Chapter 7 - Breaking الصوت (Breaking the Silence)
Down in the security control room, red emergency lights flashed against the bank of monitors.
Mateo burst through the heavy steel door, drawing his weapon as he looked at the primary gate camera feed.
“Boss, we’ve got company!” Mateo shouted into his encrypted earpiece. “Three black SUVs just rammed the outer security gate off Ocean Drive! They’re bypassing the automated jammers—military-grade encryption! It’s Moretti’s strike team!”
In the nursery upstairs, the sudden blaring of the alarm made little Leo startle awake, letting out a sharp, terrified cry.
Hunter scooped him up instantly, pressing his face against her shoulder, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.
The door burst open.
Lorenzo stood there, his face carved from granite, a matte-black Sig Sauer pistol already gripped in his right hand.
“Hunter, listen to me,” Lorenzo said, his voice terrifyingly calm. “Take Leo through the private panic room behind the master closet. There’s a reinforced steel hatch that leads down to the cliffside escape tunnel. Mateo has a vehicle waiting at the bottom.”
“What about you?” Hunter cried, her eyes wide with terror.
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“I have guests to entertain,” Lorenzo replied coldly. He reached into his coat, pulled out a second weapon—a compact snub-nosed revolver—and pressed it firmly into her hand, wrapping her fingers around the grip. “If anyone comes through that door who isn't me or Mateo... you pull the trigger. Do not hesitate.”
Before she could protest, Lorenzo spun around and sprinted down the hallway toward the grand staircase, where the first sounds of gunfire were beginning to echo through the vaulted marble corridors.
