Twins for the Mafia Heir (The Warwicks #3)

27. Achilles

Chapter 27

Achilles

I snatch Raleigh’s hand and pull her into a sprint down the hall as doors start slamming open downstairs and shouts ring through the halls. My mind is racing with a thousand shocked questions, but above all of them I’m thinking of Sidony.

Sidony- Raleigh- the escape route.

I throw Sidony’s door open as the first goons start coming up the stairs. Bullets fire below our feet, and Sidony shoots up in her bed.

Her eyes are enormous and her skin is deathly pale.

I will never forgive Fantasia for this, not as long as I breathe.

Sidony reaches for me, but I’m already scooping her and the plush she won’t let go of into my arms.

“Be very quiet,” I hiss to her, even though my daughter has never had trouble with that in her life.

Raleigh is at the door, holding it closed. Boots stomp at the far end of the hallway, and doors start being kicked open. They’re heading for us, but they’re not here yet. “Your gun,” she mouths to me, and I react almost on instinct. I’d never hand my weapon over to another person when my own life is in danger, but more than that is at stake right now. My daughter is in my hands, and my priority is being her shield.

And Raleigh… Raleigh has proven herself more capable than I imagined she would be at every turn.

Before I release my gun into her hands, I ask, “Do you-”

She doesn’t let me finish. I’ve only ever seen her eyes this grave once before. The day we met, when I was the invader and she was ready to die for her own advisors. “Yes,” she says simply, and I believe her. And as soon as the gun is in her hands, she turns off the safety and cocks it without even looking. “Which way?”

Not out the front door, that’s for damn sure. More gunfire explodes below us, and I can only hope the men Fantasia sent into my home are just being trigger happy. The staff have their own escape route, and we’ve all drilled endlessly for raids, but mistakes happen.

“The wardrobe,” I whisper, and go ahead of her toward Sidony’s. Raleigh keeps the gun pointed at the ground, but her two-handed grip is informed and her steps are light and silent.

She’s been properly and extensively trained, and perhaps seen combat too. Even a person who knows a gun inside and out wouldn’t automatically be this cool-headed in the face of immediate danger.

I open the door of the wardrobe and press carefully against one of the wooden panels at the back. It pops loose, and I pull the back of the wardrobe open like a folding cabinet to reveal the wall behind it. Another prodding touch, and a door in the drywall swings open on a narrow path between the walls of the rooms. Sidony clings tight to me like a monkey, leaving both my arms free to carefully climb inside. Raleigh waits patiently, facing the door with the gun half raised.

A door slams open, and she flinches but doesn’t panic. From the sounds in the hall, they’re searching the room right beside ours. I’m in the wall fully and have stepped aside so she can climb in too.

“Raleigh, now ,” I hiss. Obediently, she slips into the wardrobe as easily as a ghost, closing the door behind her and plunging us into total darkness. I hear her climb through the back at the same time the door to the room slams open, and I close the folding wooden panel and lock it with a sliding bolt just as the wardrobe is flung wide. Slowly, breath held captive in my chest, I quietly swing the drywall door closed, and lock it with a second sliding bolt.

Our footsteps in the wall might make a suspicious sound, like a rat scurrying through the building’s bones, so we have no choice but to sit and wait until the men searching the room move on. I keep my hand over the back of Sidony’s head, praying she’ll remain quiet when it most counts. I can feel her shallow pants against my neck, her little heart racing faster than a rabbit’s against mine. Raleigh is so quiet beside me that if I hadn’t heard her climb into the wall space before, I wouldn’t know she was here but for the heat of her.

A fist knocks hard against the back of the wardrobe. We all flinch, Raleigh pressing her body closer to my side. I run fingers down her arm until I find her hand, and she immediately clutches mine. My lungs feel like they’re going to explode, but I don’t dare breathe yet. The sliding bolt will keep the wardrobe panel from opening unless excessive force is used, but there should be no suspicion that this wardrobe is anything but an ordinary wardrobe. There should be no reason to break it open.

It’s just a wardrobe, you bastard , I think furiously. It’s just a wardrobe. Turn around and look somewhere else.

People, at least three, are stomping around every inch of the room while more men run around downstairs. It took them less than a minute to search each room on our floor. They should move on any second-

“Clear,” a man’s voice says. “Let’s keep moving.”

I wait until their footsteps leave the room and move down the hall before whispering in Raleigh’s direction, “There are stairs leading down, but there’s a railing. Don’t let go of me, and don’t let go of it.” I guide her hand, holding mine, to grab the back of my shirt instead, and she obediently latches on.

“Okay.”

I feel around on the wall for the railing and start the descent in total darkness. We move agonizingly slowly while on the other side of the wall, men invade our home.

Fantasia’s men.

I didn’t even have to see them to know. Who else would be raiding this house, and right now?

This means that she would’ve ordered her men to organize for this attack the second I left Wesley Hall.

She looked into my eyes and begged me not to abandon her- and then she did this.

I can’t think too long about that, or I’ll stop focusing on where I’m putting my feet. I focus on my breathing to keep my rage at a simmer in my chest, and tighten my hold on Sidony. Raleigh’s hand fisted in the back of my shirt is another anchor, and I relish it.

The stairs abruptly end under my feet, and Raleigh almost stumbles behind me when she hits the bottom. I reach out in the dark and manage to get my arm around her shoulders. For a brief moment, the three of us hold each other and catch our breath. I shouldn’t be relieved already, we still have so far to go, but we’re on the route to safety now-

Someone knocks on the wall to my right, from inside the house. The wall is reinforced so the hollow space behind it isn’t too obvious, but it’s a stark reminder to keep moving. I search for Raleigh’s hand again and squeeze it, a silent urge to be followed closely. Then I put my hand on the left wall and follow it around the bottom of the steps and down a narrow hall sloping downward.

We’re moving underground, and the temperature is dropping by the second. I move my hand from the wall to ward off the darkness in front of me, and catch myself before I can slam into the door I’m searching for. Blindly, I find the keypad. Blindly, I punch in the code. And finally, we emerge into the dim glow of the bunker.

My eyes adjust quickly to the room, and I’m relieved to see several staff members rummaging through the shelves lining the walls. They gasp quietly when they see us as well.

“Mr. Ashwood,” Barkley whispers, coming to my side. “Thank god you’re alright, sir.”

“And you, Barkley. Was anyone hurt?” My eyes are moving over the people in the room, and my stomach sinks as I come up short by three.

Barkley’s face becomes more grave than ever before. “We lost the new maid, Maria. She must’ve been surprised in the hall, I think. And then as soon as she screamed, they-” He clears his throat and stiffens his lip. “Mr. Renner and Mr. Black were out in the gardens, so I don’t know if they managed to run away or not. Other than that, we didn’t sustain any injuries.”

“Good work,” I tell him. “Disperse for now. Don’t return to the house until I give word.”

“And you, sir?” he asks.

Without the Ashwood House, I have half a dozen places I can go in London, but the city itself feels ruined by Fantasia’s betrayal. I look down at Sidony, still clinging to me with all her limbs, her eyes leaking silent tears. Raleigh, beside me, is listening hard to the house above our heads and the hall outside the bunker. She looks ready for combat, but that’s the last thing I’m going to expose her to.

We have to keep running.

“North,” I tell Barkley, my heart feeling like a stone in my chest. “I’m leaving England.”