Chapter 8
The lights vanished.
Gunfire filled the records room.
Claire dropped over Emma and heard bodies crashing into shelves around her.
Someone seized her shoulder.
She fired.
A man screamed and released her.
“Claire!” Julian shouted from the darkness.
“I have Emma!”
The tenth bell rang.
Three seconds remained.
Michael struggled with Vanessa near the open passage. She drove a blade into his side, but he held on.
Helen crawled toward the fallen remote.
The eleventh bell rang.
Two seconds.
Julian fired at the central power conduit.
Sparks exploded across the room.
The twelfth bell rang.
The network returned.
The remote lay beneath Helen’s hand.
Every light on it turned red.
Vanessa kicked Michael away and lunged toward her.
Claire aimed at Vanessa.
For one instant, she saw the woman who had humiliated her before a hundred guests.
Then she saw the woman who had manipulated Emma, imprisoned Helen, corrupted Michael, and placed explosives on innocent people.
Claire pulled the trigger.
The bullet struck Vanessa’s shoulder.
She fell against a shelf.
Helen seized the remote and held down the switch before it could release.
“The bracelets are still active!”
Julian looked toward the maintenance tunnel.
“I need ninety seconds at the power core.”
Claire gave Emma to Helen.
“Go.”
Julian ran into the passage.
Vanessa’s guards were dead or wounded. Michael lay beside the wall, his hand pressed against the new wound in his stomach.
Claire knelt beside him.
“Stay awake.”
He looked at her with fading eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“Do not apologize. Tell me the truth.”
“I loved you.”
“That is not the truth I asked for.”
He swallowed painfully.
“The photograph with Vanessa was taken after my disappearance. I pretended to return to her because Julian needed someone inside the Whitmore organization.”
Claire looked toward Julian’s passage.
“You were working for him?”
“At first.”
“And later?”
Michael closed his eyes.
“Later, Vanessa promised to let me come home if I delivered the elephant.”
Claire recoiled.
“You were going to trade Emma.”
“I thought it only contained account numbers.”
“You still chose them over us.”
“I chose the possibility of seeing you again.”
“No. You chose what you wanted and called it love.”
The words hurt Michael more than his wounds.
Vanessa laughed weakly from the floor.
“She finally understands you.”
Claire stood and aimed at her again.
“You have mistaken restraint for weakness twice tonight.”
Vanessa pressed one hand against her bleeding shoulder.
“And you have mistaken Julian’s protection for kindness.”
She reached beneath her necklace and removed a tiny memory chip.
“This contains Michael’s final report to Julian before his disappearance.”
Michael tried to rise.
“Claire, don’t listen.”
Vanessa tossed the chip across the floor.
“He recommended killing you and placing Emma with another family.”
Claire stared at him.
Michael’s face collapsed.
“It was a false report.”
“Was it written in your name?”
“Yes.”
“Did you sign it?”
“Yes, but I was trying to convince Vanessa that I had no loyalty to you.”
Claire picked up the chip.
Every truth came wrapped inside another lie.
An explosion shook the mansion.
The lights flickered.
The remote in Helen’s hand changed from red to green.
“The bracelets are disconnected.”
Upstairs, guests began screaming with relief.
Then a gunshot came from the tunnel.
Julian staggered back into the records room.
Blood spread across his black shirt.
Thomas Vale followed him with a gun aimed at his spine.
“You were right about one thing,” Thomas said.
He looked at Vanessa.
“Someone inside the Mercer family warned the Whitmores.”
He turned the gun toward Claire.
May you like
“It was Julian.”
Continue to the next part: The man who claims Julian caused the entire siege offers Claire proof in exchange for Emma.
