Page 98 of Close Protection

‘What was that?’ Mother asks, rounding her desk quickly, opening her laptop.

One of the men pulls out his radio. ‘Cole, whathappened to the lights?’ He releases the button he was pressing but all he can hear is static. ‘Cole, can you hear me?’ he tries again, but gets the same result.

‘Madam, I think the radios have been scrambled.’

‘The CCTV isn’t working either,’ my mother replies, frowning at her laptop screen before looking back to one of the men behind her. ‘Well, go and check it out.’

He shifts, looking uncomfortable for a moment before heading for the door.

‘You.’ Mother turns around, pointing at another one of the men. ‘Stay here and call for an extraction team. You two, haul him and follow me.’

She opens her drawer and pulls out a gun, loading it calmly with deft precision before picking up the knife that was lying on her desk. She makes her way towards me, flicking the knife open, bending down and cutting me free of the cable ties.

‘Get up. Let’s go.’

I don’t move. I don’t do anything. Maybe if I stall for long enough whoever’s here can find me. My mother moves to do something, but before she can the guy who was on the phone calling for the extraction team speaks up.

‘The car will meet you on the other side of the woods, madam,’ he says as he pockets his phone.

‘Good,’ she tells the guy, before turning her attention back to me. ‘Now get up.’

When I don’t, she cocks her gun in my face, smiling that cold smile. ‘Daphne, if you seriously think I won’t shoot you, you’re sadly mistaken. I have no problem shooting you, or anyone for that matter.’ Before I can blink, she moves her gun and shoots the guy who just called the extraction team.

I don’t so much as flinch.

Did she kill him?

Will she kill me?

She points the gun at me. ‘Get. Up.’

I get up.

The two men who went to haul up my father are now standing with him slumped against them.

Still pointing the gun to my head, my mother looks over to them. ‘You ready?’ After a curt nod she pushes the barrel of the gun into the back of my head. ‘Move.’

With the two guys in front of us we walk towards the bookcase. One of the men presses down on a book and the shelves move. He pushes on them and they open up to reveal a dimly lit hall.

A secret door.

Of course my mother has a secret door.

The men walk through, with me and my mother closelybehind. We descend a set of stairs until we get to a metal door. I can feel the cool evening air rush in as one of the men pushes it open. We walk out into a wooded area.

A very familiar wooded area.

We are in the woods behind my house.

37MILOSH

We breach strong and hard.

Blinding their security system, scrambling their radios, shutting down their CCTV and cutting off their power so they don’t have any mode of communication. They’re completely dark.

Thanks to the blueprints we have every exit covered, and from monitoring their CCTV we know where all the security is placed throughout the house.

They have ten men in total.