Chapter 6
The beam of light belonged to a heavy-duty tactical drone hovering just outside the second-story window, its camera lens whirring softly as it locked onto Martha and Lily. Arthur reacted with terrifying speed, drawing a sleek, snub-nosed revolver from a hidden holster beneath his suit jacket and firing two precise shots upward. The drone's rotors shattered in a shower of sparks, and the machine plummeted heavily onto the front lawn below.
"Move! Now!" Arthur commanded, gesturing toward the back service stairs that led down to the garage.
Martha clutched Lily tighter against her chest, her black trousers brushing against the peeling wallpaper as they hurried down the narrow, unlit corridor. Lily whimpered softly, her small fingers still wrapped defensively around the blue smartphone, which was now completely dead, its screen gone dark. The smell of gunsmoke and ozone permeated the upper floor, thick enough to sting their eyes.
At the bottom of the service stairs, the heavy metal fire door stood ajar, leading directly into the subterranean garage. The headlights of Arthur’s idling armored sedan cut through the gloom, casting long, menacing shadows across the concrete floor. One of Arthur’s elite bodyguards stood by the rear door of the vehicle, holding it open with a hand resting firmly on the grip of a submachine gun.
"Clear," the guard barked sharply as Martha and Lily tumbled into the back seat of the car.
Arthur slid in immediately after them, pulling the heavy armored door shut with a solid, reassuring thud. The interior of the sedan was lined with reinforced composite plating and digital monitoring screens displaying exterior thermal feeds. David was nowhere to be seen, left behind in the chaotic custody of the local police and the wreckage of his own catastrophic choices.
"Drive, Thomas," Arthur ordered, adjusting his suit cuffs as the sedan surged forward, smashing through the garage’s security gate without slowing down.
Martha leaned back against the leather headrest, exhaling a long, shuddering breath. The adrenaline was finally beginning to fade, leaving behind a dull, throbbing ache in her jaw where David’s fist had struck her hours earlier. She looked down at Lily, who had curled into a tight ball on her lap, staring blankly at the dark screen of the blue smartphone.
"You were so brave, sweetie," Martha whispered, brushing a stray blonde lock from her daughter's forehead. "It's going to be okay now."
"Mommy, where are we going?" Lily asked, her voice small and fragile, devoid of the innocence it had held twenty-four hours ago.
"To a place where nobody can ever hurt us again," Martha answered, though her eyes met Arthur's in the rearview mirror, and she saw the unspoken truth reflected there.
Safety was an illusion. Arthur’s empire had enemies just as lethal as the syndicate that had bought out David. The sedan swerved sharply onto the interstate, accelerating into the rainy night as the digital screens on the dashboard flickered to life, flashing a red warning alert across the map.
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Arthur tapped the central console, pulling up an encrypted satellite feed of his downtown corporate headquarters. The screen showed the front plaza swarming with emergency vehicles and flashing lights.
"They didn't just target the house," Arthur muttered, his face draining of color as he stared at the flaming wreckage of his executive suite on the live monitor. "They hit the vault."
