Chapter 13 - Blood on the Parapet
The guard crumpled to the floor. The second guard drew his weapon, but Rose lunged, driving her thumbs into the nerve cluster beneath his collarbone—a self-defense move Nathaniel had drilled into her every night since Victoria’s first attack. The guard gasped, dropping his gun, and Rose kicked it across the polished wooden floor.
She kicked open the master study door.
"Leo!"
Leo was tied to a heavy oak chair, a strip of duct tape across his mouth, his face bruised but his eyes wide with disbelief.
"Mmmph!" Leo struggled, thrashing against his bonds.
Rose pulled a small utility blade from her apron pocket, slicing through the nylon zip-ties binding his wrists. She tore the tape from his mouth.
"Rose?! What are you doing here?!" Leo gasped, coughing as he stumbled out of the chair. "He’s crazy, Rose! Julian... he has snipers on the roof! He knows Nathaniel is outside!"
"We’re getting you out of here right now," Rose said, grabbing his arm and pulling him toward the emergency fire escape window.
"Well, well. Isn't this touching?"
A sickeningly familiar voice echoed from the doorway.
Rose spun around, pushing Leo behind her back.
Victoria stood in the threshold, holding a pearl-handled .38 revolver. Her lips were curled into a venomous, hysterical sneer.
"The maid who thought she could be a queen," Victoria laughed, cocking the hammer of the gun. "You took my wedding. You took my ring. You took the Sterling billions that were promised to me!"
"You tried to murder an old woman for money you never earned!" Rose spat back, her eyes calculating the distance between them. Eight paces. Too far to disarm her before she could pull the trigger.
"Money is earned by those who take it!" Victoria shrieked, raising the barrel straight at Rose’s forehead. "Julian gave me one instruction: if the maid shows up, paint the walls with her."
"Victoria, don't!" Leo shouted, stepping forward.
*BANG!*
The gunshot echoed through the room.
Rose braced for the impact—but the bullet didn't hit her.
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Instead, the plate-glass window behind them shattered inward as a grappling hook tore through the frame, followed by the terrifying, deafening roar of a flashbang grenade detonating in the center of the room.
***
