Chapter 7 - The Breached Gates
The heavy blast doors on the ground floor slammed shut with an echoing bang that rattled the chandeliers.
"Stay behind me!" Charlotte ordered, reaching into her designer handbag and pulling out a compact chrome revolver with chilling familiarity.
I grabbed my laptop with the decrypted evidence files and slipped my phone from the desk.
Gunfire immediately shattered the silence from the front courtyard, rapid automatic rounds shredding through the mahogany front doors downstairs.
"The security monitors!" I shouted, rushing over to the concealed panel behind the bookshelf.
The screens flickered to life, showing three tactical vans parked across the Beacon Hill cobblestones, black-clad gunmen swarming the estate's private terrace.
"Everett knows Graham went to the prosecutor," Charlotte said, cocking her weapon with steady hands. "This is his last desperate gamble to destroy the evidence and wipe out the trust."
I tapped into the security intercom, dialing Graham’s encrypted direct line with trembling fingers.
The call connected on the first ring.
"Audrey!" Graham’s panicked roar blasted through the speaker over the deafening sound of a car engine redlining. "Where are you?!"
"In the library with your mother!" I shouted as another burst of gunfire blew out the reinforced glass above the foyer. "Everett’s men have breached the lower courtyard!"
"I'm two minutes away!" Graham shouted back, the scream of his SUV's sirens audible in the background. "Get into the safe room on the third floor! Do not open that door for anyone but me!"
"They're already in the stairwell, Graham!" I cried, watching the security feed as three armed men moved up the marble steps toward the second floor.
"Audrey, listen to me," Graham’s voice dropped, terrifyingly calm and filled with fierce passion. "I am coming for you. Hold that door."
Charlotte and I bolted from the library, racing up the winding back service stairs toward the master suite.
The heavy iron door of the third-floor safe room stood open, its digital keypad flashing green.
Just as Charlotte pushed me through the doorway, a shadow stepped onto the landing at the top of the stairs.
Everett Vale stood there, holding a tactical shotgun, his face twisted into a maniacal, sweaty grimace of desperation.
"Going somewhere, ladies?" Everett sneered, raising the barrel toward Charlotte’s chest.
Charlotte fired two shots without hesitation, the bullets grazing Everett’s shoulder and forcing him behind the decorative plaster column.
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"Get inside, Audrey! Lock it!" Charlotte yelled, throwing herself into the room and slamming the heavy steel door.
The heavy locking bolts slammed into place with a mechanical thud just as a shotgun blast dented the exterior steel plating.
