Chapter 8 - The Betrayal"They aren't here to arrest you," Marcus said grimly, drawing his weapon and checking the magazine. "If Greg bought the Chief of Police, this is a hit squad. The second you open that door, they’re going to gun you down and claim you were armed and dangerous."
"What about Elena?" Owen asked, pointing at the bound woman.
"They'll kill her too. Tie up loose ends. Greg isn't leaving witnesses," Marcus replied.
Elena’s face finally lost its arrogant edge. Genuine fear crept into her eyes. "You can't leave me here. They'll silence me."
"That sounds like a 'you' problem," Owen said coldly.
He didn't have time for revenge. He had to protect his daughter.
"The panic room," Owen said, turning to Marcus. "When I designed the security system, I insisted on a secondary egress. There's a hatch under the floorboards that leads to an old storm drain tunnel. It dumps out half a mile into the woods behind the property line."
"Then we move. Now," Marcus commanded.
They sprinted upstairs. Outside, the sound of a battering ram echoed off the front door. The steel shutters were holding, but it was only a matter of time before SWAT used breaching explosives.
Owen burst into the panic room, scooping Mara into his arms. "We're going on an adventure, baby. I need you to be completely silent."
He pulled up the heavy rug in the center of the room, entering a secondary passcode on a hidden keypad. A hydraulic hiss filled the air as a two-by-two square of the floor sank and slid away, revealing a dark, concrete shaft with a steel ladder.
BOOM!
The house shook violently. The front door had just been blown open. Muffled shouts and the heavy tramp of tactical boots echoed from the foyer.
"Go, go, go!" Marcus urged, pushing Owen toward the hatch.
Owen climbed down the ladder, holding Mara tightly against his chest with one arm. Marcus followed, hitting the button to seal the hatch above them just as the sound of men storming the second floor reached their ears.
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The hatch sealed shut, plunging them into total darkness, save for the beam of Marcus's tactical flashlight. Above them, they could hear the muffled thuds of the police searching the house.
They were trapped in the dark, cold earth, fugitives in their own city. But Owen had the ledger. And he was going to use it to destroy Greg's entire world.
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