Chapter 6 - The Breach
Chaos erupted in an instant.
From upstairs, the sound of running footsteps echoed down the staircase as Evan and Caleb appeared on the landing, shouting in panic.
“Get back in your rooms!” Nia yelled up the stairs, her voice ringing with absolute command. “Lock the doors and stay under the beds! Do not move!”
Adrian moved with terrifying speed. He pulled a heavy black automatic pistol from a shoulder holster beneath his vest, his movements smooth, precise, and completely automatic.
“Nia, get down in the pantry,” he commanded, pushing her toward the massive walk-in larder behind the kitchen.
“No,” Nia said, grabbing a heavy brass candlestick off the dining table. “I’ve spent six years dealing with volatile situations in Chicago housing projects, Mr. Vale. I am not hiding in a pantry while people shoot up my workplace.”
Adrian stared at her in sheer disbelief. Before he could argue, the heavy oak front doors of the mansion shuddered under a massive, violent impact.
Bang! Bang!
The iron locks splintered. The door swung open.
Three armed intruders in ski masks pushed into the grand foyer, shouting orders and sweeping the hallway with automatic weapons. They were looking for Adrian—seeking payback from a rival shipping syndicate in Brooklyn that was trying to carve up the docks while the Vale empire was perceived as vulnerable.
Adrian stepped out into the hallway, raising his weapon with cold, calculated precision.
“You picked the wrong house, boys,” Adrian said, his voice cutting through the foyer like ice.
Before the lead intruder could raise his rifle, Nia stepped out from the kitchen doorway, holding a heavy glass decanter of aged bourbon in one hand and a full boiling kettle of water she had just grabbed from the stove in the other.
“Excuse me!” Nia shouted at the top of her lungs.
The second intruder whipped around, startled by a woman standing in a linen blouse and skirt holding a kettle.
Nia didn't hesitate. She hurled the boiling water directly into the intruder’s face, followed immediately by the heavy crystal decanter, which cracked squarely across his helmeted jaw with a satisfying crunch.
The man dropped like a sack of wet cement.
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Adrian didn't waste a fraction of a second. He fired twice, dropping the other two intruders before they could recover their equilibrium.
Silence slammed back down over the grand foyer, broken only by the hiss of escaping steam from the kettle on the marble floor.
