Chapter 4 - THE SAFE ROOMEmergency lights turned the bedroom crimson.
Leo opened a concealed panel beside the fireplace.
“Inside.”
Clara stared at the narrow steel doorway.
“What about Liam?”
“He stays.”
“Absolutely not.”
Liam reached toward the pistol beneath his pillow.
Clara saw it.
“You’re insane.”
“Occupational requirement.”
“You have a fractured leg and abdominal infection.”
“I can still shoot.”
“That isn’t reassuring.”
Another burst of gunfire sounded.
Leo cursed.
“Thirty seconds.”
Clara walked directly to Liam’s wheelchair.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking you with me.”
“No.”
“Great. We’re back to this.”
She locked the wheelchair beside the bed and reached beneath his shoulders.
Liam caught her wrist.
“You cannot carry me.”
“Watch me.”
“You’ll tear my incision.”
“Then cooperate.”
For once, he did.
With Leo’s help they transferred him.
Pain drained the color from Liam’s face.
Clara saw it.
He made no sound.
They entered the safe room.
Leo closed the steel door.
The space contained surveillance monitors, weapons, water, medical supplies, and communications equipment.
Clara stared.
“This is normal for you?”
“No.”
Liam looked at the arsenal.
“This is Tuesday.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
Liam looked at her.
The sound did something to him.
Leo checked the monitors.
Masked men moved through the lower level.
“Adrian.”
Liam’s voice became ice.
Clara heard.
“Your brother?”
He looked toward her.
The secret was out.
“Yes.”
“He did this to you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Liam stared at the screens.
“Because our father left me control.”
Clara slowly sat.
“You’re fighting your brother over an inheritance?”
“No.”
Liam’s face hardened.
“We’re fighting because the inheritance is an empire.”
Clara understood.
All the guns.
The secrecy.
The cash.
“Criminal?”
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
He did not lie.
That mattered.
“Have you killed people?”
Leo glanced over.
Liam held Clara’s gaze.
“Yes.”
The answer frightened her.
Not because she had not suspected it.
Because hearing it made him real.
“Do you regret it?”
Liam’s expression changed.
“Some.”
“Not all?”
“No.”
Clara looked away.
He hated the disappointment in her face.
More than he should.
“You should leave after tonight,” he said.
She looked back.
“Fire me tomorrow.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
“I’m not firing you.”
“Then I’m staying.”
“Why?”
Clara glanced at his bandages.
“Because my patient isn’t medically stable.”
“That’s the reason?”
She hesitated.
“Yes.”
Liam knew she was lying.
He did not expose her.
Security regained control before dawn.
Three attackers were captured.
Adrian was not among them.
When the safe-room door opened, Clara wheeled Liam back toward his bedroom.
Smoke hung in the corridor.
A guard lay beneath a sheet.
Clara stopped.
She had spent her career around death.
This felt different.
This death belonged to Liam’s world.
Liam saw her face.
“His name was Marcus.”
Clara looked at him.
“He had two daughters.”
“You knew?”
“I know everyone who works for me.”
His voice was quiet.
“I’ll take care of them.”
“Money?”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t replace their father.”
“No.”
His answer came without defensiveness.
“It doesn’t.”
Clara realized Liam understood the difference.
Perhaps he had always understood it.
The next afternoon, she found him attempting physical therapy.
This time he had waited for the therapist.
He managed three steps.
Then four.
His entire body shook.
Clara stood silently near the door.
Five.
On the sixth, his injured leg failed.
The therapist caught him.
Liam swore.
“Again.”
“That’s enough.”
“Again.”
Clara walked forward.
“He said enough.”
Liam glared.
“Stay out of it.”
“No.”
“You’re becoming irritating.”
“Becoming?”
The therapist wisely excused himself.
Clara handed Liam water.
He drank.
“You did six.”
“I needed ten.”
“Yesterday you did zero.”
“That isn’t good enough.”
“For whom?”
He looked away.
Clara crouched in front of the wheelchair.
“Your brother?”
No answer.
“Your men?”
Silence.
“Your father?”
His eyes snapped toward hers.
There.
She had found it.
Liam laughed bitterly.
“My father used to say pain was the body asking permission to be weak.”
“Your father sounds exhausting.”
“He was.”
“And dead?”
“Yes.”
“Convenient.”
Liam stared.
Clara shrugged.
“He can’t argue when I say he was wrong.”
For the first time, Liam laughed fully.
Deep.
Rough.
Unexpected.
Clara smiled.
Neither noticed Leo outside.
He did.
And it worried him.
Because Adrian Mercer could exploit anything Liam loved.
That evening, Clara received another call concerning Tommy.
She returned looking shaken.
Liam noticed immediately.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Clara.”
She sat.
“The trial starts Monday.”
“That’s good.”
“In Boston.”
Liam froze.
“I need three days off.”
“You have them.”
“I’ll arrange another nurse.”
“No.”
She frowned.
“You need medical care.”
“Leo can find someone.”
“You chased six nurses away.”
“Seven.”
“I haven’t quit.”
“Yet.”
Clara smiled faintly.
Then Liam said something he had not planned.
“I’ll come.”
She stared.
“To Boston?”
“Yes.”
“You can barely travel.”
“I have a plane.”
“Of course you have a plane.”
“My physicians can come.”
“Why?”
The question stopped him.
Why?
Because he wanted to see Tommy.
Because he wanted to see the person Clara was sacrificing everything to save.
Because he wanted three days outside this fortress.
Because he wanted three days with her.
“I need specialist follow-up in Boston.”
Clara narrowed her eyes.
“You just invented that.”
“Prove it.”
She laughed.
“You are ridiculous.”
“Is that a yes?”
She looked at him.
“All right.”
Liam smiled.
Then Leo appeared in the doorway.
His face killed the moment.
“Merc.”
Liam looked over.
“What?”
“We caught a message from Adrian.”
Leo handed him a phone.
A photograph filled the screen.
Tommy Bennett sleeping in his hospital bed.
Taken less than an hour earlier.
Beneath it were six words.
Give me the empire or he dies.
Liam’s face went blank.
Clara saw the photograph.
The color disappeared from her skin.
“No.”
Liam was already reaching for his gun.
“Leo.”
“Team is moving.”
Clara grabbed Liam’s arm.
“Please.”
He looked at her.
For the first time since they met, Clara Bennett looked terrified.
“Please save my brother.”
Liam covered her hand with his.
“I will.”
His voice was quiet.
Absolute.
Then he looked at Leo.
May you like
And the wounded man who could barely walk issued an order that made every armed man in the estate move.
“Bring Tommy home.”
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