The smile vanished from my face when Sebastian suddenly stared out the front window like he'd seen a ghost. Outside, Manhattan looked completely normal—yellow cabs splashing through rain puddles, people rushing by with umbrellas, the city moving as if nothing had changed. But the look in his eyes made my stomach twist.

"Breach at the south gate!" Marcus’s voice crackled over the internal comms. "They brought heavy artillery! We have traitors inside the perimeter security!"

Sebastian sprinted down the hallway into the master suite where I was already pulling Chloe into her boots. His eyes were wide with a terrifying urgency.

"The underground bunker," Sebastian ordered, pulling a heavy silver keycard from his pocket and pressing it into my hand. "Take the passage behind the library fireplace. The door requires my biometric scan to open from the outside, but it is impenetratable from within. Once you're inside, don't open it for anyone except me."

"Sebastian, no!" I grabbed his arm, terror seizing my throat. "Come with us!"

"I have to hold the main hall, Olivia," he said, pulling me into a swift, devastating kiss that left my head spinning. "If I go into hiding now, Vincent will collapse the entire building above us. I have to end this here."

He turned to Chloe, dropping to his knees and cupping her tear-streaked face. "Be brave for Miss Olivia, my little flower. Daddy will be right behind you."

"Promise?" Chloe sobbed, clutching her silver locket.

"I promise," Sebastian whispered.

He stood up, pulled a heavy black firearm from his shoulder holster, and sprinted down the corridor toward the grand staircase as the sound of shattering glass and heavy automatic gunfire echoed through the lower floors.

I didn't hesitate. I scooped Chloe into my arms and ran down the grand hallway toward the library.

The estate was turning into a war zone. Smoke began to drift through the vents, carrying the acrid stench of cordite and burning carpets. I hit the hidden release beside the heavy mahogany fireplace in the library, watching as the stone hearth swung open to reveal a narrow, reinforced steel staircase descending into the dark.

We scrambled down the stairs. At the bottom stood a massive vault door equipped with a digital keypad and a biometric scanner.

I hit the button to seal the outer stone entrance behind us. As the heavy stone slammed shut, cutting off the deafening sound of gunfire above, a sudden shadow stepped out from the darkness of the lower corridor.

It was Marcus.

"Marcus!" I gasped, letting out a massive sigh of relief. "Oh thank god. Is the lower bunker clear?"

Marcus didn't answer. He stood under the dim yellow bulb of the passage, holding a silenced pistol lowered at his side. His silver hair was neatly combed, his expression entirely void of emotion.

"Marcus?" I stepped back, instincts screaming at me as I pulled Chloe behind my back.

"I’m sorry, Miss Olivia," Marcus said, his voice flat and practical. "Sebastian was always too soft. Just like his father. He thought loyalty could be bought with honor. Vincent offered me fifty million dollars and three shipping hubs in Miami."

My blood ran cold. "You brought them here. You bypassed the perimeter alarms."

"I disabled the motion sensors forty minutes ago," Marcus admitted, taking a slow step toward us, raising the pistol. "Vincent doesn't want Sebastian dead yet. He wants him broken. He wants to watch Sebastian sign over the voting shares while holding his little girl in front of him. Hand the child over, Olivia. I don't want to kill you."

Panic flared in my chest, but behind the panic, a cold, unyielding rage took hold.

I looked around the narrow concrete corridor. On a small utility shelf to my right sat a heavy brass emergency lantern and a can of pressurized industrial solvent used for maintaining the vault mechanisms.

"You are a coward, Marcus," I said, my voice dangerously steady.

"I'm a businessman," he replied, taking another step forward.

"Then take this!"

With a sudden, violent movement, I grabbed the heavy brass lantern and hurled it with all my strength straight at his face. Marcus instinctively raised his arms to block the impact, the heavy lantern striking his wrist and knocking the silenced pistol from his hand.

"Run, Chloe! Into the corner!" I screamed.

Before Marcus could recover, I grabbed the pressurized solvent spray from the shelf, aimed it straight into his eyes, and held down the nozzle.

Marcus shrieked in blinding agony as the chemical solvent hit his face, dropping to his knees and clawing at his eyes. I didn't stop. I stepped forward and kicked the fallen pistol down the dark elevator shaft at the end of the hall. Then, grabbing a heavy steel tool lever from the wall rack, I swung it with everything I had into the side of his knee.

The bone snapped with a sickening crunch. Marcus collapsed onto the concrete, groaning in pain, completely incapacitated.

Chest heaving, my hands shaking like leaves in a storm, I grabbed the keycard Sebastian had given me, swiped it across the vault lock, and shoved Chloe inside the brightly lit, supply-stocked bunker.

I stood at the threshold, looking out toward the dark stairs leading up to the burning estate.

"Stay inside, Chloe," I said softly, locking the inner door controls.

"Miss Olivia, where are you going?!" Chloe cried through the reinforced glass window.