Chapter 3 - The Breach
The sound of splintering wood and shattering glass from the sunroom shattered the tense silence.
"Get behind the kitchen island! Stay down!" Mark ordered, his voice taking on an authority I had never heard before. He stood protectively in front of the narrow corridor leading from the kitchen to the living room, gripping the cast-iron skillet like a medieval weapon.
I pushed Leo and Mia into the narrow pantry, telling them to lock the inner door and hide under the lower shelves. "Don't make a sound, no matter what you hear," I whispered, pressing a kiss to both of their foreheads before pulling the door shut.
Heavy, deliberate footsteps crunched over broken glass on the hardwood floors of the sunroom. Shadows stretched long across the living room rug. Two figures emerged from the archway, both wearing tactical gear and black balaclavas, their eyes cold and calculating in the dim evening light.
"Smart kids," the first man muttered, scanning the empty living room. "They think they can play hide and seek."
Before the second man could take another step, Mark stepped out from the shadows of the hallway and brought the cast-iron skillet down in a vicious arc. The man staggered back with a sickening crunch, dropping his weapon with a metallic clatter.
"Sarah, run!" Mark yelled.
But the first intruder was faster. He pulled a heavy taser from his belt and fired. The dart struck Mark squarely in the chest. With a strangled gasp, Mark collapsed to the floor, muscles seizing violently before he went completely still.
"Mark!" I screamed, lunging forward, but a heavy hand grabbed me by the shoulder, spinning me around and pinning me against the kitchen wall.
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"Where is Robert Collins keeping the flash drive?" the man growled, pressing the barrel of a suppressed pistol directly beneath my chin. The cold metal bit into my skin.
I looked into his eyes—dead, professional, entirely devoid of mercy. My parents had traded our lives for a flash drive. And right now, standing in the kitchen of the home I grew up in, I realized I had no idea where it was.
