Chapter 3 - Shadows Over the Estate
The car ride to the station never happened.
At 4:15 p.m., while Audrey was packing her single backpack in the west wing and Brinley was drawing a picture of a three-legged dog on a piece of scrap paper, the windows of the estate shattered.
It didn't begin with a warning. It began with the thunderous roar of three black flatbed trucks crashing through the iron gates at the perimeter.
Moretti hadn't just sent a fake debt note; he had used the pretext of the collection to map the Mercer estate’s security perimeter. Fifty armed mercenaries poured over the stone walls, equipped with automatic rifles, night-vision gear, and smoke grenades.
"INTRUDERS! EAST GATE!" the intercom barked before being swallowed by a wall of static and gunfire.
Audrey screamed, dropping her backpack as the sound of automatic weapons shattered the quiet afternoon. She grabbed Brinley, pulling her under the narrow wooden bed just as the door to their room was kicked open.
Reggie Shaw stood in the doorway, a submachine gun tucked under his arm, blood pouring from a gash on his forehead. "GET UP! NOW!"
"What's happening?!" Audrey cried, holding Brinley against her chest as dust rained down from the ceiling.
"Moretti’s moving for the throne!" Reggie roared, pulling Audrey up by her elbow. "They've compromised the front courtyard! We have to get to the subterranean garage!"
They sprinted down the west wing corridor. The air was thick with gray gunsmoke and the sharp, metallic tang of spent gunpowder. Through the high arched windows, Audrey saw muzzle flashes lighting up the gardens like terrifying strobe lights. Mercer’s men were fighting back viciously, but they were outnumbered three to one.
They reached the grand gallery just as the double oak doors to Damon's study burst open.
Damon stepped into the gallery. He was no longer wearing his charcoal jacket. His white shirt was rolled up to his elbows, covered in blood that wasn't his own, a heavy rifle held firmly in his hands. He fired three precise bursts down the stairwell, dropping three attackers who were surging up from the foyer.
"Reggie!" Damon called out over the deafening roar of gunfire. "Take the woman and the kid through the wine cellar escape tunnel! The boat is waiting at the cove!"
"Boss, you have to come with us!" Reggie yelled back, laying down covering fire into the hallway. "They brought heavy weapons! The estate is lost!"
"I'm not leaving my house to Frank Moretti!" Damon growled, his face dark with lethal fury. He ejected a empty magazine and slapped a fresh one into place with a violent metallic click. "Get them out! THAT IS AN ORDER!"
Audrey looked at Damon through the haze of smoke. In the middle of absolute chaos, standing amidst shattered glass and falling plaster, he looked like a dark god of war. But then she saw his eyes flick toward the open door of his study.
Inside, on the heavy black walnut desk, sitting quietly beside an empty whiskey glass, was the one-eyed teddy bear.
Brinley saw it too. "BUTTONS!" she screamed, squirming furiously in Audrey's arms. "MOMMY, BUTTONS IS IN THERE!"
"Brinley, no!" Audrey cried, clutching her tightly as Reggie dragged them toward the service stairs.
Damon heard the child’s scream. He turned his head, his eyes locking onto Brinley’s tear-stained face. He saw her stretching her small hands out toward the open study door, terrified not of the guns or the smoke, but of leaving her guardian behind in the dark.
A grenade bounced down the eastern corridor, its metallic ring echoing ominously against the marble floor.
"COVER!" Reggie roared, throwing his body over Audrey and Brinley behind a stone pillar.
Damon didn't duck behind a pillar. Instead, he lunged into the study, grabbed the wooden bear from the desk, tucked it securely inside the breast pocket of his blood-stained shirt, and slammed the heavy iron-banded oak doors shut just as the grenade exploded outside.
BOOM!
The shockwave rattled the stone foundations of the estate. Plaster rained down like snow.
When the smoke cleared slightly, Reggie pushed himself up, his ears ringing. He looked toward the study doors. They were scorched, splintered, but still standing.
"Go!" Damon’s voice echoed from behind the ruined oak doors, heavy and muffled, but unbroken. "GO NOW, REGGIE!"
Reggie grabbed Audrey's arm, hauling her down the narrow service staircase toward the subterranean vaults. Audrey looked back one last time, her eyes fixed on the scorched oak doors of the study, carrying her weeping daughter into the dark.
May you like
"He has him, baby," Audrey whispered into Brinley's ear as they sprinted through the damp stone tunnels beneath the earth. "He has Buttons. He's keeping his promise."
Outside, the heavy roar of engine boats cut through the fog of Narragansett Bay as the escape vessel pulled away from the hidden cove, leaving the burning Mercer estate behind in the rain.
