Chapter 5 - The Glass Falls
The estate's automated security sirens shrieked in deafening pulses of red and white light. The heavy reinforced blast shutters began grinding down over the tall arched windows, but halfway through their descent, a loud hydraulic hiss signaled a catastrophic system failure.
"Grid is compromised!" Marcus yelled, drawing his weapon. "They cut the backup generators! Hitmen on the north lawn!"
It wasn't a standard raid. It was the Moretti syndicate—Julian’s deadliest rivals. They had bypassed three rings of military-grade perimeter sensors in under sixty seconds. The only way that was possible was if someone had handed them the digital override codes from inside the mansion.
"Secure the exits!" Julian barked, his combat instincts taking over instantly. He fired three suppressed rounds through the patio doors, dropping two heavily armored intruders who had breached the terrace. "Get Theo to the panic room!"
"I have him!" Victoria screamed, lunging forward to grab Theo’s arm.
Theo recoiled in terror, pulling away from her and screaming Nora's name. In the chaos, as a smoke grenade crashed through the skylight showering the grand foyer with razor-sharp glass, Victoria didn't try to pull the boy to safety. Instead, she ripped her designer scarf from his fingers, turned around, and bolted straight for the private elevator behind the kitchen, leaving the five-year-old child standing completely exposed in the dead center of the firing corridor.
"Theo!" Nora screamed.
Two assault rifles sprayed a hail of automatic gunfire across the foyer, chewing through the mahogany banisters and obliterating the crystal vases into dust. Julian was pinned behind a stone pillar, exchanging fire with four shooters advancing through the front entryway.
"Theo, get down!" Julian roared, but the child was frozen in shock, paralyzed by the flash-bangs and the sound of war that had killed his mother years ago.
A red laser sight crawled up Theo’s white dress shirt, centering directly over his chest.
Nora didn't think. She didn't hesitate. She didn't calculate the odds.
She threw herself across the shattered marble floor, wrapping her entire body around the boy just as the trigger was pulled.
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👉 The sound of the bullets tearing through flesh made Julian Mercer scream in a way no man had ever heard before.
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