Chapter 7 - Break Through the Darkness
The grand mansion had transformed into a nightmare of flashing red lights, cascading water, and deafening siren wails.
Eleanor stepped out of the wine cellar stairwell into the main kitchen, the heavy shotgun resting comfortably against her shoulder. The floor was already covered in two inches of standing water from the ceiling sprinklers, turning the polished marble into a slippery hazard.
"Check the kitchen!" a voice shouted from the dining hall.
A guard stepped through the swinging double doors, his tactical light cutting through the gloom. Before his eyes could adapt to the flashing red strobes, Eleanor fired.
BOOM!
The heavy twelve-gauge blast struck the guard's chest armor, the sheer kinetic force lifted the two-hundred-pound man off his feet and threw him backward through the glass display cabinet. China dishes shattered into thousands of pieces as he hit the floor, unconscious and disarmed.
"One down," Eleanor gritted out, stepping over the debris and racking another shell into the chamber.
Chloe squealed in terror, staying glued to Eleanor's back, her hands white-knuckled around the leather briefcase.
They navigated through the flooded dining hall into the grand foyer.
Up on the second-floor mezzanine, two guards were dragging Julian toward the locked master suite. Julian was fighting back furiously, landing a heavy right hook on one guard's jaw before the second guard slammed the butt of his rifle into Julian's stomach, dropping him to his knees.
"Julian!" Eleanor screamed from the bottom of the grand staircase, her voice cutting through the sirens.
Julian looked down through the rain of sprinkler water, his jaw dropping in sheer, unadulterated astonishment. Standing at the base of the marble stairs was his mother—clad in a soaked maid's uniform, wearing a bulletproof vest, wielding a tactical shotgun like a seasoned mercenary.
"Mom?!" Julian bellowed, completely unable to process the sight. "What... what are you wearing?! What is going on?!"
"That bitch is alive!" the guard on the mezzanine shouted, raising his rifle over the railing to aim straight at Eleanor.
Eleanor didn't hesitate. She fired twice in rapid succession.
BOOM! BOOM!
The heavy lead slugs shredded the wooden balustrade, sending massive splinters and stone chips flying into the guard's face. He shrieked, dropped his rifle and fell backward away from the rail.
The second guard panicked, pulling Julian up by his collar and shoving him toward the massive, reinforced steel door of the east wing guest suite—the very door where Victoria had kept Chloe locked away.
He threw Julian inside, slammed the thick mahogany-faced door shut, and threw the heavy mechanical deadbolt from the outside, locking Julian securely within the soundproof room.
"You're not getting him back, old woman!" the guard shouted down from the balcony, pulling a second hand grenade from his tactical vest. "Vance gave orders! Nobody leaves this house alive!"
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Eleanor's eyes narrowed into slits of pure fire.
"You picked the wrong house to break into," she whispered.
