Chapter 17 - The Rogue Agent
Time seemed to slow to a terrifying crawl. Vance’s finger tightened on the trigger of his service weapon.
Claire didn't think. Her rigorous federal tactical training took over completely. She leaped over the mahogany banister of the staircase, dropping ten feet directly onto the marble floor below. The brutal impact sent a shockwave of pain up her legs, but she ignored it.
She tackled Nicholas to the ground just as Vance fired his weapon. The bullet tore through the empty air where Nicholas’s head had been a fraction of a second before, shattering a massive antique vase behind them.
"She's gone rogue! Kill them both!" Vance screamed, taking cover behind a marble pillar.
The corrupt SWAT team opened fire. The grand foyer erupted into an absolute warzone.
Claire dragged Nicholas behind a heavy, overturned oak dining table. Bullets chewed through the expensive wood, showering them in sharp splinters.
"They are not real FBI!" Claire yelled over the deafening gunfire, pulling a spare pistol from an unconscious guard on the floor. "Vance has been working for the Morettis! He manipulated the entire investigation to eliminate you for a rival family!"
Nicholas stared at her in total shock, realizing that Claire hadn't betrayed him to the Morettis. She had been used just like he had.
"You threw away your badge for me?" Nicholas asked, his voice filled with awe.
"I threw it away because I fell in love with you, you idiot!" Claire shouted, firing three precise shots blindly around the corner of the table to keep the corrupt agents pinned down.
Suddenly, the deafening sound of a shotgun blast echoed from the far side of the room.
Evelyn Caruso stepped out from behind a velvet curtain, holding her antique double-barreled shotgun. She fired both barrels directly into the ceiling, bringing a massive, heavy crystal chandelier crashing down onto three of Vance's tactical men.
"Nobody shoots up my foyer twice in one month!" Evelyn roared fiercely.
"We have to get to the security control room," Nicholas yelled to Claire, grabbing a discarded rifle from the floor. "I can trigger the estate's lockdown protocol and trap Vance inside until my loyal men from the city arrive."
Claire nodded. "Cover me. I'll draw their fire."
Claire broke from cover, sprinting toward the drawing room arches. Vance and his men immediately turned their weapons on her. She dove gracefully behind a heavy marble statue, dodging a hail of lethal bullets.
Nicholas used the distraction perfectly. He laid down heavy suppressing fire, forcing Vance’s men to duck for cover.
"Move! Now!" Nicholas shouted.
Claire, Nicholas, and Evelyn scrambled down the long hallway toward the reinforced security wing. They could hear Vance screaming furiously in the distance, ordering his men to hunt them down like animals.
May you like
They reached the heavy steel door of the control room. Nicholas slammed his bloody palm against the biometric scanner. The door hissed open, and they rushed inside, barricading themselves in the dark, blinking nerve center of the estate.
They were safe for now, but they were entirely trapped.
