Chapter 12
The instant the brass doorknob began to turn, Ryan’s overwhelming survival instincts took over. Instead of standing directly in front of the doorway, he pressed his broad shoulders flat against the solid wall beside the frame. BANG! BANG! BANG! Three deafening gunshots shattered the midnight silence of the estate. High-caliber bullets tore through the thick oak, splintering the wood and burying themselves deep into the wall exactly where Ryan’s chest would have been. Wood chips rained down onto the heated marble floor.
"Damn it!" Marcus roared from the hallway, realizing his cowardly, preemptive strike had completely missed its mark.
Without hesitating for a fraction of a second, Ryan pivoted around the doorframe, raising his heavy pistol and returning fire through the jagged holes in the wood. His shots were devastatingly precise. A pained groan echoed from the corridor, followed by the heavy thud of a body collapsing to the hardwood floor. Ryan raised his leg and kicked the splintered doors open, bursting out of the master suite like an unchained predator.
The hallway was filled with the acrid smoke of gunpowder. Marcus was clutching his bleeding shoulder, stumbling backward toward the grand staircase, shielded by three armed guards in black suits. "Kill him!" Marcus screamed, his eyes wide with a frantic, desperate madness.
May you like
Ryan immediately dove into a tactical roll behind a heavy marble pillar as a hail of bullets chewed up the floorboards where he had just stood. With terrifying composure, Ryan leaned out, his finger pulling the trigger three consecutive times. Two guards dropped instantly, clean shots to the head. The third guard panicked, firing blindly into the dark, but Ryan calmly stepped forward and placed his final bullet directly into the man’s chest.
Marcus had already fled halfway down the main staircase. He looked back at the carnage. "You can't win this, Ryan! Every exit is sealed. We have thirty men outside!" Ryan ejected the empty magazine, slamming a fresh one home with a sharp clack. "You are wrong, Marcus," Ryan called down into the darkness. "My reign isn't ending. Your hell is just beginning."
