Chapter 2: The Witness in the House
Mara hit the floor before the first shot shattered the kitchen window.
Glass exploded inward.
Dominic grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind the marble island. Bullets tore through cabinets, crystal lights, and black polished doors.
Celeste had vanished.
Mara’s heart hammered, but her mind stayed clear.
Not panic.
Count.
Breathe.
Move.
Dominic pulled a handgun from beneath the island, but he did not fire blindly. He waited, listening.
“Two shooters,” he whispered. “Maybe three.”
“You keep guns in the kitchen?”
“I keep survival everywhere.”
Mara looked at him. “Then survive faster.”
For the first time that night, Dominic almost smiled.
They moved through the service corridor while bullets ripped through the kitchen behind them. Mara knew the penthouse layout better than any guard. She had cleaned every room, memorized every door, every camera angle, every blind spot.
At the laundry room, she shoved open a hidden panel behind stacked linens.
Dominic stared.
Mara snapped, “I was planning to rob your secrets, not admire your furniture.”
They slipped inside the narrow maintenance passage.
Behind them, footsteps entered the kitchen.
A man’s voice said, “Find the girl. Griffin wants her alive until he gets the drive.”
Mara stopped breathing.
Dominic looked at her.
“What drive?”
Mara pulled a small black flash drive from inside her apron seam.
“My father’s last insurance policy.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Not greed.
Recognition.
“He had the ledger.”
Mara’s voice became thin. “What ledger?”
Dominic looked toward the darkness behind them.
“The one that proves Griffin and Celeste sold out your father.”
Mara’s fingers tightened around the drive.
“And you knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You let me live in this house for three months while the people who killed him slept upstairs?”
Dominic’s face hardened with shame.
“I needed proof.”
Mara’s eyes burned.
“My father needed help.”
Dominic had no answer.
That was when Mara heard it.
A soft mechanical click from above.
The passage camera had turned on.
May you like
Celeste’s voice echoed through the hidden speaker.
“Oh, Mara,” she said sweetly. “Thank you for confirming you have the drive.”
