Chapter 4 - The Man in the Walls
Emergency lights flashed red along the corridor.
Lily screamed for her mother.
Claire pulled her against her chest while Michael grabbed his medical bag.
Adrian was already at the door.
“Stay here.”
Claire stared at him as smoke alarms shrieked through the house.
“You just said somebody is inside!”
“And that’s why you’re staying here.”
The overhead lights flickered once, then died completely.
Marco appeared in the corridor with a flashlight in one hand and a weapon held low in the other.
“Explosion near the west generator room.”
“Fire?”
“Unknown.”
“Primary power?”
“Cut.”
“Backup?”
“Should engage automatically. It didn’t.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Sabotage.
A voice crackled through Marco’s radio.
“Movement near corridor C!”
Then static.
Marco touched his earpiece.
“Repeat.”
Nothing.
Adrian looked toward Claire.
“Lock the door after us.”
“No.”
He turned.
Claire had gotten out of bed.
Michael immediately protested.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m not staying in a room with a forced window while someone who wants my daughter is inside this house.”
Adrian stared at her.
That was difficult to argue with.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
Michael said, “Barely.”
Claire gave him a furious look.
Adrian made the decision.
“Fine. You come with me.”
Michael opened his mouth.
Adrian pointed toward Lily.
“You carry her.”
Lily wrapped both arms around her rabbit.
“I can walk.”
“No,” four adults said simultaneously.
For the first time that night, she looked genuinely offended.
Michael picked her up.
Adrian moved first.
Marco behind him.
Claire and Michael between them.
They advanced through the service corridor toward the central section of the mansion.
The Moretti estate had been renovated so many times over the past century that sections of it felt like entirely different buildings.
The front was grand.
Marble staircases.
Two-story windows.
Paintings older than most American banks.
The service areas were narrower.
Low ceilings.
Blind corners.
Old stone passageways hidden behind modern walls.
Adrian knew every inch.
Or believed he did.
Halfway to the central stairwell, he stopped.
A service door stood open.
It should have been locked.
Marco noticed too.
“Laundry access.”
Adrian nodded.
The same utility room where someone had disabled the cameras.
A shadow moved inside.
Marco raised his weapon.
“Show yourself.”
No answer.
Adrian stepped closer.
Claire whispered, “Don’t.”
He glanced back.
She pointed at the floor.
A wire stretched across the threshold.
Almost invisible.
Marco cursed softly.
Adrian lowered his gaze.
Trip line.
“Back.”
Everyone retreated.
Adrian looked at Claire.
“How did you see that?”
“I’ve been watching floors for three years.”
He understood.
People who lived in fear developed strange forms of expertise.
Marco radioed the security team.
No response.
“Comms are being jammed.”
Adrian removed his phone.
No signal.
Someone had prepared thoroughly.
They moved toward a different stairwell.
As they reached the first landing, a man stumbled around the corner.
Security officer Paul Mercer.
Blood covered one side of his face.
Marco raised his weapon.
Paul lifted both hands.
“Don’t shoot.”
“What happened?”
“Someone hit me in the monitoring room.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t see him.”
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“What were you doing in the monitoring room?”
“My assignment.”
“Your assignment was the north perimeter.”
Paul froze.
Adrian took one slow step forward.
Paul’s hand moved toward his jacket.
Marco shouted, “Hands!”
Paul moved faster.
A flash of metal.
Claire screamed.
Adrian slammed her behind the stone column as Marco lunged.
The weapon in Paul’s hand was not a gun.
It was a syringe.
Marco twisted his wrist.
Paul cried out.
The syringe dropped.
Adrian kicked it away.
Two seconds later Paul was facedown on the marble with Marco’s knee between his shoulder blades.
Lily buried her face in Michael’s neck.
Adrian crouched beside Paul.
“What was in the syringe?”
Paul said nothing.
Marco pressed harder.
“What was in it?”
“Go to hell.”
Adrian’s voice stayed calm.
“That suggests you misunderstand the current direction of travel.”
Paul tried to turn his head.
Adrian picked up the syringe using a handkerchief.
“Same thing you gave Claire?”
Paul’s eyes flicked toward her.
One glance.
One mistake.
Claire saw it.
“You.”
Her voice broke.
Paul closed his eyes.
Adrian’s expression became frighteningly empty.
“How long?”
Paul remained silent.
Adrian asked Claire, “Do you know him?”
“Only as security.”
Paul laughed weakly.
“That’s the point.”
Marco twisted his arm.
“Quiet.”
But Paul kept looking at Claire.
“Kane said you were smart.”
Claire went white.
“He was wrong.”
Adrian stood.
“What did Victor pay you?”
Paul smiled through blood.
“You think this is about money?”
“What is it about?”
“Insurance.”
“For who?”
Paul laughed again.
Then suddenly began convulsing.
Michael lowered Lily and rushed forward.
“Move!”
Marco released him.
Paul’s body jerked violently.
Foam appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Michael checked his pulse.
“Poison.”
Adrian stared.
“He took something?”
“Could have had a capsule hidden in his mouth.”
Within seconds, Paul stopped moving.
Michael worked on him.
Nothing.
Claire turned Lily’s face into her shoulder.
“Don’t look.”
Adrian looked at the dead man.
Victor’s organization had just sacrificed one of its own inside Adrian’s home.
That meant this was bigger than intimidation.
Much bigger.
The emergency lighting flickered.
Then the house speakers crackled.
Everyone looked upward.
Static hissed.
A man’s voice filled the corridor.
“Good morning, Claire.”
Lily whimpered.
Claire froze.
Victor.
Adrian had heard that voice across conference tables, private dining rooms, and charity stages.
Polished.
Patient.
Controlled.
Tonight it carried amusement.
“You always did make people work harder than necessary.”
Adrian stepped beneath the nearest speaker.
“Victor.”
A pause.
Then laughter.
“Adrian Moretti.”
Victor sounded genuinely pleased.
“I wondered how long it would take you.”
“You’re trespassing.”
“Technically, I’m communicating.”
“You drugged a woman in my house.”
“She stole from me.”
“You threatened a child under my roof.”
Another pause.
“Children complicate everything, don’t they?”
Adrian looked at Lily.
The little girl trembled against Claire.
His voice became colder.
“You have one opportunity to leave this property alive.”
Claire looked at him sharply.
Victor chuckled.
“There he is.”
Adrian said nothing.
“I always wondered whether the stories were exaggerated.”
“They are.”
Victor laughed again.
“Oh?”
“They’re kinder.”
Silence.
Then Victor’s voice hardened.
“This does not concern you.”
“It became my concern at 12:03.”
Claire looked at him.
Victor said, “Claire has something that belongs to me.”
Adrian’s gaze moved toward her.
“So she mentioned.”
“No. She didn’t.”
Claire’s face changed.
Victor continued.
“She doesn’t even know what she has.”
Adrian looked directly at her.
That was new.
Claire whispered, “He’s lying.”
Victor heard her through whatever hidden microphone fed the system.
“Am I?”
Claire stared upward.
“You’re never getting Lily.”
“I don’t want Lily.”
The child flinched.
Claire’s expression shattered for a second.
Victor continued without mercy.
“I stopped caring about custody years ago.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Careful.”
Victor ignored him.
“What I want is the key.”
Claire looked confused.
“What key?”
Victor sighed.
“Your mother really told you nothing.”
Claire stopped breathing.
Adrian saw it immediately.
“Her mother is dead.”
Victor answered.
“Yes.”
A pause.
“Because she refused to tell me where she hid it.”
Claire’s knees nearly gave out.
Michael caught her arm.
“No.”
Victor continued.
“You believed Elena Bennett died in a traffic accident.”
Claire stared at the speaker.
“Stop.”
“She didn’t.”
“Stop.”
“The brakes were cut.”
Lily began crying because her mother was crying.
Claire pressed both hands over her ears.
Adrian stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Victor’s voice became colder.
“Give me the key, Claire.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Yes, you do.”
“No!”
“Think about the last thing your mother gave you.”
Claire’s face went blank.
Adrian watched memory move across it.
“What?” he asked.
She didn’t answer.
Victor did.
“The necklace.”
Claire instinctively touched her throat.
Nothing was there.
Her eyes widened.
Adrian noticed.
“Where is it?”
Claire looked at him.
“I haven’t worn it in years.”
Victor said, “That was careless.”
Claire turned toward Lily.
The child was still holding the stuffed rabbit.
Claire stared at it.
Adrian understood before she spoke.
“No.”
Claire crossed the space and took the rabbit from Lily.
“Mommy?”
“It’s okay.”
Her hands shook as she felt along one torn ear.
Then the stitched belly.
She found something hard inside.
Claire’s face drained of blood.
“I never put anything in here.”
Adrian took the rabbit.
He felt the seam.
Something small.
Metal.
Hidden beneath the stuffing.
Victor’s voice came through the speakers.
“There it is.”
Adrian looked upward.
Victor had been watching.
Which meant the room had a live camera.
Marco immediately began scanning the walls.
Adrian pulled a small knife from his pocket and sliced the old seam.
Lily gasped.
“My bunny!”
“I’ll buy him surgery.”
Even Claire almost reacted.
Adrian reached inside.
His fingers touched metal.
He pulled out a small brass key.
Old.
Unmarked.
Claire stared at it.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Victor’s voice softened.
“Your mother was clever.”
Adrian closed his fist around the key.
Victor said, “Now, Adrian, we can behave like reasonable men.”
Adrian’s expression turned almost bored.
“That seems unlikely.”
“Give me the key.”
“No.”
“It isn’t yours.”
“It was inside a rabbit belonging to a child in my house.”
Victor went silent.
Adrian continued.
“So tonight, it’s mine.”
“You have no idea what it opens.”
“Neither do you.”
Another silence.
For the first time, Victor sounded angry.
“Do not test me.”
Adrian looked at Marco.
Marco understood.
They needed to move.
Adrian spoke toward the hidden microphone.
“Victor?”
“Yes?”
“You made one mistake.”
“I doubt that.”
“You told me the key matters.”
Adrian crushed the tiny camera Marco had spotted beneath a smoke detector.
The speaker went silent.
They moved.
At the bottom of the central stairs they found Daniel with six armed men.
“Comms are partially restored.”
“Status?”
“Fire contained. No structural damage. Two guards injured. Paul is dead?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“We found Jason Pike conscious enough to talk.”
“What did he say?”
“He didn’t shut down the cameras.”
“Who did?”
“He thinks Evelyn Shaw stole his badge.”
Claire stared.
The head housekeeper.
The woman who had hired her.
Adrian looked toward Daniel.
“Where’s Evelyn?”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“Missing.”
A gunshot thundered from the ballroom.
Then another.
People screamed.
Adrian turned.
Every instinct in him sharpened.
Victor’s distraction had worked.
The real target had never been Claire’s room.
It was the locked-down staff.
Adrian ran toward the ballroom.
When he reached the double doors, one of his guards lay wounded outside.
Daniel kicked the doors open.
Inside, forty frightened employees had been forced against the walls.
A masked man stood on the mezzanine with a gun pressed against Evelyn Shaw’s head.
And beside him stood Victor Kane.
Perfect suit.
Silver hair.
Not a mark on him.
He smiled down at Adrian.
May you like
“You really should improve your hospitality.”
Then he pushed Evelyn over the railing.
