Chapter 6 - The Ledger and the Lion
“Get in!” Niko roared, shoving me backward into the reinforced steel panic room as a volley of blind fire peppered the bedroom wall behind us.
“Niko—!”
The heavy steel door slammed shut between us, the pneumatic locks engaging with a heavy, final thud. I slammed my fists against the cold metal, screaming his name until my throat felt raw, but the sound was swallowed entirely by the gunfire echoing outside.
Inside the panic room, the emergency lighting cast a dim, amber glow over banks of computer monitors, satellite communication arrays, and a heavy floor safe.
I was trapped. Safe, but entirely blind to what was happening on the other side of the steel wall.
On the main monitor, external security feeds flickered to life. I watched with my hands clamped over my mouth as the camera angles showed the living room of the penthouse transformed into a war zone. Four more of Sterling’s elite enforcers were sweeping through the debris, advancing cautiously toward the master bedroom.
And then I saw Niko.
He was wounded. A dark crimson stain blossomed across the shoulder of his white dress shirt, leaking down his arm. But he wasn't slowing down. Moving with silent, lethal grace behind a marble pillar, he ambushed the lead enforcer, disarming him in close quarters with brutal efficiency before turning his weapon on the remaining three.
Gunfire flashed strobelike in the dim morning light. Glass shattered. The apartment was being dismantled around them.
Suddenly, a massive, heavily armored man—one of Sterling’s top lieutenants—lunged from the blind spot near the balcony, tackling Niko hard to the floor. The firearm went skittering across the polished wood, sliding out of reach.
They rolled across the floor, trading brutal, bone-crunching blows. Niko, despite his shoulder wound, fought with the primal, terrifying fury of a man defending his home, his life, and everything he had just sworn to protect.
With a final, explosive surge of adrenaline, Niko caught the lieutenant’s throat in a crushing chokehold, slamming his head against the marble base of a sculpture until the man went completely limp.
Niko collapsed onto his back, chest heaving, blood dripping from a cut above his eye, his breathing ragged and shallow as he stared up at the ceiling.
On the monitor, I watched the camera feed static and flicker as another assault team approached the bedroom corridor.
I couldn't just sit there and watch him bleed out.
I turned around, scanning the emergency control console embedded in the wall of the panic room. Beneath a sliding glass cover marked EMERGENCY OVERRIDE, a red toggle switch pulsed with urgent light.
The tooltip beside it read: PERIMETER GAS DISCHARGE / LOCKDOWN.
It was a non-lethal aerosolized sedative designed to knock out everyone in the primary suite within thirty seconds—including the person standing outside the bedroom door. Including Niko.
If I hit the switch, Niko would fall unconscious alongside Sterling’s men. But it would buy us the time we needed before reinforcement teams arrived from the Santoro docks.
I didn't hesitate. I flipped the glass cover up, grabbed the red toggle, and pulled it down hard.
A sharp hiss echoed through the ventilation shafts. Within seconds, a dense, sweet-smelling white mist began billowing from the ceiling vents in the master bedroom on the security monitors.
On screen, I watched Sterling’s remaining two enforcers stagger, drop their weapons, and collapse heavily against the splintered wall.
A moment later, Niko—struggling desperately to stay on his feet—swayed, his knees buckling beneath him as the sedative took hold. He hit the floor with a dull thud, his eyes fluttering shut just as the heavy boots of his own backup team echoed up the private elevator shaft, breaching the penthouse from below.
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“Clear!” a familiar voice shouted over the comms—Marcus, Niko’s chief enforcer. “Secure the perimeter! Find Mr. Santoro!”
I hit the door release button. The heavy steel door slid open with a hiss, and I ran out into the smoke-filled ruins of our bedroom, kneeling frantically beside my husband as the first wave of security guards rushed in to secure the room.
