopped. Mr. Bunny. Her favorite stuffed rabbit.

The same stuffed rabbit she had dropped on the marble staircase in the foyer an hour ago.

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