Chapter 5 - The Guard at the Threshold
Grace moved instantly. The nurse in her wiped away all hesitation. She snapped her arm free from his grip and leaned over the bedside monitor, her fingers flying across the interface buttons.
"Pulse is stable," Grace said quickly, checking his carotid artery with two fingers. "It's an artificial alarm bypass!"
The bedroom door burst open with a heavy crash. Leo Moretti plunged into the room, a black sidearm drawn and raised in a low ready position, followed by three armed estate guards with tactical lights cutting through the darkness.
"Clear the room!" Leo barked, his eyes scanning the shadows. "Power grid on the north wall just went down!"
"It was a monitor glitch, Leo!" Grace yelled over the high-pitched electronic whine, slapping the manual override toggle on the back of the medical unit. The screaming alarm died instantly, leaving only the sound of heavy breathing and rustling suits.
Leo lowered his weapon slightly, his dark beard gleaming in the red emergency backup lights that had just clicked on along the baseboards. "The main generator was cut from the outside, Boss. Backup power is running, but the perimeter sensors are blind for the next three minutes."
Liam didn't show a shred of panic. He pushed himself up into a sitting position against the headboard, ignoring the sharp groan of pain that escaped his lips as his abdominal bandages stretched. "Who is on the west gate?"
"Marcus and Reynolds," Leo replied, his voice tense.
"They're already dead," Liam said flatly. "They bypassed the north wall because they know the security camera blind spots. They aren't here for the estate, Leo. They're here for the payload."
Grace stood between the bed and the guards, her heart hammering against her ribs. "Payload? What payload? This is a hospital room!"
Liam looked up at her, his rugged, handsome face illuminated by the blood-red glow of the emergency lights. "You thought you were hired because you were a good nurse, Grace?"
Grace felt the temperature in her veins drop to absolute zero. "What are you talking about?"
"Dr. Shaw didn't select your profile out of a medical agency database," Liam said, his icy eyes fixing onto hers with brutal clarity. "I selected you. Three weeks ago. Because your father was the chief structural engineer who built the subterranean foundations of this mansion twenty years ago."
Grace backed away until her spine hit the edge of the medical cart. "My father died in a construction accident ten years ago!"
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"It wasn't an accident," Liam said softly. "And the blueprints he left behind are the only reason the men outside haven't blown this entire room into the ocean."
Outside the window, behind the heavy velvet drapes, a sudden, blinding flash of white light illuminated the edges of the curtains, accompanied by the muffled, heavy thud of a breaching charge detonating in the courtyard below.
