The red laser was a tiny, lethal ruby against the charcoal fabric of Emmanuel's shirt, pulsing right over the erratic beat of his heart. Olivia's breath hitched in her throat, her muscles screaming as she clung to his forearms, her body draped over the cold stone railing of the balcony.
"Emmanuel, don't move," she whispered, her voice cracking with terror.
He looked up at her, the blood from the gash on his forehead matting his eyelashes. He saw the red light dancing on his chest, then looked back into her eyes. There was no fear there, only a grim, devastating acceptance.
"Let go, Olivia," he said, his voice a low rasp. "If they fire, the momentum will pull you over with me. Save yourself. Save Clara."
"I'm not letting you die!" she sobbed, her knuckles white as she fought the gravity trying to claim him.
The sniper was likely positioned on the roof of the guest house, three hundred yards away. In the moonlit darkness, they were sitting ducks. Olivia's mind raced, searching for the "linguist" inside her, the part that analyzed patterns and found exits where there were only walls.
"The sensor," she gasped, her eyes darting to the ornate outdoor lantern bolted to the stone pillar beside her. "Emmanuel, the balcony has motion-activated floodlights for security. If I can trigger them, the flare will blind the sniper's night vision scope for three seconds."
"You can't reach it without letting go of one of my hands," Emmanuel countered, his grip slipping a fraction.
"Trust me," she commanded.
It was a gamble that defied every instinct she had. Olivia released his left arm. The weight of his entire body suddenly jerked against her right shoulder, a searing pain blooming in her socket. She swung her free hand wildly, grabbing a heavy decorative bronze planter and hurling it toward the infrared sensor above the lantern.
The planter shattered against the stone.
Click.
A blinding, five-thousand-lumen white light erupted, washing out the balcony and the surrounding trees in a wall of artificial day.
Crack.
The sniper's bullet whistled through the air, but the sudden glare had thrown off the aim. Instead of Emmanuel's heart, the round slammed into the stone railing, sending a spray of limestone dust into Olivia's face.
"Now!" she screamed.
With the sniper momentarily blinded, Olivia threw her entire body weight backward, her heels digging into the glass-strewn carpet of the bedroom. Emmanuel found purchase with his feet against the exterior wall and vaulted himself over the railing, the two of them collapsing into a tangled heap on the floor inside.
They didn't wait to catch their breath. Emmanuel rolled to his feet, grabbed Olivia by the waist, and hauled her into the shadows of the hallway just as a second bullet shattered the remaining glass of the French doors.
He slammed the heavy oak door shut and turned the deadbolt, leaning his forehead against the wood, his chest heaving.
"You're insane," he breathed, looking down at her. "You could have been killed."
"You're welcome," Olivia snapped, wiping the blood and dust from her forehead. She looked toward the servant's passage where she had hidden Clara. "We have to get to the girl. And then we're getting my father out of that basement."
Emmanuel grabbed her shoulders, his fingers bruising. "No. The basement is the first place they'll check now that the perimeter is breached. We have to move Clara to the safe room in the library. It's the only place with a separate oxygen supply and a hardwired uplink."
"And my father?"
"Olivia, look at me," Emmanuel said, his voice turning strangely soft. "They want the codes. As long as he is in that room, he is the most valuable object on this estate. They won't kill him. But you? You're the variable they didn't account for. They will kill you just to clear the line of sight."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, silver keycard, pressing it into her palm.
"Go to the library. Take Clara. If I'm not there in ten minutes, use the terminal to trigger the 'Scorched Earth' protocol. It will alert the federal authorities and lock down every Roberts server in the hemisphere. It will ruin me, but it will bring enough heat to this house that they'll have to retreat."
"Where are you going?" she asked, her heart sinking.
Emmanuel checked the magazine of his pistol, his eyes turning back into the cold, obsidian depths of the man she had first met.
"I'm going to go make sure the sniper doesn't get a second chance to see the sun rise."
He turned to leave, but Olivia grabbed his hand, her fingers interlacing with his for a brief, frantic second.
"You told me the map was a trap," she whispered. "Why tell me now?"
Emmanuel paused, his back to her. The moonlight through the hallway window caught the sharp line of his shoulders.
"Because," he said, his voice barely audible over the wind howling through the broken windows. "I realized I'd rather you hate me for the truth than love me for a lie."
He vanished into the darkness of the East Wing, leaving Olivia alone in the silence of the hallway.
Cliffhanger: Olivia has the key to ruin the Roberts empire, but as she reaches the library, she finds the door already standing open,and a single, bloody child's shoe lying on the rug.