Chapter 16 - The Nursery Stand
The response was instantaneous and deafening.
Before Marcus could even open his mouth to issue an order, the heavy wooden panels concealing the architectural columns around the foyer blew outward in a shower of splintered mahogany and plaster. Twelve of Julian’s elite tactical sentries—veterans who had been waiting silently inside the ventilation and plumbing chases for three hours—swarmed into the room with weapons raised and night-vision goggles strapped to their helmets.
"Drop the weapons! Down on the floor! Now!" Thomas roared over the tactical radio system, raising his personal carbine toward the guards at the door.
In the span of two seconds, Marcus’s mercenaries found themselves completely outflanked, outnumbered two-to-one by highly trained operatives who had the tactical drop from elevated positions. One of Marcus’s guards at the door twitched his rifle toward Julian; Thomas fired a single, suppressed round that shattered the man’s knee, sending him screaming to the marble tiles.
"Don't shoot! We surrender!" the remaining five mercenaries shouted instantly, dropping their weapons to the floor with a clatter of steel and kicking them away as they fell to their stomachs with hands behind their heads.
On the stairs, total panic seized Marcus’s four personal guards. They opened fire wildly into the foyer, shattering the crystal chandelier above.
"Elena! Go!" Julian roared over the gunfire, drawing his personal sidearm from his shoulder holster and firing two rapid shots into the guards on the landing to cover her advance.
Elena didn't look back. She sprinted up the left side of the grand sweeping staircase, ducking low against the marble balustrade as bullets chipped the stone above her head. She reached the second-floor gallery just as one of Marcus’s guards fell backward across the top steps, his chest saturated with blood from Julian’s return fire.
She scrambled over the body, her heels slipping on the polished wood of the south hallway, and ran toward the nursery at the far end of the corridor.
She reached the heavy mahogany doors, throwing her weight against the handle. They were locked from the inside.
"Leo! Mia! It's Elena!" she screamed, pounding her fists against the wood over the echoing roar of gunfire from the foyer below. "Open the door! Please, babies, it's me!"
For three agonizing seconds, there was no sound from within. Then, there was the frantic scuff of small shoes on the floorboards, and the heavy deadbolt clicked backward.
The door flew open. Leo stood there holding a heavy bronze bookend in his small hands like a club, his face pale and streaked with tears, while Mia cowered behind him on the rug. When they saw Elena standing on the threshold, the bookend dropped to the floor with a heavy thud.
"Elena!" they shrieked in unison.
She threw herself into the room, slamming the door shut behind her and instantly driving the secondary, three-inch-thick steel deadbolt Julian had installed into the frame. She turned around, dropping to her knees on the rug as both children launched themselves into her arms, nearly knocking her backward.
"You came back!" Leo sobbed, burying his face into her neck so hard it hurt. "Mrs. Gable said you ran away because we were bad! She said you didn't love us anymore!"
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"She lied, Leo! That was a terrible, horrible lie!" Elena wept, wrapping her arms around both of them so tightly she could feel their little hearts hammering against her ribs. She kissed the top of Leo’s head, then showered Mia’s tear-stained cheeks with kisses. "I would never abandon you! I had to go help my sister, but I came back as fast as I could! You are my brave, wonderful children, and nobody is ever going to separate us again!"
Outside the heavy mahogany doors, the sound of gunfire suddenly ceased, replaced by the heavy, ominous thud of footsteps running down the corridor toward the nursery.
