Chapter 12 - Maria’s Counter-AttackMarcus’s finger began to tighten around the trigger.
Daniel closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact, silently praying that little Noah, sleeping safely in the reinforced panic room Maria had secretly locked him in downstairs, would somehow survive.
Click.
The sound didn't come from Marcus’s gun.
It came from directly behind Marcus.
The intruder holding the fireplace poker suddenly gasped, his eyes going wide with shock. A sharp, cold piece of steel pressed firmly against the back of his neck.
"Drop the poker," a familiar, steely voice commanded from the dark.
It was Maria.
She stood behind the second intruder, holding a heavy hunting rifle she had retrieved from Daniel’s locked display cabinet in the downstairs den—a cabinet she knew how to open because she had cleaned it every single week.
"Who the hell are you, old woman?" Marcus snarled, attempting to pivot his gun toward Maria.
He was half a second too slow.
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Bang!
Maria didn't shoot Marcus; she fired directly into the antique chandelier hanging above the foyer. The massive iron fixture shattered, raining a cascade of heavy glass and metal shards directly down onto the staircase and hallway floor, plunging them into sudden, blinding chaos.
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