Chapter 15 - The Playroom StrategyI reached the double doors of the playroom at the end of the second-floor corridor. The heavy oak door was slightly ajar.
I kicked it open, leveling my Beretta, ready to fire at any intruder.
Instead, I found an empty room filled with wooden building blocks, scattered toys, and a small table covered in crayons and construction paper.
Sitting cross-legged on the plush rug in the center of the room was Sophia. She was wearing her yellow sweater, calmly holding a pink crayon, completely unfazed by the sound of gunfire echoing up from the courtyard below.
“Sophia,” I breathed, lowering my gun slightly as I hurried across the room and knelt beside her. “We have to move. Right now. Bad men are downstairs.”
Sophia didn't look scared. She slowly turned her head, looking up at me with those big, innocent eyes, and held out a brand-new drawing.
It showed the second-floor hallway.
A red X was marked right above the broom closet door beside the staircase.
And underneath the X, she had drawn a small box with a blinking green light.
“The clicking sound stopped behind that door,” Sophia said softly. “The bad man with the shiny watch hid there while everyone was looking outside.”
My blood ran cold.
May you like
A hidden intruder wasn't storming the front gates from the outside. They were already inside the house, waiting in the shadows for us to run into the trap.
Before I could speak, a metallic click echoed from the broom closet doorway just ten feet down the hall.
