Chapter 3 - Glass, Gunfire, and Memory.
.Anna moved before she understood why.
She pulled Sofia to the floor behind the sofa as another shot punched through the library door.
Luca overturned a heavy side table and dragged it toward them.
"Stay down!"
The room filled with shouting from the hallway.
A guard fired twice.
Someone screamed near the ballroom.
Emergency lights flickered on, staining the library red.
Anna saw Luca draw a pistol from beneath his jacket.
His movements were fast and controlled, but his eyes kept returning to Sofia.
"Take her through the service passage," he ordered.
Anna stared at him.
"What passage?"
For half a second, Luca looked stunned.
Then Anna looked toward a paneled wall she had never seen before and pressed a carved flower near the bookshelf.
A hidden door clicked open.
Silence hit the room.
Anna stared at her own hand.
"How did I know that?"
Luca's face changed.
"Because you designed it."
There was no time to absorb the answer.
The main door splintered under another impact.
Anna pulled Sofia into the passage.
Luca followed and shut the panel behind them just as bullets tore through the room.
The narrow corridor smelled of old plaster and cedar.
Sofia was crying but walking on her own, one hand gripping Anna and the other gripping Luca.
"My legs hurt," she whispered.
Anna crouched beside her.
"Then we go slowly, Bluebird."
The nickname left Anna's mouth without thought.
Sofia's tears changed instantly.
She threw her arms around Anna again.
Luca turned away for a second, and Anna saw him press his fist against his mouth.
They reached a service stairwell behind the ballroom kitchen.
A man in a catering uniform appeared below them.
Anna recognized him as someone who had not been on staff during setup.
His hand went inside his coat.
"Luca!"
Luca shoved Sofia and Anna behind him as the man drew a gun.
A shot exploded in the stairwell.
Luca fired back.
The attacker fell against the rail and tumbled down the stairs.
Anna stared at the body.
Her mind suddenly supplied another image.
Rain on a windshield.
Victor Sanz sitting in the passenger seat of her car four years earlier.
His voice saying, "You should have stayed out of Luca's business."
Anna gasped and grabbed the wall.
"Victor."
Luca turned sharply.
"What about Victor?"
"He was in the car."
The memory vanished as quickly as it came.
Anna shook her head violently.
"I saw him. I think I saw him."
Luca's expression became unreadable.
"Victor found the crash."
"What?"
"He was the one who called me."
Footsteps thundered above them.
Luca looked at the dead gunman, then at the stairwell door.
"We are leaving now."
He led them through the kitchen and into the underground garage.
A black SUV waited near a loading dock.
One of Luca's guards opened the rear door.
Anna lifted Sofia inside, but before she could follow, a car engine roared from the shadows.
A sedan accelerated directly toward them.
Luca grabbed Anna around the waist and threw both of them behind a concrete pillar.
The sedan smashed into the SUV.
Metal screamed.
Sofia screamed too.
Then a second man stepped from behind the wreckage and aimed his weapon at the child's open door.
May you like
Anna did not think.
She ran straight at him.
