CHAPTER 2: THE LITTLE GIRL WHO STARTED A WAR
CHAPTER 2: THE LITTLE GIRL WHO STARTED A WAR
For one endless heartbeat, no one breathed.
The shattered crystal glittered across the marble floor like frozen diamonds. Expensive sake spread around Ryder Burke's polished shoes in a silver puddle.
Then chaos exploded.
"GET DOWN!"
The shout came from Ryder before anyone else reacted.
In one impossibly fast movement, he seized the edge of the heavy banquet table and flipped it onto its side.
The solid oak slab crashed onto the marble with a thunderous boom, becoming a shield.
Guests screamed.
Champagne glasses shattered.
The orchestra abandoned their instruments as hundreds of wealthy donors dove beneath tables or rushed toward the exits.
But the exits were already occupied.
The four Japanese men calmly reached inside their jackets.
Bridget's blood froze.
"Oh my God..."
She threw herself toward Annie without thinking.
"My baby!"
Just as she wrapped both arms around her daughter, the first assassin pulled out not a gun...
...but a thin ceramic syringe.
Almost invisible.
Almost impossible to detect by security scanners.
He lunged toward Ryder.
Ryder's bodyguards reacted instantly.
"Protect Mr. Burke!"
Three enormous men in black suits intercepted the attacker.
A violent struggle erupted between the tables.
Guests fled in every direction.
Silver platters crashed.
Crystal chandeliers trembled from the impact of bodies slamming into columns.
The gala had become a battlefield.
"Mom... they're not finished!"
Annie clutched Bridget's sleeve, her voice shaking.
"There are four of them!"
Bridget stared.
"How do you know that?"
"I heard everything."
Before Bridget could answer—
"LEFT SIDE!"
Annie screamed.
One of Ryder's guards instinctively ducked.
A razor-thin blade sliced through the air where his throat had been a fraction of a second earlier.
The knife buried itself deep into a wooden pillar.
The bodyguard looked back in disbelief.
The little girl...
...had just saved his life.
Across the ballroom, Ryder Burke watched Annie instead of the attackers.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
She hadn't guessed.
She had known.
His instincts, sharpened through years of surviving betrayals, screamed the same conclusion.
She wasn't lucky.
She was telling the truth.
Meanwhile, the oldest Japanese assassin realized the mission had collapsed.
He spoke rapidly in Japanese.
"Plan B."
Annie's face drained of color.
She understood every word.
"They're changing targets!"
Bridget looked at her daughter in confusion.
"What?"
"They can't poison him anymore..."
Annie's eyes filled with terror.
"...so they're going to shoot everyone who saw them."
The room went silent around Ryder.
Every witness.
Every waiter.
Every donor.
No survivors.
The lead assassin suddenly smiled.
It was the first genuine expression he'd shown all evening.
He pulled a small black device from his pocket.
Click.
Every chandelier in the ballroom went dark.
The hotel disappeared into complete blackness.
Women screamed.
Someone fell.
Glass shattered again.
Only the flashing red emergency lights illuminated the room.
Like blood.
"They're using night vision."
Annie whispered the words before anyone else understood.
Ryder's eyes narrowed.
How could a child know that?
Then he remembered.
Japanese.
She had understood them.
A gunshot echoed through the darkness.
Then another.
People cried out.
The emergency lights flickered.
Ryder grabbed Bridget and Annie, pulling them behind an overturned serving station.
"Stay down."
Bridget trembled.
"You... you believe her?"
He looked directly at Annie.
"I believe she just saved my life."
Another shot rang out.
One of Ryder's security men collapsed.
The assassins were advancing through the darkness with terrifying precision.
Annie closed her eyes.
She wasn't listening anymore.
She was reading.
Every whisper.
Every command.
Every Japanese syllable.
"There."
She pointed toward the darkness.
"Behind the ice sculpture."
A bodyguard fired instantly.
A cry of pain answered.
One assassin fell.
The remaining three froze.
How?
No one should have known his position.
The little girl had become their greatest threat.
The oldest assassin spoke quietly.
His lips barely moved.
Annie caught every word.
"Forget Burke."
"Kill the child."
Bridget felt Annie suddenly go rigid.
"What did he say?"
Annie looked up at her mother, tears filling her eyes.
"They're coming for me."
Before Bridget could react—
Three pairs of cold eyes locked onto the tiny girl with copper braids.
The assassins no longer cared about Ryder Burke.
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The seven-year-old who understood their language had become the most dangerous witness alive.
And every killer in the ballroom began moving toward her.
