Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Christine
The alarm splinters through the estate in a way that feels physical.
One second, I’m still shaking from orgasm, Robert’s body pressed against mine, both of us trying to catch our breath.
Next, the entire house erupts with a mechanical scream ricocheting through the walls, followed immediately by shouting downstairs.
Then gunshots so close that my blood turns to ice instantly.
Robert moves before my brain fully catches up. His body snaps against mine, every trace of softness vanishing so fast it’s terrifying.
“Get dressed.” His voice slices through the room just as another gunshot cracks somewhere below us.
My stomach drops, bile rising to the back of my throat.
Robert reaches for the gun on the dresser while I yank my silk dress back up with trembling fingers.
“Robert…” My hands barely work properly, adrenaline making them slip.
“Yes, baby.” He checks the magazine with brutal calm.
“Are we…” I can barely make the words out as my heart keeps jamming against my chest.
“We are in danger…” Robert grabs a robe from somewhere and throws it at me without looking. “Put it on.”
The sound of feet pounding through the hall explodes outside our door.
I jump violently before it swings open and two armed guards rush in.
“We are being ambushed, the south entrance has been compromised,” one announces rapidly. “Three men are down already.”
“My daughter?” Robert’s expression doesn’t change.
“She’s in her room.”
He’s moving before the sentence finishes.
I barely manage to tie the robe around myself before following him into the hallway, heart pounding so hard against my ribs it hurts.
The mansion is chaos now.
Guards rush through corridors barking into earpieces. Emergency lights bleed crimson across marble floors. Somewhere downstairs, glass shatters.
“Blue,” I call out as I dash after Robert, nearly tripping over my own feet.
Robert reaches her room first.
He pushes the door open with his gun raised while two guards immediately flank the entrance.
Blue is already awake and crying. Her tiny body is upright in bed, confused and terrified while one of the nannies tries to calm her with shaking hands.
“Daddy?” Blue sobs the second she sees him.
“Baby.” He rushes toward her instantly.
“It’s okay, baby.” My voice breaks horribly while I take her from his hands into my arms. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.”
She clings to me immediately, little fingers digging painfully into my shoulders.
Gunshots explode louder again. It's close enough that Blue screams and buries her face into my neck.
“Move.” Robert turns toward the guards, barking orders.
Everything after that blurs into motion.
The hallway outside is flooded with men now.
Armed guards surround us in a moving circle while Robert walks ahead shirtless, gun raised, blood streaked across one side of his abdomen from somebody else’s handprint.
My pulse is too loud.
“Christine.” Aisha appears from another corridor wearing pajama shorts and a hoodie thrown on inside out, panic engraved into her face.
She reaches us breathless, immediately gripping my elbow while her eyes dart wildly toward the sound of gunfire downstairs.
“What the hell is happening?”
Nobody answers because another body suddenly crashes against the wall at the end of the hallway, blood pouring from its throat.
And before I can even process the sight, Robert fires, the gunshot detonating through the corridor.
A man I didn’t even see drops instantly near the staircase.
Blue screams harder in my arms.
“Eyes on me, baby.” I choke out quickly, pressing her face harder into my neck. “Look at me, okay? Don’t look anywhere else.”
My own body is shaking so badly I can barely feel my knees.
More guards surge around us.
“Keep moving!” Somebody shouts.
Robert grabs my wrist suddenly, dragging me forward just as bullets tear through the wall behind us.
Robert fires back twice without even slowing down and two more bodies hit the floor.
Everything smells like smoke now.
We rush down another corridor while guards close ranks around us, guns raised in every direction.
Robert doesn’t stop moving until we hit the west wing.
He reaches the end of the corridor and slams his palm against a hidden panel beside the wall and a keypad slides out.
His gun stays raised in one hand while the other types rapidly.
The guards around us form a defensive barricade instantly.
Footsteps thunder toward us and they all swing their guns up at once as a figure stumbles around the corner.
It's Atelia.
She’s covered in blood, dark streaks soaking through her black tank top, dripping down one arm while she clutches two guns in shaking hands.
“Ate…” Aisha gasps.
“Enzo is dead.” Atelia’s voice cracks brutally. “They got Enzo.”
Something inside Robert’s face congeals instantly.
The hidden door slides open with a hydraulic hiss behind him, revealing darkness beyond it.
“Get in the tunnel,” Robert orders us.
We rush inside immediately, footsteps echoing against damp concrete while the hidden door begins sliding shut behind us.
Robert turns back toward the entrance before the door fully closes.
“If they breached the estate,” Atelia offers quickly, breathing hard, “Then they may know about the tunnel too.”
Robert’s eyes snap toward her.
“They could follow,” she continues. “Someone has to stay behind and cover the exit.”
“No.” Aisha shakes her head immediately.
“I will stay.” Atelia is already lifting the guns slightly. “I’ll do it.”
“No.” Robert clips it this time.
Atelia freezes for half a second, then something indistinct passes through her face before she nods slowly.
“I can handle it,” she mumbles.
“I know.” Robert checks the magazine in his gun. “But I’m staying.”
My stomach flips instantly.
“No.” I start to shake my head… “You can't…”
“I will see you on the other side.” Robert looks at me then and somehow the chaos quiets around that look.
“We have to move fast.” Atelia breaks the quiet.
“You need to get them out,” Robert instructs her calmly. “Take the boat straight to the second house.”
“You trust me with them?” Her voice sounds strange suddenly.
“With my life.” He doesn't hesitate.
“Robert…”
He steps toward, his bloody hand cupping the side of my face carefully like he’s scared even now of hurting me.
“You’re going to be okay.” His eyes lock onto mine with terrifying steadiness. “Do you understand me?”
I shake my head before I can stop myself, fear burning through my chest it hurts to breathe.
“I’ll see you soon.” Robert leans down first, kissing Blue’s forehead. “Protect your mama for me, Princess.”
“Okay, Daddy.” Blue nods shakily despite crying.
“Stay alive.” He kisses me like he’s trying to leave part of himself behind inside my mouth before he lets us go. “Go,” he murmurs against my lips.
And then he steps back.
“Finally!” Aisha grunts as the steel door slides shut between us.
“This way.” Atelia grabs my arm.
We run, our footsteps ricocheting wildly around the narrow space.
The tunnel smells like seawater and rust, with emergency lights flickering dimly overhead, staining everything in red pulses.
Aisha keeps looking back.
I keep holding Blue.
And Atelia keeps pushing us forward.
“Hurry,” she snaps.
My leg still aches faintly from the old injury, pain pulsing harder the faster we move.
The tunnel finally slopes upward after what feels like forever.
Then moonlight appears ahead, spilling cold through the exit.
We come out to the shore, bursting out onto wet sand and salty air.
The ocean is black tonight, waves slamming against the cliffs nearby while a small boat rocks several yards away near the dock.
Relief hits me so suddenly my knees nearly buckle.
We made it.
We are about to dash for the boat when something smashes hard against Aisha’s skull and she drops instantly.
My scream catches halfway out as I turn to see that it was Atelia who had hit her with her gun.
“Atelia what the fuck…”
Pain explodes across my temple before I even finish speaking as her gun slams into the side of my head hard enough to send the world sideways.
I hit the sand violently, Blue crying out as I twist instinctively to shield her beneath me.
Everything rings, salt and blood flooding my mouth.
“What…” My voice comes out broken. “Atelia wha…”
Blue is sobbing hysterically now beneath my arms.
I drag us backward desperately across the sand, vision blurring while Atelia watches me with something almost disgusted curling across her face.
And suddenly the blood on her clothes feels different.
Intentional.
Deliberate.
My heart drops so hard it feels endless.
“Atelia…” My voice shakes violently. “What are you doing?”
“What am I doing?” She stares at me like she doesn’t recognize herself anymore.
“Atelia…” I drag myself backward again across the sand, every movement dizzy and twisted. “Please.”
She laughs, and fear claws so fiercely through me I almost throw up.
“You know,” she starts softly, lifting the gun lazily toward me, “I genuinely tried to like you.”
Everything freezes inside me.
“You were almost sweet.” Her mouth twitches strangely. “Annoyingly sweet.” She wipes blood from her cheek with the back of her hand. “And for a minute there I almost convinced myself maybe I could survive it.”
My pulse is pounding harder now as pieces begin sliding together in my head slowly.
“You are trying to kill me?” I ask, shaking. “Why are you…” I pause, only one reason coming to mind but it still doesn’t feel concrete yet.
“Robert.” Her eyes shine strangely beneath the moonlight. “He’s the reason I’m going to kill you, Christine.”
“Atelia…” My throat burns. “Why?”
It clicks.
Atelia sees the realization happen in real time and smiles.
“You love Robert?”
“Love him?” She repeats softly, as if the phrase itself is insulting. “Christine, I built my entire fucking life around that man.” Her voice rises suddenly.
I flinch, clasping Blue tighter.
“I stayed when everybody else left. I buried bodies for him. Lied for him. Killed for him.” Her chest heaves now, her eyes glassy with fury. “I watched him destroy himself after Lily died and I stayed anyway.”