Chapter 2 - Blood in the Foyer
Marcus and two other armed guards drew their weapons in a fraction of a second, pivoting toward the entryway with military precision.
Elias stepped smoothly in front of me, placing his body between my position on the bed and the open bedroom door. His hand didn't reach for a gun; instead, his posture shifted into something far more lethal—the unyielding stillness of a predator whose territory had just been breached.
"Boss!" a breathless voice echoed from the hallway. It was one of the scouts stationed at the service elevator. "We've got a perimeter breach on the forty-second floor. They bypassed the biometric lock using an override frequency."
Elias didn't blink. "How many?"
"Four. Professional clean-up crew. They're carrying suppressed sub-machine guns and thermal breaching gear. They didn't come to negotiate."
My blood ran cold. The image of my husband fleeing to Miami flashed through my mind, instantly replaced by a sickening realization. He hadn't just run away; he had sold our location to settle the debts he accumulated while trying to buy his way into a higher social circle.
"They're here for us," I whispered, my hands trembling as I clutched the blanket closer to my chest. "My husband... he must have told someone where we went, or they tracked the apartment lease."
Elias turned his head slightly, his dark eyes meeting mine over his shoulder. There was no fear in them—only a cold, terrifying wrath that made the air in the room drop ten degrees.
"Nobody tracks my penthouse, Ava," Elias said softly. "And nobody touches what I pull out of the snow."
He turned back to Marcus. "Contain them in the east corridor. Do not use explosives; I want at least one of them alive so I can ask who hired them."
"Understood, Boss," Marcus muttered, motioning to the other guards. They melted out of the room into the shadows of the hallway, their movements completely silent.
Elias walked over to a concealed wall panel beside the bookshelf, punched a numerical sequence into a digital keypad, and slid open a heavy steel compartment. Inside rested a customized, matte-black Sig Sauer rifle and three loaded magazines. He checked the chamber with a practiced, mechanical click, then slung a secondary tactical harness across his broad shoulders.
"Stay in this room," Elias ordered, his voice brooking no argument. "Lock the secondary bolt from the inside. If you hear anything other than my voice at this door, you take the children through the panic room behind the master closet."
"Elias—" I started, but he cut me off.
"Do as I say, Ava."
May you like
He stepped out into the hallway and pulled the heavy bedroom door shut behind him. The click of the automated deadbolt sliding into place sounded like a final judgment.
---
