Chapter 6 - The Trap Begins
By 5:00 AM, thick fog had rolled off Long Island Sound, enveloping the Moretti estate in a dense, white blanket.
Inside the east wing, Lily woke up to the smell of warm pancakes.
Sarah was standing by a small dining table set up in their suite, where a house chef had just delivered a massive breakfast tray. For the first time in years, Lily wasn't coughing. The medical treatment provided by Dr. Thorne had opened her lungs completely.
"Mama," Lily said, swinging her legs off the bed. "Is the scary mister going to be okay?"
Sarah walked over and wrapped her daughter in a tight hug. "He's going to be okay, baby. He's very powerful."
"He looked sad," Lily murmured, clutching her stuffed rabbit. "His eyes looked like my lungs when they hurt."
Before Sarah could answer, the suite door opened softly, and Lucas stepped inside. He had changed into a dark tactical sweater and dark pants. His face was set in hard line, but his eyes softened as he saw Lily eating.
"How are you feeling, little one?" Lucas asked, walking over.
"I can breathe all the way to my tummy!" Lily smiled, showing a missing front tooth.
Lucas knelt beside her, reaching out to gently pat her head. "I'm glad. Sarah, I need you both to listen to me carefully."
Sarah’s smile vanished instantly. "Mr. Moretti? What’s wrong?"
"This house is no longer safe," Lucas said calmly, pulling a heavy brass key from his pocket and handing it to Sarah. "In ten minutes, Marcus will come through the rear service door of this room. He is going to take you down to the wine cellar beneath the old garage. It is a fortified fallout shelter built by my grandfather. Nobody gets in without this key."
"Are we in danger?" Sarah whispered, terror returning to her eyes.
"No," Lucas said firmly, looking Sarah in the eye. "Because I am going to end the danger today. But I need you and Lily hidden where no one can find you."
Lucas turned back to Lily. He took a small, solid gold medal from his pocket—a Saint Christopher medal that had belonged to his son, Daniel—and gently placed it in Lily's small palm.
"Keep this safe for me, Lily," Lucas said quietly. "It belonged to my boy. It brings good luck."
Lily looked at the shiny medal, then closed her little fingers around it tightly. "I'll keep it safe, Mister. Promise."
"Marcus is outside," Lucas said, standing up. "Go now."
Sarah grabbed Lily's hand, trusting the dark billionaire who had suddenly become their protector. They slipped out the back service door with Marcus just as the estate's internal security cameras in the east wing quietly went dark—one by one.
Upstairs in the security control room, Julian Vance stepped over the unconscious body of the head camera operator.
Julian pulled a radio from his belt and switched to an encrypted channel.
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"Team One, Team Two, move in," Julian commanded cold-bloodedly into the radio. "Lucas is in the master study. Kill everyone who isn't on our payroll. Make it look like a home invasion by the Colombians."
Outside in the fog, twelve heavily armed mercs dressed in black tactical gear breached the estate's iron gates, moving silently toward the main house.
