The first bullet came through the office door.
Wood exploded inches from Mara's face.
Nicholas shoved her down.
"Move!"
They crawled behind the desk.
Another shot.
Then another.
Nicholas fired through the door.
Someone cursed outside.
Mara's hands shook uncontrollably.
She had never heard gunfire outside television.
Nothing prepared her for the violence of it.
The sound.
The vibration.
The realization that someone on the other side of a wooden door wanted her dead.
Nicholas grabbed her face gently.
"Look at me."
She did.
"Balcony. Now."
"We're three floors up."
"There's a service staircase outside."
Mara nodded.
Nicholas stood.
Pain crossed his face.
The prosthetic leg.
He had rushed to the storage facility earlier and barely rested.
Now he was fighting on it.
They moved toward the balcony.
Nicholas opened the doors.
Cold air rushed inside.
Behind them the office door cracked.
Mara climbed onto the narrow exterior staircase.
Nicholas followed.
They had descended only one level when flames erupted from a ground-floor window.
Mara stared.
"They set the house on fire."
Nicholas's expression went murderous.
"My people are still inside."
"You can't go back."
He looked at her.
"My sister."
"Elena isn't here."
"Mrs. Russo."
Mara stopped.
He was right.
Dozens of employees were inside.
They reached the second-floor balcony.
Nicholas turned toward the building.
Mara grabbed his arm.
"You can barely walk."
"Then I'll crawl."
"Nicholas."
He faced her.
She saw something then.
A man who believed everyone around him was his responsibility.
Even if saving them killed him.
Mara understood why people followed him.
"Together," she said.
They reentered through a guest bedroom.
Smoke filled the hallway.
Mrs. Russo was helping an elderly servant toward the stairs.
"Mara!"
Nicholas took the servant's arm.
"East stairs. Go."
"What about you?" Mrs. Russo demanded.
"Get everyone outside."
They moved floor by floor.
Security guards fought attackers near the foyer.
Sprinklers activated.
Smoke mixed with water.
Mara helped two kitchen workers escape.
Then she heard a scream.
Not Nicholas.
A child.
She froze.
"There's a child here?"
Mrs. Russo shouted from the doorway.
"Elena's son!"
Nicholas turned white.
"Daniel?"
"He came with the nanny this afternoon!"
Nicholas ran.
Actually ran.
His uneven steps hammered against the floor.
Mara followed.
They found six-year-old Daniel hiding beneath a dining table.
Smoke surrounded him.
Nicholas dropped to his knees.
"Daniel!"
The boy sobbed.
"Uncle Nick!"
Nicholas pulled him close.
"It's okay."
A ceiling beam cracked.
Mara screamed.
Nicholas pushed Daniel toward her.
"Take him!"
The beam fell.
Nicholas disappeared behind smoke and burning wood.
"Nicholas!"
Mara handed Daniel to a guard.
Then turned back.
"Mara, no!"
She ignored him.
Nicholas lay trapped beneath part of the beam.
His prosthetic leg was pinned.
Fire spread across curtains nearby.
Mara tried lifting the beam.
Impossible.
"Nicholas!"
He coughed.
"Go."
"No."
"Mara."
"Absolutely not."
His face tightened.
"Take the leg off."
She remembered the rule.
Never touch his prosthetic leg unless he asked.
"Tell me how."
He showed her the release.
Her fingers shook.
She disconnected it.
Nicholas screamed.
Not from injury.
From terror.
Something about being trapped.
About hospitals.
About helplessness.
His breathing spiraled.
Mara grabbed his hand.
"Listen to me."
Smoke burned her lungs.
She began tapping against the floor.
Tap.
Pause.
Tap.
Then she sang.
The lullaby.
In the middle of fire.
Gunshots.
Smoke.
Nicholas stared at her.
His breathing slowed.
"Now move," she commanded.
He dragged himself free.
Mara wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
Together they reached the doorway.
Security men pulled them outside.
Behind them the east wing burned.
Fire trucks arrived minutes later.
Police followed.
Mara sat on the lawn wrapped in a blanket.
Nicholas sat nearby, his missing leg visible beneath a torn trouser leg.
He made no attempt to hide it.
Daniel clung to him.
Elena arrived screaming her son's name.
She fell to her knees and hugged them both.
Then Adrian appeared.
Mara stared.
His suit was perfectly clean.
No smoke.
No blood.
No panic.
He walked toward Nicholas.
"Thank God you're alive."
Nicholas looked at him.
The hatred in his eyes was unmistakable.
Adrian noticed.
"What?"
Nicholas spoke quietly.
"You weren't inside."
"I arrived after the alarm."
Mara remembered seeing Adrian earlier that evening.
At dinner.
He had been inside.
She stood.
"That's a lie."
Everyone looked at her.
Adrian smiled.
"Excuse me?"
"I saw you."
Nicholas's security chief approached.
"Mr. Adrian's car left the property eleven minutes before the attack."
Silence.
Adrian's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Nicholas handed Daniel to Elena.
Then he stood with help.
"Where is Victor Sanz?"
Adrian laughed.
"You've been through trauma."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
Mara stepped closer.
"My father knew what you were doing."
Adrian looked at her.
"And where did that get him?"
Silence fell.
Mara felt cold.
Nicholas's voice became deadly.
"What did you say?"
Adrian realized his mistake.
Too late.
Police officers moved nearer.
Adrian smiled again.
"You misunderstand."
"No," Mara said. "I don't."
She pulled her phone from her pocket.
During the storage-facility drive, Nicholas had insisted she activate an emergency-recording application.
She had forgotten it remained active.
The screen showed more than three hours of audio.
Including Adrian's words.
Adrian saw the phone.
Then he moved.
Fast.
He grabbed Mara.
A gun appeared against her ribs.
Nicholas froze.
Security weapons rose.
Adrian dragged Mara backward.
"Put them down."
Nicholas's face went blank.
"Adrian."
"Down."
Nicholas raised one hand.
"Everyone lower your weapons."
They obeyed.
Mara's heart hammered.
Adrian whispered near her ear.
"Your father caused me enough trouble."
Nicholas heard.
"So you killed him."
Adrian smiled.
"Carlo chose the wrong side."
Mara closed her eyes.
There it was.
Eight years of questions.
Answered by a monster holding a gun against her.
Nicholas stepped forward.
"Take me instead."
Adrian laughed.
"You?"
"You wanted my position."
"I still do."
"Then take me."
Mara looked at Nicholas.
"No."
He ignored her.
"Let her go."
Adrian considered it.
Then distant sirens multiplied.
More police.
More witnesses.
His plan was collapsing.
He shoved Mara aside and fired toward Nicholas.
Mara screamed.
Nicholas fell.
Security returned fire.
Adrian ran toward the trees.
Officers chased him.
Mara crawled toward Nicholas.
Blood covered his shirt.
"Nicholas!"
His eyes opened.
"Shoulder."
She saw the wound.
Not his chest.
Relief almost knocked her unconscious.
He looked at her.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Good."
Then he smiled faintly.
"You still have the drive?"
Mara touched the pocket inside her uniform.
"Yes."
Nicholas laughed weakly.
"Then Adrian just lost everything."
He was wrong.
Because when police searched the grounds, Adrian Valenti was gone.
And by sunrise, Mara learned something worse.
The flash drive she had risked her life to protect—
was empty.
---