Chapter 4 - Trapped BelowThe heavy steel door of the archive room began to slide shut automatically with a deafening hydraulic groan.
"Get back!" Roman shouted, grabbing my waist and yanking me backward just as the massive door slammed into place, locking with a series of heavy mechanical bolts.
Complete silence descended, save for the rhythmic pulsing of the red emergency lights. The computer screen before us flickered, then went entirely black.
"What's happening?" I asked, my voice trembling as I pressed against Roman’s side.
"The lockdown protocol," Roman said, his eyes scanning the keypad by the door. The digital screen above it flashed SYSTEM OVERRIDE: AUTHORIZED BY M. ARCHER.
Marcus Archer. My chief of security had locked us inside the most secure vault in the estate, cutting all external communications and disabling the manual release valves from the inside.
"We're trapped," I realized, the cold panic rising in my chest.
"We are contained," Roman corrected coldly. He pulled his pistol from its holster, checking the magazine with a practiced click. "Marcus knows that the moment I review the server logs, I'll see his collusion with Vincent. He locked us down to buy himself time to execute the board coup upstairs."
"And Finn?" I asked, a sudden wave of dread washing over me. "If Marcus is working with Vincent, and Marcus is the one holding Finn at the docks..."
"Finn isn't a Moretti operative," Roman interrupted, realization dawning in his pale eyes. "He was a federal investigator working deep undercover to infiltrate Vincent’s trafficking ring. And Marcus was leading him right into a slaughter to silence him."
The pieces snapped together with terrifying clarity. Finn hadn't come to bug the house; he had come to find the ledger that proved Vincent’s crimes—and my father’s innocence. And I had laughed with him in the kitchen, completely unaware that he was holding the key to my freedom.
"We have to get out of here," I said, looking around the server room. "There has to be an emergency exit. This is a mafia boss's fortress—there's always a secret way out."
Roman smiled faintly—a grim, feral expression that showed no fear, only lethal focus. "You're right, Norah. There is always a way out."
May you like
He walked over to the back server rack, hauled a heavy unit away from the concrete wall with raw, calculated strength, and revealed a narrow, vertical maintenance shaft just wide enough for one person to squeeze through.
"It leads up to the service corridor behind the main dining hall," Roman said, holstering his gun and turning back to me. "Stay directly behind me. Because the moment we step out of that shaft, a war for this house begins."
Related Stories
