Chapter 7 - The Midnight Intruder
Belle’s mind raced. The bedroom door had no interior lock—a standard safety measure for a family wing, but tonight it was a death trap.
She spun around, scanning the dimly lit suite. The window looked out over the second-story stone ledge, but dropping twenty-three feet into the garden with no rope was suicide.
Clack.
The brass doorknob of the bedroom slowly began to turn.
Without thinking, Belle bolted across the room, scooping a heavy brass candlestick off the mahogany dresser just as the door clicked open.
A tall figure slipped into the dark room, clad in tactical black, a ski mask concealing their face. The intruder stepped silently toward the connecting door that led to Micah’s room.
"Don't touch him," Belle whispered, her voice shaking with the terrifying adrenaline of a mother protecting her child.
The intruder spun around, moonlight catching the dull sheen of a silenced pistol in his hand.
Before the man could raise the barrel, the door behind him blew inward with a deafening crash.
Wood splinters exploded across the room. Two massive security guards, led by Sully Byrne and followed closely by Renick Kavanaugh himself, swarmed into the suite like an avenging storm.
The intruder tried to turn his gun toward Renick, but Sully moved with lethal speed. A single crack echoed through the room as Sully struck the man across the temple with the butt of his tactical baton. The intruder crumpled to the floor like a sack of wet cement.
Renick stepped over the unconscious assassin, his face a mask of cold, murderous fury. He didn't look at the intruder. He looked straight at Belle, who stood trembling by the dresser with the brass candlestick still clutched in her white-knuckled grip.
"Are you hurt?" Renick asked, his voice low and dangerous.
"No," Belle breathed, her knees finally giving out. She sank slowly against the dresser, the adrenaline draining away, leaving only a hollow, shaking shock. "They... they were going after Micah. They said if the girl survived, their leverage was gone."
Renick looked down at the unconscious man on the floor, then signaled to his guards. "Take him to the basement vault. Wake up the interrogation team. I want to know every name, every bank account, and every rat inside my own organization before the sun comes up."
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As the guards dragged the body away, Renick walked slowly toward Belle, stopping just a foot away.
"You were right, Mrs. Vance," Renick said quietly, his gray eyes searching her pale face. "Your world and my world just collided. And there is no going back."
