My first wedding anniversary was supposed to celebrate the happiest decision of my life. Instead, I woke up chained in front of dozens of guests while my husband stood over me with a hammer, his mistress held scissors beside my face, and the people drinking champagne in my home watched as if my suffering were entertainment. / Chapter 42 / 60

Chapter 42 - The Midnight Siege

Before Jax could finish his warning, the heavy steel door of the underground bunker shuddered violently. A concussive blast rocked the foundation of the estate, sending a shower of dust and concrete raining down from the ceiling.

The security monitors on the wall flickered, revealing five heavily armed tactical teams breaching the ground floor of my mansion.

"They bypassed the outer thermal sensors!" Elias roared, drawing his twin modified handguns in a blur of motion. "They’re using military-grade scrambling gear!"

"Lock down the subterranean levels!" I ordered Jax, diving behind the reinforced steel table as a second explosion rattled the walls upstairs.

Cooper snarled viciously, the fur on his back standing straight up. He was ready to tear apart anyone who stepped through that door. I reached beneath the main console and pulled out the custom 9mm pistol my father had given me on my twenty-first birthday. I racked the slide, the sharp metallic click echoing in the confined space.

"We are totally blind up there, Boss," Jax said through the bunker's speakers, his voice tight with panic. "They just cut the hardlines to the cameras. You have at least twenty men sweeping the first floor."

"Victoria Sterling doesn't waste time," I muttered, my eyes locked on the heavy bunker door. "She called to tell me I was playing a game, and then she flipped the board."

"What's the play, Emily?" Elias asked, taking a defensive position by the entrance.

"We don't hide in our own house," I said, my voice hardening into absolute ice. "If they want to test the new American Sovereign, we give them a failing grade. Open the secondary armory, Elias. We’re going up through the servant's stairwell. We flank them in the dark."

Elias cracked a grim smile. "I love it when you get tactical."

We moved swiftly, armed to the teeth, ascending the hidden spiral staircase that led to the kitchen pantry. The estate was eerily dark, the power grid severed by the intruders. The only light came from the lightning flashing outside the rain-streaked windows.