Chapter 9
Gunfire tore through the study.
Leo shoved Beatrice to the floor and covered her with his body as glass exploded over them.
Mateo returned fire through the broken window.
Mrs. Alvarez screamed.
The lights cut out again.
This time, the whole mansion answered with war.
Alarms.
Boots.
Shouting.
Lily crying upstairs.
Beatrice tried to move.
Leo held her down.
“Stay.”
“My God, Lily—”
“Mateo!”
“Go!” Mateo shouted.
Leo pulled Beatrice up and dragged her into the hall.
Bullets chewed the doorframe behind them.
Mrs. Alvarez lay near the wall, blood spreading from her shoulder.
Beatrice broke free and dropped beside her.
“Mrs. Alvarez!”
The old woman gripped Beatrice’s sleeve.
“Forgive me.”
“Don’t talk. Press here.”
“I didn’t know they would hurt the child.”
Leo froze.
Beatrice stared at her.
Mrs. Alvarez sobbed.
“They said they only needed a name. A staff file. A way into the house. Elena was asking questions. Kensington threatened my son.”
Mateo shouted from the study.
“More coming from the east lawn!”
Leo’s face became lethal.
Mrs. Alvarez coughed.
“BR-17 wasn’t Beatrice. It was a file code. Beatrice Replacement. They wanted someone kind. Someone Lily would trust if Elena died.”
Beatrice felt the floor vanish beneath her.
“What?”
The old woman cried harder.
“They chose you from an agency list. Elena approved you before she died. She said Lily would need softness in this house.”
Beatrice could not breathe.
Elena had chosen her?
Before Lily even knew her?
Mrs. Alvarez clutched tighter.
“I changed the dates so no one would trace it.”
Leo looked like he had been struck.
Another explosion rattled the windows.
Lily screamed upstairs.
Leo turned to Beatrice.
“Go to her. Take the west passage. Do you know it?”
“Yes.”
“Do not stop.”
She wanted to argue.
Then she saw his face.
He was not ordering the maid.
He was trusting the only person his daughter trusted.
Beatrice ran.
Her body protested every stair, every turn, every breath. The west passage was hidden behind a portrait of Leo’s grandfather. Beatrice pushed it open and entered darkness.
Behind the wall, the mansion sounded hollow.
Gunshots echoed like thunder.
Heaven moving furniture.
Bad manners.
She almost laughed.
Then she heard footsteps ahead.
Beatrice stopped.
A shadow moved near the passage exit.
She grabbed a loose iron candleholder from the wall.
The figure stepped into dim light.
Victoria.
Her hair was loose. Her hands were free. She held a kitchen knife.
“You,” Victoria whispered.
Beatrice lifted the candleholder.
Victoria smiled.
“You think this is your fairy tale now? The ugly maid saves the princess and the king falls at her feet?”
Beatrice’s hands tightened.
“No. I think you’re blocking the hallway.”
Victoria’s face twisted.
“He will never love you. Men like Leo don’t love women like you. They use you. They pity you. They keep you around because their children get attached.”
Every word found old bruises.
Beatrice felt them.
Then let them pass.
“Maybe,” she said. “But Lily loves me. And right now, that is the only thing that matters.”
Victoria lunged.
Beatrice swung.
The candleholder struck Victoria’s wrist.
The knife dropped.
Victoria screamed and tackled her.
They hit the wall hard.
Victoria clawed Beatrice’s face.
Beatrice shoved her away and reached for the knife, but Victoria kicked it down the passage.
Then Lily’s voice came from beyond the wall.
“Bee!”
Beatrice saw red.
She grabbed Victoria by the shoulders and slammed her against the panel.
Once.
Twice.
Not elegant.
Not trained.
Just desperate.
Victoria sagged.
Beatrice pushed past her and burst into Lily’s room.
The window was open again.
A man in black had one leg over the sill and Lily in his arms.
Lily kicked and sobbed.
Beatrice did not think.
She charged.
Her shoulder hit him in the ribs.
All three of them crashed to the floor.
The man punched Beatrice in the temple.
Stars burst in her vision.
Lily crawled away.
“Run!” Beatrice shouted.
The man grabbed Lily’s ankle.
Beatrice threw herself on his arm and bit him until he screamed.
Leo appeared in the doorway.
The man froze.
That was his last mistake.
Within seconds, Leo’s guards dragged him away.
Leo crossed the room and gathered Lily.
Then his eyes found Beatrice lying on the floor, blood at her mouth.
He handed Lily to Mateo, who had arrived behind him.
Beatrice tried to sit.
Leo knelt and lifted her carefully.
“You keep finding floors,” he said, voice shaking.
She gave a weak smile.
“They keep catching me.”
His laugh broke into something close to a sob.
Lily reached for both of them.
“Family hug,” she cried.
Beatrice looked at Leo.
Leo looked at Beatrice.
Then he pulled them both close.
Outside, sirens wailed in the distance.
May you like
This time, real police were coming.
And Leo Rossi had no intention of hiding.
