Chapter 4 - The Sound of Glass

I stared down the barrel of Vincent's gun, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"Because if you kill me, you will never find out how he bypassed your security," I lied smoothly.

Vincent's eyes narrowed, searching my face for any sign of deception.

He knew I was just a desperate mother, but he also needed answers.

Slowly, he lowered the weapon.

"You have five minutes to prove your worth," he muttered.

Suddenly, the lights in the panic room flickered and died completely.

The low hum of the ventilation system ground to a sickening halt.

"They cut the main power and the backup generators," Renzo said in the darkness.

"The air in here will run out in less than an hour," Vincent replied calmly.

We were trapped in a steel coffin buried in the center of the house.

I thought about the layout of the mansion I had cleaned every single day for eight months.

"There is an old laundry chute in the wall behind the master suite," I whispered.

"The panic room shares a ventilation shaft with it," I added urgently.

Vincent ignited a flare, casting harsh red shadows across the bunker.

He found the metal ventilation grate near the floor and kicked it open.

"It is too narrow for us," Renzo said, measuring the gap with his hands.

"But it is big enough for me," I said, handing Mia over to Vincent.

Mia whimpered, but Vincent held her surprisingly gently.

I crawled into the filthy, cramped shaft, dragging myself forward by my fingernails.

I reached the drop-off point and squeezed my shoulders through the opening.

I fell backward into the dark void of the laundry chute.

I braced for a hard landing, hoping the laundry carts below were full.

I crashed into something soft, but it didn't feel like folded towels.

I scrambled to find my footing in the pitch black basement.

My hands brushed against something wet, warm, and distinctly human.

I found a flashlight on the floor and turned it on.

May you like

Nine years after a car bomb killed his wife

The day I went to the hospital to discuss ending my pregnancy

Nearly two hundred people watched me stand alone

I had landed directly on top of a dead security guard with his throat cut.

And standing right in front of me was a man wearing a tactical mask.