Chapter 3 - The Breach of Crown Meridian
“Get down!” Sebastian roared, shoving me violently behind the heavy mahogany frame of the wardrobe just as a volley of automatic gunfire tore through the bedroom walls.
Plaster and wood splinters rained down over us like lethal snow. The windows facing the Manhattan skyline starred and shattered inward, letting the freezing morning gale howl into the luxurious suite.
I clamped my hands over my ears, screaming as the glass shards sprayed across the floor. Through the dust and smoke, three figures in black tactical gear poured through the ruined doorway, their suppressed submachine guns sweeping the room with cold, mechanical precision.
Sebastian didn't panic. He moved with the terrifying speed of a apex predator caught in a cage.
In a single, fluid motion, he drew a heavy, matte-black Sig Sauer from a hidden holster beneath his arm, pivoting around the corner of the bed.
Puff-puff-puff.
The suppressed shots were muffled, but deadly accurate. The lead tactical operative dropped instantly, a clean entry wound centered between the ballistic plates of his vest. The second operative fired wildly into the ceiling before Sebastian’s second round took him down in the doorway.
The third man scrambled backward into the hallway, shouting into a radio comms unit. “Breach failed! We’ve got active resistance—!”
Sebastian didn't give him time to finish. He vaulted across the bed, kicked the remaining operative hard in the chest, and sent him crashing backward over the marble railing of the foyer stairs.
Silence slammed back down over the penthouse, broken only by the whistling wind rushing through the blown-out floor-to-ceiling windows.
Sebastian stood at the head of the stairs, breathing heavily, his white shirt stained with a smear of dark blood that wasn't his own. He slowly reholstered his weapon and turned back toward the bedroom.
“Valerie,” he called out, his voice sharp with sudden panic. “Valerie, talk to me.”
I stepped out from behind the wardrobe, my legs trembling so violently I could barely stand. I looked down at the dead men scattered across the luxury suite, then up at Sebastian. The man who had held me tenderly hours before was standing over corpses without a flicker of remorse.
“You said... you said they wouldn't find us here,” I whispered, tears finally breaking free.
“They shouldn't have,” Sebastian said, his eyes darkening into obsidian. “Crown Meridian Tower has a military-grade security grid. The only way they bypassed the perimeter alarms in under two minutes is if someone on the inside disabled the locks.”
His phone buzzed violently in his pocket again.
Sebastian pulled it out. It wasn't Mara this time. It was an unknown, encrypted local number.
He swiped and put it to his ear.
“Talk,” Sebastian barked.
May you like
“Enjoying the wake-up call, Sebastian?” a smooth, unfamiliar voice purred through the speaker. “If you want to see your little girlfriend survive the next hour, leave the tower alone, walk out the front lobby, and surrender your shares of the Brooklyn terminal to me. Otherwise, the next team we send won't use suppressors.”
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