Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN IN THE CELLAR
Bullets tore through the bedroom window.
Dominic shoved Claire down.
Glass sprayed across the floor.
Daniel fired twice through the broken frame.
“Back staircase!”
Vincent kicked open a closet.
Behind the coats was a narrow service door.
“You knew this was here?” Dominic shouted.
“I bought the house!”
They ran.
More gunfire hit the wall.
Claire stumbled.
Dominic caught her.
“You lock my employee underground, then I save your life.”
Claire looked at him.
“I didn’t lock Mia down there.”
Dominic nearly threw her aside.
“I heard the recording.”
“I said handle her.”
“That sounds pretty clear.”
“I meant pay her.”
Vincent barked a laugh.
“Wonderful defense.”
Claire ignored him.
“Nathan told me Mia took money from the wine accounts.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You believed him?”
“For seventeen years, so did you.”
That landed.
They reached the back exit.
Marcus’s SUV crashed through the fence.
“Move!”
Everyone piled inside.
Gunmen appeared behind the river house.
Marcus accelerated.
The SUV fishtailed across wet gravel.
Bullets hammered the rear window.
Harper’s face flashed through Dominic’s mind.
If Nathan’s men were here…
“The estate.”
Dominic grabbed his phone.
“Daniel, call the estate.”
No answer.
“Again.”
Nothing.
Dominic called Marcus’s second-in-command.
Voicemail.
His blood turned cold.
“Mia and Harper.”
Marcus drove faster.
Twenty-three minutes later, smoke rose beyond the estate trees.
“No,” Dominic whispered.
A guardhouse burned near the main gate.
The security barrier had been smashed.
Bodies lay on the driveway.
Dominic jumped from the SUV before it fully stopped.
“Harper!”
He ran inside.
The great hall had been destroyed.
Broken glass.
Overturned furniture.
Blood on the staircase.
“Mia!”
A weak voice answered from the library.
“Here!”
Dominic found Mia behind an overturned desk, holding a kitchen knife.
Blood covered her sleeve.
“Where’s Harper?”
Mia pointed toward the bookcase.
Dominic pulled it open.
Harper sat inside the hidden panic room with the house doctor and two injured guards.
She saw Dominic and ran to him.
“You came back.”
He picked her up.
For a man who had spent his life keeping people at a distance, the way she wrapped her arms around his neck nearly broke him.
Mia limped toward them.
“What happened?” Dominic asked.
“Nathan’s men came through the east gate.”
“How?”
“Someone disabled security.”
Claire stood in the doorway.
Mia saw her.
Her entire expression changed.
“You.”
Claire raised both hands.
“Mia, listen.”
“You left me.”
“I came back!”
Dominic looked between them.
“What?”
Mia stared at Claire.
“You came back to the cellar the second night.”
Claire whispered, “Yes.”
“You brought water.”
“Yes.”
“You said you were getting help.”
“I tried.”
Mia’s voice shook with fury.
“Then Nathan came.”
Claire looked at Dominic.
“He caught me.”
“And let you walk away?”
“No.”
Claire pulled down the collar of her blouse.
Bruises covered her neck.
“He told me if I didn’t continue with the wedding, he’d kill my sister.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You have a sister?”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“She disappeared five months ago.”
Mia suddenly gripped the desk.
“There was another woman.”
Dominic turned.
“What?”
“In the hidden room.”
“When?”
“The night they locked me up.”
Mia swallowed.
“I heard a woman crying behind another wall.”
Claire went pale.
“My sister.”
Dominic looked toward the basement.
“There’s another chamber.”
Mia nodded.
“And whoever was in it…”
May you like
She hesitated.
“…called Nathan ‘Dad.’”
