Page 221 of Diego

Then emergency lighting snaps on along the stairs, followed almost immediately by the deeper hum of the backup system starting somewhere below us. The lights return at reduced strength, enough to see faces and steps and the security people closing around us.

Giacomo no longer looks uncertain.

“Move,” he commands.

We do.

Everything speeds up at once.

One of the security people passes us and takes the stairs first. Another stays behind while Giacomo keeps himself between us and the upper floor, his weapon in his hand now. Victoria moves as fast as she can with Leonardo in her arms, Julia directly behind her with Cecilia, and Emilia beside me.

I start down after them.

Giacomo catches my arm before I can take the next step.

“Quickly, but don't hurt yourself.”

“I’m fine.”

He nods and lets go of my arm.

I grip the railing and descend faster without trying to run.

At the bottom of the steps, Giacomo takes the lead and security flanks us from behind.

We follow him farther along the lower level. I know this part of the house, although I have not seen it since the day I showed the property to Diego. There is a wine cellar, storage, another sitting area that walks out to a grassy area with the pool, and a short corridor that leads to a couple of bedrooms. Or used to, anyway.

They don't lead to bedrooms anymore.

I stop when Giacomo turns into the corridor.

The two doors on the opposite side of the hall are gone. In their place is one steel door set into a reinforced frame, with a keypad, biometric reader, and another security panel mounted beside it. The walls around it have been rebuilt too. I can tell because I remember exactly what was here when Diego and I toured the property, and none of this existed.

“What the hell?”

Giacomo puts his thumb against the reader.

I stare at the door. “That wasn’t here.”

“No.”

“When did he do this?”

The lock releases with a heavy metallic click. Giacomo pulls the door open and looks at me. “After he bought the house.”

For a second, all I can do is stare at him.

Diego has been working, hovering over me, arranging doctors and ultrasound machines and food and people to keep me company, and somewhere in the middle of all of that he also managed to have part of the lower level rebuilt into a panic room.

“Seriously?”

Giacomo almost smiles, but there is no time for it. “Seriously. Inside.”

I step through behind Victoria and stop again.

The space beyond the door is nothing like what I remember. Diego did not just knock down a couple of walls and throw in a few bottles of water. There are built-in cabinets, a small bathroom, a counter with a sink, medical supplies, blankets, food, water, charging stations, and several deep chairs along one wall. Another panel shows every internal security feed, and a second screen displays the status of the doors, gates, perimeter sensors, backup generator, and power system.

There are even two narrow bunks built into the far wall.