Chapter 8 - Blood on the Marble
The heavy oak doors of the east wing crashed open, the sound echoing through the cavernous mansion like a cannon shot.
Heavy, tactical footsteps shuffled down the marble hallway. Flashlight beams cut through the darkness, sweeping across the walls in frantic, rhythmic arcs.
"Find them!" Levi’s voice boomed down the hall, stripped of all former composure, filled with raw, desperate aggression. "Check the study first! Don't let the girl leave alive!"
Inside the study, Caprice was crouched beside Diamond’s wheelchair, her heart hammering violently against her ribs. She looked at Diamond. In the moonlight streaming through the high bulletproof windows, his face was devoid of fear. He looked like the formidable mob boss he had once been—sharp, calculating, and utterly lethal.
"Listen to me carefully," Diamond whispered near her ear, handing her a small, sleek secondary pistol from his desk vault. "The study has a reinforced panic room behind the bookshelf. The code is 0-4-1-9. Get inside and lock it."
Caprice looked at the weapon in her hand, then looked at him, shaking her head fiercely. "I'm not leaving you."
"Caprice, I can't maneuver down the narrow stairs in this chair," Diamond said, his grip on her wrist tightening. "You go to the safe room. I will handle the hall."
"No!" she whispered urgently. "If they flush you out, you have no cover! You're sitting in the middle of the room!"
Before Diamond could reply, the study doors were kicked inward.
A tactical flashlight beam swept across the desk, blinding them instantly.
"There he is!" a mercenary shouted.
Diamond didn't hesitate. He raised his 9mm over the edge of the desk and fired three rapid shots into the light. A grunt of pain echoed through the doorway as the first guard collapsed heavily to the floor, his rifle clattering across the hardwood.
"Suppressive fire!" Levi screamed from the hallway.
A hail of automatic gunfire chewed through the mahogany desk, sending splinters of wood flying through the air. Diamond pulled Caprice down, shielding her body with his broad upper torso, taking the brunt of falling debris.
"The secondary door!" Caprice gasped, pointing toward the private balcony exit behind the heavy curtains. "The ramp! You had a ramp installed last month for emergency egress!"
Diamond’s eyes flashed. "The ramp leads down to the courtyard garage."
"Then we go together!" Caprice demanded, grabbing the handles of his wheelchair with desperate, strength-fueled determination.
While Diamond provided covering fire, leaning over the desk to discharge four more calculated shots into the doorway, Caprice used all her body weight to pull the heavy, custom wheelchair backward toward the velvet curtains.
Bullets tore through the leather sofa, shattering the glass artwork on the walls.
May you like
Caprice slammed her shoulder against the emergency exit door, unlocking the heavy deadbolt. The cool, wet night air rushed into the room as the door swung open, revealing the rain slicked steel ramp leading down into the dark courtyard below.
"Move!" Diamond barked, turning his chair as Caprice pushed him out into the storm, slamming the heavy reinforced door shut behind them just as Levi’s men breached the study desk.
