Chapter 12
Gunfire did not follow.
That would have been easier.
Instead, the lodge doors locked.
A mechanical click.
Old system.
Silas knew the building.
Of course he did.
Emergency lanterns lit the hallway in dim amber.
Silas was gone.
Michael whispered:
“He wants us to follow.”
Dominic looked toward the stairs.
“No.”
Adrian glanced at him.
Silas expected pursuit.
Dominic refused.
Instead, he walked toward the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” Michael asked.
“Leaving.”
“Doors are locked.”
“There was a cellar exit.”
Adrian looked surprised.
Dominic almost smiled.
“Father showed me.”
There.
A difference.
Silas knew much.
Not everything.
They reached the cellar.
The old exit had been chained.
Dominic looked at Michael.
“Help.”
The three brothers pulled together.
Metal gave.
For one strange second, Richard’s sons did what they had never done in life.
Worked as brothers.
The chain broke.
Then they heard screaming outside.
Peter.
Dominic drew his weapon.
They exited through the cellar and found one bodyguard on the ground.
Alive.
Peter missing.
A black leash tied to the tree.
Tag:
P.S.
Peter Shaw.
Dominic stared.
“Inside man.”
Adrian nodded.
“Or hostage.”
Michael looked toward the woods.
“Silas took him.”
Dominic’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Hattie.
He answered.
Her voice came frantic.
“Dominic.”
“What?”
“Silas’s men came.”
“Where?”
“Chapel.”
“Hattie.”
“I got away.”
“Where is Donna?”
“Estate.”
“Why are you asking?”
“Because Michael told Silas she has the key.”
Michael went pale.
Dominic looked at him.
“When?”
“I didn’t.”
Hattie cried:
“Someone used your phone.”
Michael checked his pocket.
Gone.
He swore.
Silas had lifted it in the lodge.
Small touch.
Unnoticed.
Dominic ran toward the cars.
He called Donna.
No answer.
Elena.
Nothing.
Estate security.
Dead line.
Silas never wanted the lodge to be the final room.
It was distraction.
A gathering of sons while he went for the mother.
Dominic drove.
Fast.
Michael beside him.
Adrian behind.
For the first time, no one argued about who led.
At the estate, the front gate stood open.
No bodies.
No gunfire.
Silas preferred psychological invasion.
Dominic entered the main hall.
Donna’s slippers lay at the foot of the staircase.
One missing again.
The same image as the beginning.
Dominic’s heart went cold.
Elena appeared from behind the dining-room door.
Blood on her forehead.
“Donna?”
“They took her.”
“Who?”
“Peter.”
Dominic stopped.
His own security chief.
Elena continued.
“He let them in.”
Peter Shaw.
Twelve years loyal.
Or apparently.
Michael whispered:
“Silas owns everyone.”
“No.”
Dominic looked at him.
“He owns the parts they refuse to face.”
Peter must have had his reason.
Fear.
Grief.
Ambition.
They would learn it.
Elena held something out.
The black key.
Dominic stared.
“Donna gave it to me before they took her.”
“Why?”
“She said Silas cannot have both.”
“The key and her.”
“Yes.”
Adrian whispered:
“Then he’ll take her to the kennel.”
Dominic looked toward the northern grounds.
Same place the first lesson began.
Silas wanted the key brought to him.
This time Dominic understood the trap.
He closed his hand around it.
“Good.”
Michael frowned.
“Good?”
Dominic looked at his brothers.
“He thinks we’re coming to open his room.”
May you like
A pause.
“We’re going to close it.”
