Chapter 4 - Gunfire in the Gallery
Glass exploded like ice.
Elise dropped.
The second bullet struck the wall where her head had been.
The drawing-room doors flew open.
Jonah came out first, weapon raised.
Caleb followed in his wheelchair.
Adrian disappeared behind them.
“Down!” Jonah shouted.
Security guards exchanged fire with the stranger.
Elise crawled behind a marble pedestal.
The mansion that had seemed elegant minutes ago became a maze of stone, mirrors and ricocheting sound.
Another shot.
Another.
A framed painting tore from the wall.
“West stairs!” someone yelled.
Two additional gunmen appeared below.
This wasn't one assassin.
It was an assault.
Caleb moved into the hallway.
“Elise!”
She looked up.
He was exposed.
“Get back!”
A round struck the wall behind his chair.
Caleb turned sharply.
The front caster caught against scattered glass.
For half a second, the chair hesitated.
That was enough.
One gunman lifted his weapon.
Elise ran.
She didn't think.
She reached Caleb, grabbed the handles on the back of the motorized chair and shoved with everything she had.
“Move!”
“I am!”
The wheel spun against debris.
Elise planted one foot against the marble.
A bullet hit Caleb high in the chest.
He jerked.
She screamed.
The round had grazed the edge of his upper chest rather than entering cleanly, but blood immediately spread across the white shirt beneath his jacket.
“Caleb!”
“Keep moving!”
The motor engaged.
Elise pushed while Caleb steered.
They crossed the hallway.
A display cabinet shattered behind them.
Glass rained across the floor.
Elise felt something slice her palm.
She didn't stop.
At the intersection ahead, an expensive Persian runner had been knocked sideways.
Its thick edge folded beneath Caleb's front wheel.
The chair stopped.
“No!”
Elise pulled.
Nothing.
Caleb looked down.
“Wheel's caught.”
Gunfire echoed closer.
“Elise.”
She grabbed the rug.
“Leave it.”
She yanked.
“Elise!”
“Shut up!”
For possibly the first time in Caleb Rowan's adult life, someone shouted shut up at him and survived.
She pulled the rug free.
The wheelchair surged backward.
A bullet struck the marble beside her foot.
Caleb grabbed her wrist.
“Get behind me.”
“You're bleeding.”
“And you're standing.”
“Fantastic observation.”
Despite everything, his mouth twitched.
They reached a marble column.
Jonah and two guards covered them.
“Safe room!” Jonah shouted.
Caleb shook his head.
“They'll expect that.”
“Then where?”
“Service corridor.”
Elise looked at him.
“I know the route.”
Caleb hesitated.
“Go.”
She ran beside the wheelchair.
They reached a narrow staff passage behind the gallery.
Martha was there with three employees.
Her face went white when she saw Caleb's shirt.
“Oh God.”
“It's a graze,” Caleb said.
“How do you know?”
“Because I'm still arguing.”
Elise pushed him into a linen room.
Jonah entered seconds later.
“Three attackers down. At least two escaped.”
“Adrian?”
“Missing.”
Nobody spoke.
Caleb's eyes hardened.
“Find him.”
Elise grabbed a medical kit from the wall.
“Take off your jacket.”
Caleb looked at her.
“Now.”
He obeyed.
Martha stared.
“What?” Elise demanded.
“In sixteen years I've never seen anyone order him around this much.”
Caleb muttered, “I'm reconsidering her contract.”
Elise opened his shirt enough to examine the wound.
The bullet had cut a bloody groove near his collarbone.
“Lucky.”
Caleb looked down at her sliced hand.
“You're bleeding too.”
“Later.”
She cleaned his wound.
He didn't flinch.
“You've done this before?” he asked.
“Hotel housekeeping.”
He stared.
She sighed.
“Kitchen accidents. Broken glass. Drunk wedding guests. One bachelor party involving a decorative sword.”
Despite the gunfire outside, Caleb laughed once.
Then his expression changed.
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why did you come back for me?”
Elise stopped.
She knew what he meant.
She could have run.
She should have run.
The threat on her wall had been clear.
Walk away.
Instead she had crossed gunfire to reach him.
“I don't know.”
“That isn't true.”
She taped gauze over his wound.
“You were sitting in the middle of a hallway while somebody shot at you.”
“I wasn't helpless.”
“I didn't say you were.”
“Then why?”
Elise finally looked at him.
“Because leaving somebody there to die isn't something I can live with.”
He studied her.
No calculation.
No suspicion.
Something far more vulnerable.
“Even me?”
She knew what people said about Caleb Rowan.
She also knew he had listened when she warned him.
He had searched her room but hadn't threatened her.
He had placed guards outside her door.
He was dangerous.
Maybe terrible.
But in that hallway she hadn't seen a feared man.
She had seen a person about to be killed.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Even you.”
Something changed between them.
Not romance.
Not yet.
It was smaller.
More dangerous.
Trust trying to exist where neither of them allowed it.
Jonah's radio crackled.
“We've got movement near the north gate.”
He turned.
“I need to go.”
Caleb nodded.
Jonah looked at Elise.
“Stay with him.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“You trust me now?”
“No.”
He almost smiled.
“But apparently bullets do.”
He left.
Martha guided the staff farther into the secure corridor.
Soon Elise and Caleb were alone.
He looked toward the door.
“Elise.”
“Yes?”
“If there is another attack, you run.”
“No.”
His expression sharpened.
“That wasn't a request.”
“Then it was wasted.”
“You don't understand these people.”
“Neither do you, apparently, because they're inside your house.”
His jaw tightened.
She immediately regretted it.
Then Caleb said quietly, “You're right.”
That frightened her more than anger would have.
A man like Caleb admitting weakness meant the situation was worse than she understood.
“Who is Victor Sloane?” she asked.
Caleb looked away.
“A ghost I should have buried.”
“That doesn't answer me.”
“My father trusted him.”
“And?”
“Victor helped manage our businesses. Legal and otherwise.”
There it was.
The confirmation everybody in Bellgrave already suspected.
Caleb continued.
“When I tried to move certain parts of the organization away from narcotics and trafficking, Victor opposed me.”
Elise stared.
“You're telling me this now?”
“You already walked through gunfire for me. It seems dishonest to pretend I'm a banker.”
“That may be the most ridiculous sentence I've heard this week.”
“It's Tuesday.”
She almost laughed.
Then he grew serious.
“Victor believed fear should control everything. I believed fear eventually creates somebody willing to kill you.”
Elise looked toward the doorway.
“Looks like you were both right.”
Caleb smiled grimly.
“My father died before the argument was settled.”
“And your accident?”
His face closed.
“Different story.”
She noticed.
A wall had risen.
She didn't push.
Outside, footsteps approached.
Elise tensed.
Caleb reached beneath his chair and removed a compact pistol from a concealed compartment.
She stared.
“Of course you have a gun in the wheelchair.”
“Does that surprise you?”
“Nothing about this job surprises me anymore.”
The door opened.
Jonah entered.
His expression was grim.
“We found Adrian.”
Caleb lowered the weapon.
“Where?”
“Garage.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Was he escaping?”
Jonah hesitated.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“He was tied to a chair.”
Elise frowned.
Jonah continued.
“Someone beat him badly.”
Caleb's expression shifted.
“So he isn't our shooter.”
“Maybe not.”
“And Victor?”
“No sign.”
Jonah handed Caleb a phone.
“This was taped to Adrian's chest.”
A video was queued.
Caleb pressed play.
Victor Sloane appeared on screen.
Older than his photograph.
Silver hair.
Elegant suit.
Calm smile.
“Caleb,” he said.
“If you're watching this, congratulations. You survived.”
Elise felt cold.
Victor continued.
“But that wasn't the point.”
Caleb's face darkened.
“What was?”
The recorded Victor smiled.
“The point was to show you something.”
The camera moved.
For one second, the screen displayed a photograph.
Elise.
Leaving her apartment three days earlier.
Taken from across the street.
Victor's voice continued.
“You built walls around yourself because you believed nobody mattered enough to use against you.”
The image changed.
Elise entering Rowan House.
“Elise Parker changed that.”
Caleb's fingers tightened around the phone.
Victor smiled into the camera.
“Now I know exactly where to hurt you.”
The video ended.
Elise couldn't breathe.
Caleb turned toward her.
She expected him to issue orders.
To command guards.
To promise violence.
Instead he said something nearly inaudible.
“I'm sorry.”
Elise stared.
“For what?”
“For making you visible.”
She suddenly understood.
Victor wasn't threatening her because she had discovered the silicone.
Not anymore.
He was threatening her because Caleb cared whether she survived.
May you like
And somebody had noticed before either of them was willing to admit it.
---
