Chapter 6 - The Sabotage
The sudden silence in the mansion was heavy and terrifying.
Down on the rug, Noah dropped his wooden blocks. “Mom?” his small voice trembled in the dark.
“I’m right here, baby,” Mara said instantly, standing up and reaching for her son in the blackness.
Grant pulled a heavy metallic flashlight from his desk drawer, clicking it on. A sharp beam of white light cut through the room. At the same time, his phone chimed with a security alert.
“WARNING: PERIMETER BREACH AT EAST GATE. AUXILIARY POWER LINES SEVERED.”
Grant’s eyes went dark. He walked over to the window, peering out into the rain-soaked estate grounds. In the distance, near the generator building, he saw the faint beams of flashlight movements—unauthorized intruders on the grounds.
“Cassian!” Grant called out into his comms device, reaching for the private security channel.
Static echoed through the speaker. “Mr. Holloway! We have three armed intruders moving toward the main house! They cut the main power grid and jammed local cell signals!”
Arthur Vaughn was cornered, desperate, and acting out of blind, reckless fury. Realizing he was facing criminal prosecution and total financial ruin, he had sent hired thugs to the estate to recover the flash drive containing the evidence and intimidate Mara into silence.
“Get Noah into the panic room behind the library,” Grant ordered Mara, his voice calm, command-driven, and utterly fearless.
“Grant, what about you?” Mara asked, holding Noah tightly against her chest.
“I’m going to end this,” Grant said.
He pulled a heavy steel security baton from a wall cabinet. He guided Mara and Noah down the dark hallway into the wood-paneled library, pushing open a hidden door disguised behind a row of leather-bound books.
“Stay inside until I come for you,” Grant instructed, looking into Mara’s eyes.
Mara grabbed his forearm, her fingers digging into his sleeve. “Don't get hurt. Please.”
Grant gave her a fierce, reassuring nod. “Not a chance.”
The heavy reinforced door clicked shut, locking Mara and Noah safely inside.
Grant turned back into the dark corridor, his flash-light beam tracing the marble floor. He moved silently through the shadow of the estate he had lived in his entire life, knowing every hallway, every corner, every hidden alcove.
Near the grand foyer, the heavy oak front doors burst open. Three men wearing black tactical masks and rain-soaked coats rushed into the hall, weapons drawn.
“Find the woman and the kid!” one of the men barked in a rough voice. “And search the study for the hard drives!”
From the shadows of the upper balcony, Grant watched them. He didn't panic. He reached into his pocket and hit the emergency manual override switch on his phone—a hard-wired local circuit that bypassed the severed main power line.
Instantly, blinding emergency floodlights roared to life throughout the foyer, accompanied by a deafening 120-decibel security siren.
The intruders were instantly blinded, shielding their eyes and stumbling across the slippery marble floor.
Grant descended the grand staircase like an avalanche. Before the lead intruder could raise his weapon, Grant struck his wrist with the steel baton, disarming him in a single fluid stroke. He drove his weight through a shoulder charge, slamming the second intruder hard against the stone pillar.
The third man leveled a pistol toward Grant.
Suddenly, a heavy bronze vase flew through the air, striking the third gunman squarely in the side of the head! The man stumbled backward, his gun firing wildly into the ceiling before dropping from his numb fingers.
Grant turned in shock.
Mara was standing at the entrance of the hallway, holding an empty brass candlestick holder, her eyes burning with fierce maternal rage. She hadn't stayed in the panic room—she had come back to protect the man who was fighting for her family.
“You okay?” Mara asked, her breath coming in sharp hitches.
Grant looked at the three groaned intruders groveling on the floor, then looked back at Mara with an expression of sheer awe.
May you like
“I was doing fine,” Grant said, a breathless smile breaking across his face. “But your timing is incredible.”
Outside, the wail of police sirens cut through the storm as six patrol cars pulled up the driveway, their red and blue lights flashing against the wet glass windows.
