Everyone called me a disgraceful maid who had ruined a high-society gala, but no one knew the deadly secret I was protecting for my employer’s mother. Just when his fiancée was about to destroy me completely, he stepped in with a truth that left the entire room silent.

The darkness swallowed the mansion as the main power grid failed, leaving only the dull, crimson glow of the emergency backup lights illuminating the hallways. The blaring siren suddenly cut out, replaced by an eerie, heavy silence broken only by the sound of distance gunshots ringing out near the estate's outer perimeter.

Enzo grabbed my wrist with an iron grip, pulling me behind his broad frame.

“Julian, report!” Enzo commanded, his voice cold and steady in the dark.

“At least six armed men,” Julian replied, standing by the doorway with his weapon raised. “They used explosive charges on the transformer box at the east gate. They’re moving fast through the lower gardens. This isn't a protest—it’s a tactical hit team.”

“Ashford’s mercenaries,” Enzo growled. “They know if Arthur goes to trial, he faces life in prison. They’re trying to eliminate the evidence and create enough chaos to drag me down with them.”

He turned to me, his dark eyes searching my face in the dim red light.

“Adeline, listen to me carefully,” Enzo said, gripping both of my shoulders firmly. “Julian is going to take you to the safe room beneath the basement. It’s reinforced steel with a separate oxygen supply. You stay inside until I personally come to get you. Do you understand?”

“What about you?” I gasped, fear clawing at my throat. “Enzo, they’re armed! You can’t go out there!”

It was the first time I had called him by his first name without the title. He paused, a ghost of a dangerous smile touching his lips in the gloom.

“This is my house, Adeline,” Enzo whispered darkly. “They made a mistake coming here.”

He pulled a small silver pocket knife from his vest and slipped it into my hand, closing my fingers over the handle.

“If anyone other than me or Julian opens that door, use this,” he ordered.

Before I could answer, Enzo turned and disappeared down the dark hallway, his pistol raised, vanishing into the shadows like a predator in his own domain.

“Move, Adeline! Now!” Julian urged, grabbing my arm and escorting me quickly down the service staircase.

We moved silently through the dark, cavernous hallways of the mansion. The sound of shattered glass and deep, muffled shouts echoed from the floor below us. The mercenaries were inside the house.

As we reached the kitchen entrance leading down to the basement, a dark figure stepped out from behind the heavy pantry door.

“Stop right there!” a voice barked.

A mercenary dressed in black tactical gear raised a silenced submachine gun toward us.

Before the man could pull the trigger, Julian fired twice. The silenced pops echoed softly in the corridor, and the mercenary collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud.

“Keep moving!” Julian hissed, pushing me toward the heavy steel door at the end of the wine cellar.

He punched a eight-digit code into the electronic keypad mounted on the wall. The heavy steel door clicked and groaned, slowly swinging inward to reveal a brightly lit, panic room equipped with security monitors and communication gear.

“Get inside!” Julian commanded.

I rushed through the doorway. But as Julian turned to follow me, a sudden burst of gunfire erupted behind him.

Julian gasped, staggering forward as two dark spots of red bloomed across his grey suit jacket. He fell against the heavy frame of the safe room door, his blood smearing across the steel.

“Julian!” I screamed, reaching out to drag him inside.

Through the doorway, standing at the top of the cellar stairs, was another gunman. He wore a balaclava, his eyes cold and devoid of life as he aimed his rifle directly at my chest.

“Found the girl,” the gunman muttered into his radio headset.

Panicked, adrenaline surging through my veins, I remembered the silver pocket knife Enzo had given me. As the gunman took a step forward into the cellar, I didn't hide.

I grabbed a heavy glass wine bottle from the rack beside the door and hurled it with all my strength.

The bottle struck the mercenary directly in the faceplate of his tactical helmet, shattering into a spray of glass and dark liquid. The sudden impact threw off his balance, causing his weapon to fire wildly into the concrete ceiling.

Taking advantage of his distraction, I lunged forward, grabbed Julian by his tactical vest, and hauled his heavy body into the panic room with a burst of frantic strength.

I slammed my palm against the emergency lock button on the interior control panel.

The heavy steel door slammed shut with a deafening hydraulic hiss, the heavy deadbolts clicking into place just as a hail of bullets impacted the exterior steel shell.

I fell to my knees beside Julian, breathing heavily, my heart hammering like a trapped bird in my chest.

“Julian! Stay with me!” I begged, pressing my hands over the bleeding wounds on his chest.

“I’m... I’m fine, kid,” Julian coughed, coughing up a small trace of blood. “The vest took... took most of the kinetic impact... but my ribs are shattered.”

I looked up at the wall of security monitors mounted inside the safe room.

The screens displayed camera feeds from across the estate. I watched in horror as armed men moved through the grand hallways.

Then, on the main monitor displaying the central library, I saw Enzo.

He was moving through the darkness like a phantom. He neutralized one gunman from behind with terrifying, silent efficiency, taking the man’s weapon before dropping into the shadows as two more mercenaries entered the room.

He was outnumbered.