Chapter 54 Alarms
Maria's POV
Henry had left about an hour ago. After dropping off the food and books, he did his best to console me while I was trying to sulk and tune the world out by hiding under the covers.
Glaring around my room, which was fit for a princess, it was beginning to feel like a fancy prison. Something inside me finally snapped, not being able to take it anymore, I pushed myself up out of bed.
The air felt stagnant in the room, and as I walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the gardens, I flung them open. Fresh air came in, smelling of flowers and fresh-cut pine. Breathing it in, I knew that if I weren't so stressed, I'd be able to enjoy this more than I am. If Aleksander would just come home, if we could talk, maybe I wouldn't feel so wound up.
The weight of everything was catching up to me since the shooting. Having to leave my home, always looking over my shoulder, and never feeling safe, despite the budding feelings I felt when wrapped in his large, muscular arms.
The storm in my head drowned out the sound of boots pounding through the garden.
The alarm blared suddenly, the sharp sound pulling me out of my thoughts. Guards rushed through the corridor in both directions, their boots pounding against the ground as they shouted orders to each other in Russian.
Stumbling back from the window, I grabbed my phone. The screen lit up...empty.
No messages.
No calls.
No nothing.
A second later, the door was kicked open, splinters of wood flying everywhere.
Henry stood in the doorway, breathing hard, crumbs still hanging on his shirt, with his eyes wide with alarm.
Before registering the scene in front of me, Henry had already strode over to me, grabbing a hold of my wrist.
"We have to move now!" sounding out of breath.
Frantically trying to pull me out of the room, digging my feet into the floor, I stood my ground.
"I'm not moving anywhere until you tell me what's going on, Henry!"
He looked at me like Aleksander does sometimes, I know that look, the look of annoyance and fury.
"Maria, there are multiple intruders that breached the perimeter almost five minutes ago. Do you not hear the alarm or see the men running around?" As soon as he finished that sentence, a noise sounded that chilled me to my bones.
The crack of gunfire tore through the night.
My heart stilled, fighting the urge not to hit the floor, clinging to Henry like my very essence depended on it.
No longer asking questions, I let Henry lead me out of the room, down the different hallways. We hit the staircase and began to descend. Three flights later, we hit the basement, if you want to call it that. Three feet from the basement entrance stood a massive, reinforced metal door with a PIN code pad, and immediately next to it a digital screen for a handprint.
Trying to push my chin back off the floor, I watched Henry closely as he typed in a code, waited for a click, then put his entire hand on the digital screen.
After a few seconds of placing his hand on the digital screen, the door to what I'm assuming is the bunker, a.k.a. the safe room, that Aleksander had told me about, flung open with a loud grinding noise of gears shifting in and out of place.
Hearing shouts and gunfire get closer, I didn't waste a single moment following Henry into the bunker. As soon as I was inside, he pressed another button sitting on the wall next to the door, and it slammed shut with a loud clang.
This was the moment I knew this wasn't like an action movie. This was real life.
Looking around, there was a leather couch with two identical recliners, a twin bed tucked off far into the corner, a fridge stocked to the brim, and a whole wall of TV screens playing a live feed of the goings on around us.
He immediately went over to the office chair, sat down, and grabbed the mouse, beginning to click, switching to different areas of the compound, trying to get a better idea of the situation at hand.
Reaching into one of the desk drawers, he grabbed a walkie-talkie and clicked it on, quickly spouting off instructions.
"The package is in the bunker.....Keep the old man locked down, I don't care what he says......Alek messaged he's on his way, hold them off......What do you mean they've breached the house?.... Use the flash bombs and push them the fuck back...."
"Da....Da....10-4," said the nameless guard over the walkie-talkie.
Raising my hand, I cleared my throat to ask a question. Turning around to look at me, his eyebrows rose, "Are you raising your hand?"
Blushing, I lowered my hand back down. "I just wanted to ask a few questions, if you don't mind?" I said sheepishly.
Feeling my face slowly turning beet red, I watched as he sat down, turning sideways, half facing me and the other facing the security screens.
"Is this Viktor? Did you say Alek was on his way? Can they breach us in here?" Slowing my words, I took a deep breath and continued, "What about the Pakhan? And what if they get in here?"
"Breathe, girl, Breathe. You do ask a lot of questions," he said, trying to keep a smile off his face. He was a cocky man, and I think he knows it.
Continuing, he began to answer my questions:
"We're pretty certain it's Viktor's men. It seems they used Dimitri's kidnapping as a distraction to get Aleksander away from the house. Yes, Aleksander is on his way back here with Dimitri in tow," letting out a low, but deadly sounding laugh, "Let's just hope they're all gone, because if they're still here when Aleksander arrives, they will pray to whomever that they died a quick death."
Gulping, still unused to the violence surrounding me, "What about the rest?"
"To answer the rest of your questions, the Pakhan is safe as far as I know. His assigned guard has him locked down in his secure room, armed to the teeth. As far as getting in here, it would take a shit ton of explosives to breach this bitch." Rolling a piece of paper in his hand, he made an example of throwing it at the door and shouting "BOOM". Startling me, I jumped, and he started laughing. I swear, all these men love to tease me about my experiences in life; it's like they get some kind of kick out of it.
Going back to the screens, I can see inside the house now. Without saying a word, Henry pointed to a screen showing a group of three men slowly moving down a hallway in what I can only assume is a tactical formation. Wait....what the fuck? That's my hallway!
"Um, Henry, isn't that my hallway?" semi-yelling at him, aggressively pointing my finger at the screen.
: Yup, and they're in for one hell of a surprise," he proudly said with the most sadistic smile I think I've ever seen on anyone. It was the look of a man who enjoyed doling out torture.
But in this situation, who was I to complain? Sitting back, all I could do was watch and see what happened next.