His earpiece crackled loudly.

“Sir, we have a breach,” Marcus’s voice was audible even to me in the sudden quiet. “The main elevator shafts have been bypassed. They are on your floor.”

“Lock down the ballroom,” Damon commanded into his collar mic.

“We can’t,” Marcus replied, his voice laced with rare panic. “The central security system is refusing our commands. It’s been overridden from the inside.”

Damon didn’t hesitate.

He pulled me toward the service door behind the main stage.

“Run,” he said.

The crowd in the ballroom began to panic, people pushing toward the main exits in the dim red light.

We burst through the service door into a gray concrete corridor.

Two of Damon’s personal guards fell in behind us, their firearms drawn.

“Where are we going?” I gasped, holding Leo tightly against my shoulder.

“The safe room,” Damon said, guiding us down a flight of stairs. “It runs on an isolated power loop.”

We reached a heavy steel door at the end of the corridor.

Damon pressed his palm against the scanner beside the door.