Chapter 3 - THE ESCAPE TUNNEL|
They didn't take the front doors or the main elevator.
Dominic led Nora deep into his private master suite, stepping past the discarded hangers and torn silk left behind by Chloe's frantic packing. He pushed open the walk-in closet, pressed his thumb against a biometric pad disguised as a tie rack, and a wall panel slid smoothly aside.
Beyond lay a narrow, lit concrete staircase leading straight down into the building's structural core.
"A panic exit?" Nora asked, staring into the descending tunnel.
"When you build a life on blood and contracts, you always build a back door," Dominic replied, motioning for her to go first. "This leads three levels below the parking garage to a utility subway line."
As they descended the cold stairs, Dominic pulled out his primary secure satellite phone. He dialed a single number.
"Marco," Dominic commanded as soon as the line connected. "Initiate lockdown on all secondary holdings. Chloe cleared thirty million out of the shell companies using my emergency signatures."
"Boss?" Marco's surprised voice barked through the phone. "We thought you were locked down in the penthouse! Marro's crew announced you were neutralized ten minutes ago!"
"Marro was fed bad intel by my fiancée," Dominic said, his tone dripping with venom. "Get the armored sedan to the 14th Street service portal. I have someone with me."
"Who, Boss? Miss Marlow?"
Dominic stopped on the stairs, looking down at Nora. She looked exhausted, her hair damp with sweat, holding her small maid's apron together where it had torn.
"No," Dominic said firmly into the phone. "The woman who actually saved my life."
They reached the bottom of the tunnel ten minutes later. An unmarked black sedan was idling in the damp concrete drainage alley.
Marco, a broad-shouldered man with a scar running through his eyebrow, stood by the rear door with an assault rifle pressed against his leg.
May you like
When he saw Dominic emerge with a young woman wearing a maid's uniform, his jaw dropped.
"Get us out of here, Marco," Dominic ordered, pushing Nora gently into the leather back seat before climbing in beside her. "We're going to the safehouse in Brooklyn."
