Chapter 6 - The Traitor Within
The night of the gala had changed everything between them.
The cold, professional distance that had defined their relationship began to melt. Declan found excuses to spend his mornings in the east wing watching Mave work with Brutus, while Mave found herself looking forward to their quiet late-night dinners in the library.
She began to see the real Declan Gallagher: a man born into violence, carrying the burden of protecting hundreds of families who depended on his organization for their livelihoods. He wasn't a monster; he was a guardian who used teeth to keep the wolves away.
On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, four weeks after Mave had arrived at the estate, the wolves struck from inside.
Declan was away in the city attending a high-level summit with the waterfront union leaders. Only Gavin, Mave, and six estate guards remained at the coastal mansion.
Mave sat in the library, brushing Brutus’s dark coat while reading a book by the fire.
Suddenly, Brutus’s ears perked up.
The dog stood up silently, his body going rigid as a board, a low, vibrating growl forming deep in his broad chest.
Mave set her brush down. "What is it, boy?"
Brutus moved toward the library door, sniffing the crack at the base.
Mave stood up, stepping quietly toward the hallway. Through the heavy oak doors, she heard the muffled sound of a suppressed gunshot—a dull, unnatural phut-phut.
Her blood ran cold.
She opened the door an inch and peered into the main corridor.
Standing near the security control panel was Gavin.
Beside him lay two estate guards, motionless on the floor in pools of blood. Gavin was holding an encrypted flash drive, plugging it directly into the estate's main security server, bypassing the outer gate controls.
Through the rain-slicked windows of the foyer, Mave saw three black vans pulling through the now-open iron gates.
Dominic Vance’s men had arrived.
Gavin wasn't just a loyal lieutenant; he was the mole.
"Good boy," Mave whispered to Brutus, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs.
She knew she couldn't outrun armed men, and the estate’s main landlines were undoubtedly cut. She needed to warn Declan, and she needed to survive until he arrived.
Mave slipped back into the library, locking the heavy oak doors quietly. She grabbed her phone—no signal, as expected—and then remembered the emergency radio Declan kept in the hidden wall safe behind the mahogany bookshelf.
Declan had shown her the code two weeks ago "just in case."
Her fingers flew across the keypad: 0-9-1-2.
The safe clicked open. Inside rested a heavy satellite radio and a sleek, silver semi-automatic pistol.
Mave grabbed the radio, switched it to the encrypted channel, and pressed the talk button.
"Declan! It’s Mave!" she said, her voice tight with suppressed panic. "Gavin is the leak! He opened the south gates! Vance’s men are inside the house!"
Through the static, Declan’s voice roared back—furious, terrifying, and laced with absolute desperation.
"Mave! Lock yourself in the panic room behind the library wall! I'm five minutes away! Don't let them touch you!"
Before Mave could reply, the library door shuddered under a heavy impact.
BOOM!
"Open the door, Mave!" Gavin’s voice shouted from the hallway. "Dominic wants you alive! Make this easy on yourself!"
Brutus released a deafening, terrifying roar, his jaws snapping at the splintering wood of the door.
Mave didn't panic. The months of survival had honed her instincts into pure steel. She grabbed the silver pistol from the safe, checked the magazine—full—and rack the slide with a sharp clack.
"Brutus, with me," Mave commanded.
She pressed the hidden release button inside the safe, and a portion of the mahogany bookshelf swung inward, revealing the narrow, reinforced concrete passage of the panic room.
She ushered Brutus inside, stepped into the dark concrete room, and hit the door lock just as the library doors exploded open behind them.
Through the heavy bulletproof glass viewing slit of the panic room door, Mave watched Gavin step into the library, flanked by four of Dominic’s mercenaries holding assault rifles.
"Search the room!" Gavin growled. "Find the girl!"
One of the mercenaries approached the viewing slit, raising his rifle butt to smash the glass.
Mave didn't flinch. She stood on the other side of the glass, holding the silver pistol with two hands, her eyes cold as steel as she stared directly at the traitor.
"You picked the wrong house, Gavin," Mave whispered through the intercom speaker.
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At that exact moment, the courtyard outside exploded into gunfire.
Declan Gallagher had arrived.
