Chapter 6
Godwin stood up and turned back to Marcus, who was leaning heavily against the wall, his chest heaving under his ruined shirt.
"Who else is in the house, Marcus?" Godwin asked.
Marcus wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, a bitter, trembling smirk curling his lips. "You think you've won because you caught the poison, Godwin? Look at your watch."
Godwin glanced at his gold Patek Philippe. The hands showed 4:58 PM.
"Two minutes," Marcus said, his voice rising in hysterical triumph. "The transport from Palermo isn't docking at the public harbor. They brought two speedboats into your private cove ten minutes ago. Twelve men, Godwin. Tactical armor, suppressed carbines. If Vesper didn't signal them with the green flare from the master terrace by five o'clock, they had orders to breach the service tunnels and execute everyone in this room."
A collective shriek tore through the women in the ballroom. Several guests lunged toward the locked front doors, beating their fists against the heavy oak.
"Godwin! Let us out!" Senator Albright shouted, his aristocratic composure completely evaporated. "If there’s an assault team on the grounds, we are sitting ducks in here!"
"You run out that front door into the courtyard, Senator, and you walk straight into their crosshairs," Godwin said without looking at him. "Kane! Activate the perimeter shutters!"
Kane hit the master security panel beside the service door.
With a deafening mechanical grind, heavy, reinforced steel storm shutters descended over every arched window in the ballroom, sealing out the daylight and plunging the room into the harsh, artificial glare of the crystal chandeliers. The sound of metal slamming into stone reverberated through the floorboards like thunder.
"Lottie," Godwin said, scooping the little girl into his left arm and holding her securely against his chest. "Put your arms around my neck and don't let go."
Lottie wrapped her small arms tight around his collar, burying her face into his throat.
"Silas," Godwin commanded. "Take the guests down to the wine cellar through the service elevator. Lock the steel vault door from the inside. If anyone panics or tries to open it before I give the code, put them to sleep."
"Understood, Boss," Silas said, drawing his sidearm and ushering the terrified crowd toward the rear lift. "Move! Single file! Leave your bags on the tables!"
The ballroom emptied in a frantic, whispering rush of silk and patent leather, leaving only Godwin, Marcus, Vesper, and three senior enforcers in the center of the vast, shuttered hall.
"What about me, Godwin?" Vesper sobbed from the bench, clutching her bare arms against the chill of the air conditioning. "What are you going to do to me?"
"You're going to sit right there, Vesper," Godwin said, drawing a heavy, matte-black .45 caliber automatic from his shoulder holster with a smooth, practiced click. "And you're going to watch what happens when outsiders try to take an Alderbrook house."
From the subterranean corridors beneath the kitchen, the muffled, concussive crump of a breaching charge rattled the crystal drops on the chandeliers above.
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"They're inside," Marcus whispered, his eyes wide with terror as he realized the slaughter he had invited into his own ancestral home. "Godwin... they won't spare me. They don't leave witnesses."
"I know," Godwin said, checking the chamber of his weapon with a sharp snap of brass. "That's why you're going to stand in front of me."
